Joanne Yatvin is a former teacher, principal, superintendent, and president of the National Council of Teachers of English.
Far too many politicians and ordinary citizens have forgotten that the purpose of American education is as much to support a democratic society, as it is to prepare students to be active citizens, in charge of themselves and their communities. They have also forgotten that the proof of the pudding is not how well our students’ test scores compare with those of other countries but the proportion of American citizens who are leading intelligent, productive, and caring lives.
Ideally, civic learning begins and continues for children at home, mostly by watching, listening, and imitating what good parents do. But not all homes are wise and harmonious, and even the best ones cannot offer the full range of experiences that civic maturity requires.
Traditionally, schools were expected to reinforce civic actions as children grew older, such as developing friendships with students of different backgrounds and taking responsibility for their own behavior. But now the pressure to raise test scores and increase graduation rates has forced most schools to abandon those responsibilities. In enacting harsh discipline policies and expecting academic achievement beyond what is normal, the demands for better test scores have all but wiped out the opportunities for teachers to teach and students to learn the basics of good citizenship. In addition, schools have been forced to reduce or eliminate recesses, and cut back on classes such as art, music, and physical education, where students are most likely to interact positively.
Although teachers do not have the power to change the school curricula or the emphasis on testing, they can eliminate some of the harsh practices that have come with them. Teachers may still set up processes in the classroom that allow students to have power and work together, such as selecting books to read, planning projects, and developing classroom rules. When students feel that “this is our classroom” rather than the teacher’s personal domain, they will learn how to be responsible citizens in their own school community.
At the school-wide level it is up to administrators to establish policies that respect students’ rights and personal dignity, even when they have broken the rules. One common practice should be giving students a fair hearing before setting any punishment. That means a private meeting with the adults involved after everyone’s temper has cooled. In really serious matters, a hearing before a committee made up of the principal, a few teachers, and one or two community members is the best choice. As for consequences, schools should reconsider suspensions and expulsions for minor offenses by older students and any errors by young children.
The next step in civic education is having students share decision making with adults in ways that are age-appropriate. For instance, elementary grade students can work with teachers to choose new playground games and set the rules of participation, while high school students should serve on groups that make decisions about what is best for them, such as curriculum committees and even the local School Board.
In their free time students of all ages should be encouraged to join with adults on local projects such as planting a community garden, adopting a road, or building a playground in a neighborhood that has none.
Once more, I remind you that giving all this attention to student citizenship is not an unreasonable expectation. Until high stakes testing took over our schools, demanding that every school day and every bit of student and teacher effort be dedicated to raising test scores, public support for character building in schools was common. But now, the legislators concerned about school “accountability” have no interest in how students treat each other or how schools treat their students.
Concern for the growth of responsibility and humanity in our children should never be out of style.
https://theconversation.com/devos-and-the-limits-of-the-education-reform-movement-93243?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%2097178394&utm_content=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%2097178394+Version+A+CID_5c905d8a56d78259c2ee0cbe5daef5e3&utm_source=campaign_monitor_us&utm_term=DeVos%20and%20the%20limits%20of%20the%20education%20reform%20movement
DeVos and the limits of the education reform movement
What Yatvin describes is whole child education that allows young people to grow, thrive and become better citizens. Sadly, our policy makers have allowed billionaires and corporations to set goals for our public schools. Education is about a lot more than being “college and career ready.” Students need time to explore their interests and talents. They need to learn how to be a responsible person in a community, and they can learn this in the school community. They need to interact with students that are different from them so they develop healthy impressions of different types of people and learn how to live in the multicultural world.
Learning how to care about others is an important life lesson. Nature can help students by caring for a garden or a classroom pet. It teaches responsibility and empathy. Prisoners have become better people by taking care of and help training dogs for the blind. In Philadelphia a gentleman has organized a riding club in the inner city where young men learn to ride, but also to care for the horses. As a result, these young men started to become more responsible and goal oriented. https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/02/fletcher-street-riding-club/515520/
School is rehearsal for life. Comprehensive schools expose students to the arts, sports various clubs and course options. School elections and government prepare young people for citizenship, and it is clear the students from Stoneman Douglas learned this lesson well. Education must so much more than bubble tests or preparing for a career. We need to keep the humanity in education if we are to produce well rounded, compassionate citizens.
“School is rehearsal for life.”
Can’t agree with that at all.
School is a part of a child’s life just as is home life. Schooling IS life for children.
“School is rehearsal. . .” is the of the same false meme that “real” life begins outside of/after formal education, such as the world of work. Or that teachers don’t have a “real” job like all the other people. Horse manure. Children experience school as “reality”. It is “reality” for children and not some ethereal experience only good for what will happen later in life.
