Education in America: Lots of Differing Views

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I’m most definitely trying to be non-judgmental, and trying to present as balanced a view as possible, but no matter which way you may look at the matter, someone is going to get upset.

Firstly, I had a talk with A, an immigrant who came to the US 40 years ago on the promise of a place as a teacher at an elementary school.  She had lots of adventures teaching second grade, but it left a very negative impression of the level of preparedness of her colleagues, just as products of the education system firstly, and as teachers in their chosen area secondly.

Then I had a talk with B, a brother-in-law, who teaches science in secondary school, who is good at what he does, and loves his work, but has very negative opinions of the administrators at his school.  He teaches in New York State, and because of the Regents' Examinations that are routine in that state, the Federally mandated testing programs do not make him and his fellow teachers anxious.  He concedes that the constant testing gets his colleagues down, essentially because the tests are seen as a way of winnowing out teachers.

Teachers in other countries (C), no matter how tactfully they phrase it, tend to be aghast at the quality of US teachers not because they see them as uninterested in teaching, or unconcerned about their students, but because of the variation in their level of preparedness, echoing the opinion of A above.  Furthermore, there is a general suspicion across the USA (D) that it is not the best students who go into teaching in the US, but the most mediocre.  There is only anecdotal evidence for this; obviously some of the brightest people many of us know—and I know a host of these—are teachers.  But we have to see the statistics.  Is it the case that the brightest among our classmates in college and high school chose to go into occupations other than teaching?  You tell me.

Finally, there is my own observation of my own students, year after year.  One thing I have noticed is that their geometry preparation, to select just one little area, is highly variable.  Instead of actually teaching my students advanced topics in geometry above and beyond what is required of them to teach in high school (which is what is supposed to happen), I find myself trying to make sure that they're not afraid of high school geometry.  It should be possible for me to give them a quick review of high-school geometry in three weeks, and go on to showing them the delights of other topics, such as hyperbolic geometry, projective geometry, and solid geometry, just so that they could have a context for the traditional geometry that they do have to teach someday.  Similarly, in college, a would be high-school history teacher, for instance, must learn history above and beyond the historic facts that they have to deliver in high school.  Can we have an elementary teacher just know his or her mathematics facts up to the twelve-times table, and no more?  We insist that all teachers must have a robust knowledge of algebra, geometry, and, ideally, a little calculus.  But unfortunately, most elementary teachers live in deadly fear of any and all mathematics other than the little arithmetic that they are called upon to teach, and what is more, there is a vast host of citizenry out there whose considered opinion on the matter is that an elementary teacher need not know much more than simple arithmetic.

That's all fine and dandy, but you must know that elementary teachers in most other countries are significantly better prepared in mathematics than the vast majority of elementary teachers in the US.  This is especially true of teachers in Japan, Germany, Finland, and other countries with which we have set out to compete in education excellence.

I hope no particular teacher feels insulted by any of this; unfortunately the variation in teacher quality in the US is enormous.  There are bound to be countless teachers out there who are exceptions to anything I've described above.  But, by the same token, I daresay that there are teachers out there who don’t know their right hands from their left, and who have in their incapable hands the future of any number of future citizens.

What’s the bottom line?

If the US is to improve the quality of it’s schools, the following has to be done.

(1) We cannot privatize education.  We must bring it up from the bottom, because teaching is so poorly paid that it is very likely that it is those in the worst schools that are inspired to teach, and we must make the worst schools better than they are.  We must make all schools better than they are.

(2) We must pay teachers better.  Taxes must be raised, and salaries improved, and teachers must be given the respect that will encourage young people to consider teaching a good career.  Without respect for learning, nothing can happen.

(3) We must break the death-grip that publishers of textbooks have on the schools.  Wonderful texts are available, even in the US, because they are sent abroad by UNESCO and other organizations to be used in the Third World.  They can be used here.

(4) Testing must be continued, but on a voluntary basis.

(5) Testing of Pre-Service teachers must be conducted before they are certified to teach, and after a teacher is hired, it seems appropriate that raises in salary and other benefits may be tied to testing of the teacher.  We do know that teachers of any sort are difficult to find, because the pay is low, and teachers are often treated poorly by students, parents and administration.  But this trick of hiring anyone to be a teacher, and then persecuting them after they’re hired must stop.

Most importantly, I think teacher salaries must be raised gradually to levels competing with any professionals.  If this does not happen, only second-rate candidates will offer to be teachers.  And, as a liberal, I believe that excellence in teaching has to be a national initiative, because otherwise the best in every state will migrate to states with the best jobs, so that no state will have an incentive to improve its schools, for why bother to teach a kid who's going to leave the state anyway?  Teacher salaries should be paid by the Federal Government.

I suppose it's too much to ask.

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