Failing our children, and ourselves

The Atlantic’s June 2008 issue includes an essay by an adjunct professor of English at a Northeastern community college. He outlines a very real problem, that most of his students are not college material. Indeed, he points out that his students barely possess very basic skills with some being borderline illiterate.

Professor X is right to bemoan the level of student ability. He points out a problem that seems prevalent among his older students. The real problems actually run much deeper and he avoids them even as he exposes them. The problems are that we do not value teachers and education at the primary level; the way we approach education; the system of learning we’ve constructed and the way we approach our students. This is a consequence of the system of education we have created.

Teachers at the college level enjoy a different classroom environment than those at the primary and secondary level. Teachers at the college level have assistant instructors and usually only teach two days a week. It is true that they do work beyond the scope of their classes that adds value back into their teaching, but at the most formative levels, primary and secondary instructors are slammed with a teaching load with a minimum eight hours and day, seven days a week with little support -- not counting the hours spent outside of class. We don’t offer teachers sufficient proper rewards or support.

Second, even though our system of education may be the envy of the world (at least at the college level), we treat education as a task to be performed, not as something to be loved and embraced. We approach education the same way we approach medicines, something that tastes bad that must be swallowed if we're going to get better.

Third, we don’t encourage a system of learning for the sake of learning. We don’t build into students the ability, or the desire, to keep learning long after the class is over. And as a society we don’t reward and don’t reinforce the benefits of continual learning.

Fourth, we don’t do a good job of learning our students’ strengths and weaknesses and offering them positive direction and feedback. Talented students are sometimes identified. It’s the tiers between the best and the worst that get shorted. Our teachers at every level simply don’t have the time and resources.

Since the foundation of the republic, the required years of education has expanded from three to sixteen years. The integrating, flattening world is increasing the demand for a quality education. For Professor X’s students, the American system of education has clearly failed. If we don’t fundamentally rethink and reinvent our approach to education, America may not be able to compete and, as a consequence, may not have a future.