Some things in life just don’t make sense to me and one of those things is Public Education. It is not a sexy subject but it is a subject that should get more attention than what it does. There seems to be a thought that Public Education is failing our society, that Public Education is producing underachieving children. I would say that it does appear that way but as most of the time I look at something completely the opposite than most people. Public education is not failing us, we are failing public education.  As a result we are failing our children. I am not an expert in this subject, but in a way, that is what makes me think that I should write about it.

One of the first places that you can look at for failing Public Education is the communities that the schools are in. Can you compare a public school that is in the inner city versus a public school in the suburbs?  In my undereducated observation I would say “no”. How old are some of those inner city schools compared to the schools in the suburbs? Do the facilities help create an atmosphere for learning?  Where I live there is a school on one of the barrier islands that appears to be very bright and open. I look at that school and wish my school had looked like that when I was growing up. I then look at a school in the city and it looks more like a prison.  A square brick two story build with fences all around. The only thing that is missing is the guard towers. Which school cost more to build? I don’t know but the price tag for the building is not as important as the attitude that you have for the children that attend it and the atmosphere that you want to create.

How many children attend an elementary school to me would be very important. Can you imagine what is going through a 5 year olds mind as he or she is walking into a school for the first time. Does the building look bright and upbeat or does it look a little big and intimidating. I would think that the first impression that a child has toward school is one that may stay with them for a long time. What difference does the sheer number of students make? Would that 5 year old feel safer and less intimidated with a school that had let’s say 250 students than 600 students? I would think that when it comes to our young minds and personalities that the smaller the better. Creating an environment where a child can flourish in I would think is just as important as the books that are in that school.

Of course how the school is staffed I would think would very important. How many students are in the classroom? I would think that the more students the less personalized attention that a student would receive. Teachers say that all the time and they are correct of course but let’s look at it from the eyes of that 5 year old if we can. Every 5 year old I have ever met wants to be thought of as special. Many do things to attract attention toward them. How special can that 5 year old feel in a classroom with 30 other kids. At that age, are we already treating them as a number instead of the child they should be treated as? I think that the first few years of a child’s school environment would be the most important. Creating successes should be the most important thing. An upbeat child I think would be more susceptible to learning than a child that feels like a failure.

How are we manning those schools I would think would be very important.  Where are our most experience teachers? I know that if I had twenty years of teaching experience I would rather be teaching at that lily white school than the school with a very diverse student body. It is much easier to be a teacher when the parents are involved in the education of their children. That is more likely to happen in the suburbs than in the inner city. So what school winds up with the more experience teachers? I would be willing to bet the suburbs. How are we compensating our teachers to attract the best and the brightest. When you can make more money working at Target why be a teacher? I am sure that there are some very creative first year teachers but I would think that every school would benefit with a balance of young and old teachers. We need communities and administrations that give these teachers the tools to be successful. You talk about lazy teachers and I talk about lazy School Boards and Administrations. I think that in most cases that the failure of the communities to support the education process is directly involved with the failure of a student.

Lastly let’s talk about the home environment. How do we get parents involved with their children’s education? How do we get parents to care when they are just trying to survive themselves. That is it in a nut shell. It will take a lot of people smarter than me to solve that one and maybe a lot of money too. You can point to the success of private schools but I think that the success of private schools has more to do with the success of the home environment than the private school. More affluent people will invest in their children’s education. Charter schools can bring in some great ideas but they are not the cure all that everyone makes them out to be. In many cases the charter schools have just been a scheme to filter our tax dollars into the private sector and actually hurt our public school system by taking money away. My grandchildren all go to a charter school but the big difference is that their charter school is still answerable to the School Board and the Administration and are part of the same system as all the rest of public schools.  

Many people will point to the failure of our public schools but maybe we have to look at how we are failing the Public Schools and our children.