Lessons Unlearned

A special interest group in Austin is whining about teachers, once again blaming the politicization and subsequent failure of public schooling upon the wrong party.

It's not the teachers who are at the root of the problem. I know many teachers personally, and they are without exception quality people of high intelligence and motivation. The problem is that they are no longer allowed to teach. If you desire improved student performance, follow these steps:

1) Put standardized testing where it belongs--in the toilet. And flush it. Twice.

2) Get Austin out of the classroom and return complete control of curriculum, funding and testing to the local school boards, where it used to reside back when the schools were effective. Meddling politicians and businessmen are what got us into the pickle we're in now. Stick to what you know best and let the educators educate.

3) Stop trying to push everyone to go to college. It won't happen for one reason: there are a lot of people who simply aren't bright enough to attend college. It doesn't matter if you like that comment or not; the facts care nothing for your social engineering and political opinions. Some people are smarter than others, just as some are faster or stronger or more beautiful. That has been a reality of the human race for millions of years; no amount of legislation is going to change reality.

Instead, work within the reality by recreating the vocational systems which served very well for many decades. Give the students an option to learn a real job skill, because a great many of them are simply not suited to--or interested in--attending college.

4) Put the paddle back in the teachers' hands. Modern teachers have little authority and no threat to effectively run their classrooms. Simply telling preteens to cease an unacceptable behavior is very often like talking to a brick wall; a swift swat with a two-foot plank, however, never fails to convey the point. The same goes for high school students, though they may make brave noises about not fearing the paddle. If you're over the age of 30, you understand the effectiveness of corporal punishment in schools quite well.

5) The final and most important component: discipline your own children. I know many modern parents find this hard to believe, but your precious little Johnny is not an angel. The men and women in those classrooms are teachers, not wizards; they can't create a sparkling mountain of gold from a small pile of dog turds. Give them good raw material and you'll get productive, well-educated citizens.

Fixing education cannot and will not be a product of meetings, reports, and high-minded recommendations. You can't incentivize teachers because you can't quantify what they do. It's an art, and therefore quality is all that matters. Three decades of trying to make teaching into a science has resulted in nothing but disaster and heartache. What could possibly lead you to believe that more quantification will fix the problem?

As for the business and banking gurus who produced this report: it doesn't work in business, either. We worker bees just humor you, allowing you to live off the milk of people who perform the real work, while you run around in circles producing useless reports and holding interminable, pointless meetings. What makes a business effective and profitable is a workforce of self-motivated employees who are given the freedom and trust to do their jobs. The best manager is the one who manages least--in business and in education.