The state of public education

The day after President Trump addressed a joint session of Congress
I watched a program that invited Leo Terrell to discuss the speech.

Terrell, a civil rights attorney who I am familiar with as a fair observer
of issues, surprised me with one of his criticisms, Trump promoting
school choice so parents can take their children from failing schools.

Terrell's objection was that children should not be removed from
traditional school by parents and sent to other schools and citied
Catholic schools, where they could be 'indoctrinated'. I understand
the argument against choice, but was taken back when Terrell added
'indoctrination'.

As smart as  Terrell is he must have been asleep the past few decades
as indoctrination has been done in many K-12 public schools and most
universities.

Further, Terrell pointed to his own education in the Los Angeles
public school system as an example of the quality education that
is available.

I can understand Terrell citing his success but in doing so he also
wants us to believe the education he received in the 1960s is no
different than it was after 1979, the year the  Dept. of Education
was created and must share some responsibility for any degradation.

Terrell may argue public education today is the equivalent to what
it was when he went to school, but he is wrong. Public education
has been diluted thanks to the shift to  less important subjects and
less qualified teachers today than the ones who taught him.

Add to this class sizes are smaller than they were in the 60s and
teachers often have teaching assistants. As commendable as such
changes are, the results are mixed at best.

While Terrell and other supporters of current education may think
otherwise, I contend the teachers who instructed him in public
school were superior to the ones teaching students today.

Many current teachers know less than retired teachers, such as historical
references, multiplication tables or being able to add/subtract numbers
without using a calculator!

How can this be proven?

Bring together one dozen retired teachers who taught in the 1960s-1970s
and test them against one dozen teaching today and compare which group
scores better.

Why would the retired teachers test better?  We can go back to the surprising
comment made by Terrell earlier, "indoctrination". This is what is occurring
in education today, students are trained, but without learning critical thinking,
or encouraged to challenge their professors.

The objective is clear, graduate future teachers ready to carry a mantle less
to do with valued than social desires driven by mandates from the Dept.
of Education and politicians.

Public education will always come up short as long as the professional
educator resists ensuring the basics are ingrained and well-rounded
instruction on subjects which have served students and our nations
successfully for more than one hundred years.


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email, ajbruno14@gmail.com

 "Point of View" blog http://ajbruno14.blogspot.com/