In 1979 Pink Floyd recorded a rock opera called The Wall. This was a rather iconic piece and gave Pink Floyd a rather well known single called “Another Brick in the Wall”. Roger Waters, who was the bass player, wrote this song and it resonated with those that felt that school was too rigid and unaccommodating. Being in school at that time and experiencing the iron rule that my teachers wielded against the kids, I understood this song very well.
Allot has changed in education since I was in 3rd grade, several of my own kids inherited my dyslexia, ADHD, or both; and where no attempt was made to diagnose my conditions, and find ways to help me learn, my kids have seen programs that improved their experience, and accelerated their ability to learn. I thought that this was the new trend, and whether Pink Floyd’s protest had any affect in these events or not, it was clear that things were going in the right direction.
A downhill turn started recently though, one that has called back those words of long ago. It started a few years back with “No Child Left Behind”. I am certain that it was implemented, as all programs are, with the best intentions It caused several problems however; notably it tied teacher salary, advancement, and status to the number of students that could meet national standards. It started to take a turn against teaching the kids to learn, and started teaching them how to pass the next test. Don’t get me wrong about all of this, there have always been teachers who were outstanding, and there always will be, despite the system in place, but a bad system makes it harder to survive the spaces between the good teachers.
No Child Left Behind also made it so that the question of whether you would graduate, and in some sense the question of whether you would go to college was suddenly “Of Course!” This sounds pretty good until you realize a couple of things; first is that not all of these students were actually ready, the high school standards had been lowered to improve graduation numbers, and secondly; it leveled the assumption that you were a nobody unless you got a college degree.
So everybody off to college, right? Well the colleges had to lower their standards a bit, at least for the associate level of degree, after all if all of these people wanted to go into debt to give themselves self worth, then who were administrators to argue. A little note here, in a quiz given to high school graduates, and those with associate degrees recently, both groups of students scored almost exactly the same in all categories. It seems that all that money was well spent (sarcasm for those in public school at this time).
You would think that this was bad enough, we had college graduates, because almost all were, flipping whoppers at Burger King for minimum wage, and trying to get on with life/ pay off the loans at the same time. Life was suddenly hard, you had to work to keep you job, and more so if you wanted a promotion or raise, and the boss wasn’t required to make sure you succeeded.
This brings us to the current time and a new program, also on that devilishly paved road of good intentions, has reared it’s head. It is called Common Core. The people pushing it say it is “not a curriculum, it is merely a set of testing standards”, I have decided that with some exceptions, that this is true, however the testing standards ask questions that cannot be answered unless a certain curriculum was taught, clever huh? I have tried long and hard to get a copy of Common Core to look at, I inform them that I am a parent that wants to be involved with my children’s education. I have been told everything from a simple no, to an explanation that my cooperation is appreciated and that they will gladly tell me when they need my opinion. I might have paraphrased that last for the sake of brevity. The long and the short is that they will not let me even look at it. I have managed to get access to some educational materials that are “in compliance with Common Core”, and I found a section on Thomas Jefferson, I was glad to see that it was there until I read it and saw the questions. There were questions that asked the student how a man could have any moral authority to write the Declaration of Independence, when he owned slaves. Great philosophical question, but one chat an elementary or even secondary educated child has no hope of answering, and so they are left thinking that the separation of the U.S. from foreign powers had anything to do with the liberty of slaves, well deserved or no.
Many parents are now looking for alternatives to public school, as a matter of fact an ever increasing number, they are looking to private schools, charter schools, or home schooling. I am home schooling my twin 10yr olds. My wife and I started for other reasons, but this has made us question whether or not to send them back when the current reasons are past.
I have found a new resonance with Pink Floyd, and something that saw ripen on the vine is now starting to rot. I pray that those in positions of power within our school systems will have their eyes opened and find a way to reverse the rot that is going on before we just make our kids into blockheads.
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