Well, at least one aspect of school actually is a rehearsal for life: a fire alarm.
“School Rehearsal for Life”
Rehearsal for life
Alarm for a fire
For heartache and strife
And crisis that’s dire
good points all, Duane.
Thanks, ciedie!
“Although teachers do not have the power to change the school curricula or the emphasis on testing, they can eliminate some of the harsh practices that have come with them.”
That power of teachers to design curricula and determine whether and how to assess learning has been taken from them by Congress and by state and local administrators, aided by deep pockets of wealth from people who think the problem of schools is inefficient “human capital management.”
This is one of too many examples.
“The Opportunity Culture initiative aims to extend the reach of excellent teaches and their teams to more students, for more pay, within recurring budgets. Public Impact, a national research and consulting firm, launched the Opportunity Culture initiative’s implementation phase in 2011, with funding from The Joyce Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”
Our advisors include teaching, technology, and finance experts and advocates committed to teaching every child consistently with excellent teaching:
Katherine Bassett, Executive Director, National Network of State Teachers of the Year
Celine Coggins, Chief Executive Officer, Teach Plus
John Danner, Chief Executive Officer, Zeal; Co-Founder, Rocketship Education
Alex Hernandez, Partner and Vice President, Charter School Growth Fund
Michael Horn, Co-Founder, Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation and Principal Consultant, Entangled Solutions
Karen Hawley Miles, President and Executive Director, Education Resource Strategies
Talia Milgrom-Elcott, Co-Founder and Leader, 100Kin10
Sydney Morris, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Educators 4 Excellence
Marguerite Roza, Director, Edunomics Lab, Georgetown University and Senior Scholar, Center on Reinventing Public Education
LaVerne Evans Srinivasan, Program Director for Teaching and Human Capital Management, Carnegie Corporation of New York
S. Denise Watts, Zone Superintendent and Executive Director, Project L.I.F.T./Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools
Daniel Weisberg, President, TNTP
Jeff Wetzler, Co-Founder and Partner, Transcend Education
Just look at the job titles of these CEO’s, VP’s, “Founders,” “Partners,” and “Presidents.” Just look at the names of the ventures: Transcend Education???? Entangled Solutions???? Disruptive Innovation???? Human Capital Management????
Then look at the info-graphic for the Opportunity Culture venture–better called one-hundred percent opportunistic.
The infographic that shows how teachers and students are arbitrarily placed into various configurations for efficient delivery of instruction, as if these were serious “opportunities” for education and not the schemes and wet dreams of efficiency experts vintage 1910-1930–documented in Raymond E. Callahan’s 1962 book “Education and the Cult of Efficiency.”
I have no patience with the treatment of teachers and students as if widgets or checker pieces to be arranged without any regard to a principle of “do no harm.”
The Opportunity Culture is really about stripping away all professional voice from teachers and rearranging furniture—seats— occupied by students and always “high quality” seats.
These self-appointed, colonizers of pubic education are really ignorant. They would not have a voice if not for the money and unearned power they have been given by three foundations who will not stop imposing their views on all too willing GAGA educators.
http://opportunityculture.org/infographic/
One day these children, who have been treated badly, who have not learned to become good citizens, will be the ones taking care of us in our elderly years. These will be the future nurses, doctors, lawyers and policy makers etc. Do we really want these uncaring, yet well tested adults making decisions for us when we can no longer make good decisions for ourselves?
“Revenge of the Tested”
We tested them at playtime
And tested them at lunch
We tested on their own time
And tested them a bunch
We tested them from pre-K
Until they left the school
And some day, they will re-pay
The “favor” of the fool
makes me shake in my shoes!
Love Joan Yatvin’s article. Thanks, Diane. Joan is so right on.
Far too many politicians and ordinary citizens have forgotten that the purpose of American education is …to support a democratic society”
“What’s in a word?”
Democracy’s a word
That politicians say
But really quite absurd
To think it holds the sway.
Trump never even gives lip service to democracy.
“Paying Lip Service”
He never uses lips
For compliments or tips
And always uses tweets
To talk about his feats
And denigrate his foes —
‘Bout everyone he knows —
The service of the lips
Is only for the RIPs
My ideal citizen:
One who knows the European political roots of our country –the centuries of feudalism that we rejected (and may return to if we’re not vigilant) and the slow, difficult process of establishing rule of law, putting limits on autocracy, expanding the franchise…
One who knows how democracies metastasized into dictatorships in the 20th century and how evil those dictatorships were (many citizens today do not recognize this evil’s return because they were never taught about this democratic disease. It is to democracy what AIDS is to the immune system, yet we let our kids remain ignorant of this AIDS.)
