[MD] Value and the Individual

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Krimel]
Certainly there are plenty of problems but it is possible to get a 
good public education.

[Arlo]
No doubt.

[Krimel]
The issue should be how to make that true for more students.

[Arlo]
Absolutely.

[Krimel]
In general public education is locally controlled. Each school 
district has its own elected officials and taxation authority. So the 
success or failure of schools is largely a local concern strongly 
influenced but not always determined by federal or state laws or policies.

[Arlo]
Here I think the schism revolves around differing (but unarticulated) 
reasons for education. Often, local education services the local 
community, a rural farming area will likely see an overall different 
educational field than an affluent suburban community. In poor areas, 
schooling tends to become very much more vocational (since the 
schools feed the local factories), while affluent areas sees a 
greater emphasis on "liberal" education with an eye towards college 
preparedness. Federal law has tried to level this, but has been 
unsuccessful (in my opinion) because it does not offer anything 
"better". Why should a rural, farming area NOT teach (K-12) more 
about agricultural science, soils, farming, and livestock management, 
since the majority of graduates will need those skills? Why should 
they bypass local vocational needs? That is the question that must be 
answered on the federal level. But even those on the federal level 
often don't know why, except "we should".

Where I went to school we were smack dab in the middle of John 
O'Hara's "Gibbsville". The story, Appointment in Samara, references 
landmarks I saw everyday. It touched on the lives on the local 
miners, provided metaphoric commentary in locally recognizable forms, 
and gives the local community something to be proud of, to define 
"who we are". And yet I never read O'Hara in school. I discovered 
O'Hara myself one night in a public library.... eight counties away. 
Why? At the time I asked my former English teacher (a great mentor), 
he said he would have love to teach O'Hara, but there was no room in 
the syllabus. On the same token, should YOU have been required to 
read O'Hara where you grew up? Maybe. Maybe not? (I am told now that 
"Advanced English" students, read "college prep kids", now read 
O'Hara their senior year, one story, which is a start. But why not 
the kid who wants to be an electrician? Why does he not gain from the 
classroom dialogue over O'Hara's works? Because he doesn't "need" it? 
Because we expect him to live a life of meaningless, physical toil 
and not spend time thinking about anything more elaborate than 
whether he's having pork chops or salisbury steak for dinner?)
Aye carumba, now you've gone and gotten Arlo all up on his soapbox... 
Way to go. ;-)

[Krimel]
Educators are always pursuing new and better teaching methods some 
work, some don't, but hopefully local control allow lots of 
experiments and best practices have a chance to immerge. Or one might 
say the most successful memes reveal themselves and grow. If this is 
not happening that is perhaps the biggest problem.

[Arlo]
I am fond of local control over education (obviously), but this is 
not without safeguards. There do need to be standards, to be sure, 
but therein again I think we are back on "why" we are educating? 
Whether its an informed citizenry, a skilled labor force, or 
enlightenment (or combinations of these or other reasons), we need to 
articulate that first. Then we need to make sure the greatest number 
of children are met (including both poor and rich, both boy and girl, 
both rural and urban, and both vocationally-minded or university-minded).

I had a friend once suggest the idea that the "system" be divided 
into four components. His suggestion was not only four separate 
buildings, but a campus style approach to filling them. You could 
take American citizenship in the mornings, then do art in the 
afternoons. Or you could do art on the weekends, if that was your 
more creative time. Or you could do a whole year of American 
citizenship, then a whole year of vocational training, doing "liberal 
education" online and arts in the summer. Or you could do arts in the 
morning, and then an apprenticeship (for your vocational education) 
in the afternoons.... or apprentice over the summer. Etc.

By separating it, he hoped to envision a system where everyone can 
best meet their own learning progress and style. But the bottom line 
was that by the age of 18, each person would _have_ to achieve 
"mastery" in each of these areas. Maybe not all of these would need 
to be taken every year. Maybe Citizenship was something you could do 
every other year.

In one, everyone learns basic American citizenship.

In another, everyone receives a "liberal education" (including basic 
reading and math skills at the lower grades) including literature, 
world history, biology, philosophy, science, etc.

In the third, everyone explores the arts, plays an instrument, 
paints, writes music and poetry, sculpts and acts.

In the fourth, everyone learns a vocational skill, from electrician 
to ballet dancer.

Although I am more a proponent of integration (I'd rather see 
electrician training and the arts combined), I think this highlights 
the four primary reasons we educate. But by focusing on them 
independently, rather than as an invisible part of a larger blob, we 
can really step back and think about what we are doing, why we are 
doing it, and how we can do it better.

For example, to meet the requirements for "art", a family could send 
their child to dance school. So long as the dance school reports that 
she attended and demonstrated achievement, she would meet that 
requirement. Another family may meet this by having their son, a 
rocker in a local band, submit his portfolio to an art board. Yet 
another may enroll their child in evening sculpture classes. The 
point is, the path is not locked, but the outcome must be met.

Same with the vocational branch. Maybe one kid does an apprenticeship 
at his local news station for camera operation and editing, while 
another one works on the weekends at his family's butcher shop. 
Another may opt to go to Joe's School of Electricianhood.

A bit lengthy of a post, but you see where I am going...