Last we saw the Recovering Teacher, he had just compared Public Education with Communism. Since he wasn't sent to Siberia (or East LA), let's see what he has to say this time...
I want to follow up on my Communism comparison with some specifics today. From what I have seen, both Communism and many of the "theories" in today's public schools are based on faulty assumptions. And in both cases, it has to do with self-motivation versus taking the "easy way out."
In Communism one underlying belief was that if people were all equal, they would work together for mutual benefit. The problem is that people will never be "equal" and some will always take advantage of others. So you end up with a situation where a few "more than equal" leaders make the rules and end up with a majority of benefits Then you have a group of self-motivated individuals who provide much of the actual work because that's the way they are naturally Finally there is an often sizable group of self-professed slackers who know the amount of effort they put in has no affect on the returns they receive. It's the attitude of "If I can get something for nothing, why should I put any effort in?"
Now let's look at how this works with student achievement in public schools - or at least ones I have worked in (we can leave the extrapolation to others). First of all, kids are smart - just not always the way we want them to be. In the last district I taught in the policy was that students could be held back in third, seventh, or ninth grades, but only one time. So how long do you think it took for kids to figure out if they were held back in third grade they didn't have to put in any more effort? While your self-motivated students are busting their butts to get good grades, the unmotivated kids are goofing off, disrupting class, and basically skating through school. I even had students admit to just this little "scam." And just as the lack of motivation to produce affected the economy in Communist countries, the lack of motivation to learn affects the classroom.
So, now that I have tossed this little bomb out, where do I go next? How about some suggestions to improve education. And I won't even charge hundreds (thousands?) of dollars for my ideas.
Comments