THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 3, 1996 TAG: 9608300025
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 63 lines
The editorial above offers timeless reasons why an education is essential. But the how is as important as the why. Our future in a high-tech world depends on the quality of our work force. The survival of our culture depends on the transmitting of its shared values, accumulated wisdom and treasury of art, literature and philosophy from one generation to the next.
Yet too often schools have failed to keep their eye on that ball. One fad after another has swept the schools. Politicians have indulged in scapegoating and culture wars. They have advocated quick fixes and gimmicks. Bob Dole bashes teachers unions and supports choice. President Clinton has countered with proposals for volunteer-fueled efforts to increase literacy and more information technology for classrooms.
Such campaign promises are rarely kept and the real needs of schools are simpler and more obvious. Children from literate homes where parents read to their children and limit their television viewing do better in school. Society would do well to encourage such behavior and to devote resources to remediation for children unlucky enough to enter school from disadvantaged family circumstances.
Reading is the essential academic skill. Without it, nothing more is possible. Writing is next and is learned by reading widely and practicing composition tirelessly. Computational skills must be mastered early since everything else in math and science builds on that foundation.
Therefore, the effective teaching of reading, writing and artihmetic must be the priorities of early education. And research provides the unsurprising news that time on task pays dividends. The more time spent reading, writing and practicing math skills, all other things being equal, the better students become at those skills.
Should we seriously consider longer school days and years? Of course. The present school calendar is a holdover from an agrarian society. In other cultures, students spend more time in school with predictable results. The Japanese, for example, finish high school having spent almost as much time in the classroom as American college graduates. They are learning calculus when their American counterparts are still mastering plane geometry.
The school variable that has the most impact on student performance, especially in the early grades, is class size. Schools that put 15 students in a class show better results than schools with 25 in a class.
Finally, teacher training counts. Schools of education have devoted too much attention to theory and not enough to practice. Teachers need a solid grounding in the subjects they will teach and more practical experience in the classroom. Schools of education have remained too distant from the frontlines. The demand for increasingly rigorous standards is welcome and has begun to pay off. Similarly rigorous standards are needed for teachers and those who teach the teachers.
If politicians and the citizens who elect them want educational causes to embrace, here they are. Schools and their communities must reach out to disadvantaged children very early and make sure they start schools ready to learn. Reading, writing and computational skills must be paramount and taught until youngsters acquire them. Because time on task counts, longer school days and years are worth pursuing. Money must be invested in providing smaller classes in the early grades.
None of that will happen if the society waits for schools, elected officials or sages to act. The power lies with parents who must take responsibility for their own children and insist they get the education that they deserve. Starting today. by CNB