One who has an appreciation of Nature, of the amazing animals and plants that exist in the various regions of the globe, and a vivid understanding of how overpopulation and development (not to mention global warming) are radically diminishing this inheritance as we speak.
One who understands the economy and taxes, Keynes and Marx and Smith and Friedman, libertarianism, communism, social-democracy and neo-liberalism –as a bulwark against Rush Limbaugh et. al.
One who has an appreciation of art and music and literature –as a bulwark against the barbarizing lures of the market and demagogues.
Note the common denominator is knowledge. Yatvin’s conception –kids play-acting civility –isn’t likely to hurt, but it’s weak tea and will not do the job. It is homeopathy when we need the AIDS cocktail. It has not done the job. As our Founders repeatedly said, an informed citizenry is the only way to preserve our republic. Yatvin, along with most of the educational establishment, dissents from the Founders. It seems to me that Yatvin’s extremely conventional ideas, which demote the urgent task of informing our citizenry to irrelevancy, put our civilization and planet at risk.
What a smart group of responders!
I was not thinking of a high school class curriculum, but of students beliefs and behavior at various school levels. They might include some of the things you mention, but knowledge of all the events and people recorded in history and geography is not essential.
This is a serious question that I wish more of us thought seriously about: what is the prophylactic against tyranny? Of course we can’t teach ALL history, but certainly some particular bits of history (and works of literature) are more likely than others to inoculate Americans against the lures of demagogues, no? What are these, and are we insuring that these get taught? Or shall we just trust that play-acting democracy in school will get kids to reject a new Mussolini? Or carry on blithely with the 24/7 skills curriculum and trust that kids’ minds, though spottily informed, will become so razor sharp though skill drills that the lures of the demagogues will be quickly dispatched?
The prophylactic against AIDS is, above all, knowledge: knowledge of the virus, how it’s spread, its symptoms, its consequences. There is knowledge that we can give citizens of democracies to prevent contracting tyranny. But I see little urgency in the education community about disseminating this knowledge, probably because most educators agree with Paolo Freire that “the banking model of education has been discredited” –putting facts in kids’ brains is so passe. I have more faith in Hollywood, which I’m sad to say is doing a better job of transmitting important knowledge to the masses than our skills-besotted schools these days.
“Far too many politicians and ordinary citizens have forgotten that the purpose of American education is as much to support a democratic society, as it is to prepare students to be active citizens, in charge of themselves and their communities.”
The question is: Where can we find that purpose of public education in the US?
In 25 of the 50 state constitutions (25 give no specific rationale)
“. . .not every state constitution gives a purpose for its authorization of public education. It’s a 50/50 split with 25 states not giving any purpose such as West Virginia’s authorization “The Legislature shall provide, by general law, for a thorough and efficient system of free schools.” (Article XII, Sec. 12-1) and 25 states providing a rationale.
Those 25 rationales can be divided into three types. Those that declare that the purpose of public education is to ensure that the state’s form of government will continue, such as South Dakota’s “The stability of a republican form of government depending on the morality and intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature to establish and maintain a general and uniform system of public schools. . . .” (Article VIII § 1). Those whose fundamental purpose focuses on the individual and his/her rights such as Missouri’s “A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, the general assembly shall establish and maintain free public schools . . . .” (Article IX Sec. 1a) And those that are a combination of both. As it is, fifteen mainly focus on the benefits of public education to the individual citizen and the preservation of his/her rights, five on the benefit to the state and five that state both citizen and government benefits. . . .
Tying together the aims of our constitutional government with the purpose of public education as stated in some of the state’s constitution allows us to propose a common fundamental statement of purpose. Since 20 of the 25 state constitutions give a reason attending to the rights and liberties of the individual through public education combined with the mandate of state constitutional government as reflected in Missouri’s constitutional language of “That all constitutional government is intended to promote the general welfare of the people; that all persons have a natural right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the enjoyment of the gains of their own industry. . .” it follows that the rights and liberties of the individual in being educated as each sees fit supersede those of supporting and maintaining the government. And that one can logically conclude that if the educational wants and needs of the citizens obtain then those of the state will follow. But without an educated citizenry who can promote their own interests, and who can understand and tolerate others thoughts, opinions and desires, the state would surely be subject to tyranny by those whose knowledge and wants exceeds most.
I propose, then, the following statement of the purpose of public education with which, hopefully, most in the United States could agree:
“The purpose of public education is to promote the welfare of the individual so that each person may savor the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the fruits of their own industry.”
From Ch. 1 The Purpose of Public Education: “Infidelity to Truth: Education Malpractice in American Public Education” by D. Swacker
Reblogged this on Network Schools – Wayne Gersen and commented:
This is a good companion piece to my earlier post on the impact of consumerism on post-secondary and K-12 education