THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 3, 1994 TAG: 9411030010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: ANOTHER VIEW
SOURCE: By DANIEL P. RICHARDSON
LENGTH: Long : 157 lines
During a recent monthly discussion group, a friend of mine turned to me and said, ``I have to deal with your failures.'' This individual has spent many years working with poverty, welfare, abused children, the homeless, juvenile delinquency and those who do not share in the American Dream. His comment was addressed to me as an educator, since lack of education is the most significant single common denominator among the disadvantaged.
There has been a great deal of noise about education over the past 20 years, but very little progress, especially in effective reform. Politicians have lost interest in education and are putting most of their attention and rhetoric on crime. Yet the crime rates will continue to rise and costs connected with crime will continue to escalate if we don't properly educate all of our citizens. However, educational solutions need more money and the benefits from this spending are not evident in the short term. Thus, supporting educational reform does not bring an instant surge in political polls.
Educational funding is suffering due to a fiscal pinch greater than we have known in recent years. In fact, the only significant increase in government funding is on crime prevention and entitlements. However, we should increase funding for education, as it is the key to a healthy economy. A healthy economy is essential if the government is to have enough money to meet its commitments to constituencies like the elderly.
There is a great deal that is right about our educational system, and the majority of our young people are obtaining an adequate education. But we must do better by providing a superior education for all young people. If we do not, those not receiving an adequate education will be the millstone that will drag the rest of the country down. If we don't provide a superior education for all our people, we will lose the ability to compete in the global economy.
A favorite theme for politicians and pundits is that all the problems in our educational system stem from the breakdown of the family. They maintain that schools cannot replace the nuclear family. Somehow this line of reasoning is supposed to justify decreasing expenditures for education. These politicians and pundits would solve our problems by magically moving the clock back to a time when things were perfect in our country. Better to deal with the current social reality.
Our decision generations ago to provide a free education for all of our citizens was revolutionary - an answer to the challenges that faced us at that time. We now have new challenges needing the same type of revolutionary thinking. Schools and social services should unite in providing coordinated support and guidance for disadvantaged youth. We must move from my friend's description of my ``inherited failures.'' Social-service organizations have to become integrated with the educational process so they can work with the schools to avoid failure.
We need to downsize our public schools. Large schools are not conducive to personalizing education for each individual. Benefits of the economies of scale are negated by the human loss resulting from depersonalization that results from large schools. Elementary, middle and high schools of thousands, even with magnificent architecture and advanced technology, are not appropriate to a quality educational process. Young people crave to belong to something - it could be their school, but when there are 1,000 people in their class, it should come as no surprise that they turn to gangs for community rather than their school.
We must have schools that create a sense of community, where the student is not a number but a person known and cared about by the teachers. To meet this need we should consider creating schools within these schools. A teaching team would assume responsibility for a group of students and that team and its students would stay together for several years. A student would be placed in the group that he is most comfortable with and with teachers that have a strong personal interest in the student.
To make this system work, the class size in our schools must also be small. In education, one size does not fit all. It is not possible for an instructor to work in a meaningful way and individually with students if the classes are much larger than 20. Sy Fliegel, who was a superintendent in the New York City system, answers those who question the value of small size by asking, ``Would you rather be served in a restaurant by a waiter who is responsible for 10 tables or one with five?''
If we are to address the problems in our educational system, we need to downsize our schools and classes and acknowledge that new integrated approaches are necessary to meet the needs of today's students. It will cost more money, but as the man on television says, ``Pay me now or pay me (much more) later.''During a recent monthly discussion group, a friend of mine turned to me and said, ``I have to deal with your failures.'' This individual has spent many years working with poverty, welfare, abused children, the homeless, juvenile delinquency and those who do not share in the American Dream. His comment was addressed to me as an educator, since lack of education is the most significant single common denominator among the disadvantaged.
There has been a great deal of noise about education over the past 20 years, but very little progress, especially in effective reform. Politicians have lost interest in education and are putting most of their attention and rhetoric on crime. Yet the crime rates will continue to rise and costs connected with crime will continue to escalate if we don't properly educate all of our citizens. However, educational solutions need more money and the benefits from this spending are not evident in the short term. Thus, supporting educational reform does not bring an instant surge in political polls.
Educational funding is suffering due to a fiscal pinch greater than we have known in recent years. In fact, the only significant increase in government funding is on crime prevention and entitlements. However, we should increase funding for education, as it is the key to a healthy economy. A healthy economy is essential if the government is to have enough money to meet its commitments to constituencies like the elderly.
There is a great deal that is right about our educational system, and the majority of our young people are obtaining an adequate education. But we must do better by providing a superior education for all young people. If we do not, those not receiving an adequate education will be the millstone that will drag the rest of the country down. If we don't provide a superior education for all our people, we will lose the ability to compete in the global economy.
A favorite theme for politicians and pundits is that all the problems in our educational system stem from the breakdown of the family. They maintain that schools cannot replace the nuclear family. Somehow this line of reasoning is supposed to justify decreasing expenditures for education. These politicians and pundits would solve our problems by magically moving the clock back to a time when things were perfect in our country. Better to deal with the current social reality.
Our decision generations ago to provide a free education for all of our citizens was revolutionary - an answer to the challenges that faced us at that time. We now have new challenges needing the same type of revolutionary thinking. Schools and social services should unite in providing coordinated support and guidance for disadvantaged youth. We must move from my friend's description of my ``inherited failures.'' Social-service organizations have to become integrated with the educational process so they can work with the schools to avoid failure.
We need to downsize our public schools. Large schools are not conducive to personalizing education for each individual. Benefits of the economies of scale are negated by the human loss resulting from depersonalization that results from large schools. Elementary, middle and high schools for thousands are not appropriate to a quality educational process. Young people crave to belong to something. It could be their school, but when there are 1,000 people in their class, it should come as no surprise that they turn to gangs for community rather than their school.
We must have schools that create a sense of community, where the student is not a number but a person known and cared about by the teachers. To meet this need we should consider creating schools within these schools. A teaching team would assume responsibility for a group of students and that team and its students would stay together for several years. A student would be placed in the group that he is most comfortable with and with teachers that have a strong personal interest in the student.
To make this system work, the class size in our schools must also be small. In education, one size does not fit all. It is not possible for an instructor to work in a meaningful way and individually with students if the classes are much larger than 20. Sy Fliegel, who was a superintendent in the New York City system, answers those who question the value of small size by asking, ``Would you rather be served in a restaurant by a waiter who is responsible for 10 tables or one with five?''
If we are to address the problems in our educational system, we need to downsize our schools and classes and acknowledge that new integrated approaches are necessary to meet the needs of today's students. It will cost more money, but as the man on television says, ``Pay me now or pay me (much more) later.''New approaches are needed to meet the needs of today's students MEMO: Mr. Richardson is head of Cape Henry Collegiate School.Mr. Richardson is
head of Cape Henry Collegiate School. by CNB