Education: Finger pointing and blame placing is NOT a solution
administrators, education experts, influencers wanting to fix our education system.No, this is not meant to be a joke — it's meant to be a call to action. If you meet that criteria, and take that seriously, we want to talk with you because we can help.
I was inspired to write this post because I think it's time we got down to the business of actually doing something about our education system rather than continue down the predictable, yet ineffective path of finger-pointing, placing blame, and searching for external excuses for why education is not meeting the needs of our children.
What do I mean? Well, here's a sample of the "reasons" for why education isn't working:
School districts cite overly-restrictive teachers' unions for why they can't get fair teacher evaluation, hire good teachers/fire bad ones, keep salaries within reasonable levels, etc.
Teachers' unions blame the districts for not providing better working conditions, pay, benefits to their teachers. They blame the states for "underfunding" education and keeping teachers' pay so low that they can't attract and retain qualified staff.
Teachers blame their principals/administration for not supporting them more. They blame parents for not being more engaged in their students' education, and they blame the government for not providing more money for education so that the parents have to take up more of the slack.
Parents blame everyone else — the government for short-changing the schools, the teachers for not caring enough or doing enough to teach their kids, the administration for not offering enough opportunities for "extended learning," and cuts to services.
Taxpayers blame the government for providing too much budget for schools with too little results.
Businesses blames the education system for not putting out adequate numbers of new employees into the business world that are properly prepared and trained to participate in job market.
Note the common factor in the majority of the "reasons" above is the lack of adequate funding and financial resources to "get the job done." However, none of these issues can be solved by throwing more money at them.
More money is also clearly not the solution to improving educational outcomes as history has shown us. We've spent increasing amounts of money educating our students for the past 40 years, yet their actual academic achievement hasn't actually improved at all. So, then we start looking for "reasons" that's happened, including classroom size, again the lack of adequate teachers, insufficient time in the classrooms, lack of emphasis on academics, etc.
Again…not dealing with the problem, but plenty of excuses.
Those excuses lead nowhere. We spin around in a permanent whirlpool of complaints, finger-pointing and rhetoric, yet at the end of the day — or the school year — we're at the same place we found ourselves in last year. It appears that while there is plenty of blame to go around, no one is really brave enough to take a step back, take a deep breath and look at what's really going on. Instead, we'd prefer to slap on a band-aid, apply a quick fix, and hope that takes care of it…until the "next problem" comes along.
Our children are the ones who are suffering. We can argue until we're blue in the face that this time smaller classroom sizes will fix it, perhaps a better reading curriculum or more emphasis on reading. Or that teacher effectiveness is dependent on how they are perceived or how much they are paid. We need more technology — that will make academic achievement go up. Do any of these sound familiar?
What no one really talks about is the common factor in everything from classroom size to the achievement gap; from disrespect and disruptive classrooms to bullies that treat their victims so harshly that suicide seems the only out. Teachers leave the classroom, not because of inadequate pay, but because they can't handle the behavior management issues anymore. Precious days are sucked out what should be learning time, and a corresponding amount of hundreds of billions of dollars across the country.
This cancer revolves around children's preparedness to learn in a classroom environment and that does not mean starting kids on reading at earlier and earlier ages. Too many of our children are woefully under-prepared with social/emotional learning that is the most critical factor in how successful they will be in school — and in life. And that, folks, affects everything and everyone in the educational equation. And, I'm not going to go there and start pointing fingers and say "oh, but that's the PARENTS' job" because the reality is that even the best of parents, who are doing their best to instill these values and abilities in their kids are fighting an uphill battle. That also doesn't account for those parents who may not be from this country or culture, who are doing what they should to raise their kids to behave in a manner appropriate for the culture of their heritage…which may not be what this culture or the marketplace expects of people. So those kids start behind, and remain behind.
I'm happy to share more on this because it's a hugely multi-faceted topic, and it's one I speak on to many audiences including the public and educational professionals. But the topic is one that everyone should be able to get their arms and heads around because solving this problem is in everyone's interests. There is no downside to improving teachers' working conditions, students' social skills, creating more productive and positive learning environments.
Pointing fingers and placing blame may make some folks feel better because then they can say they aren't responsible. But we're all responsible for our children's future. Isn't THAT the common goal we should all share? That is where the focus should be; if we don't do our job and come together on a real solution, one day our children will be pointing their fingers at us. And we'll deserve the blame.
Filed under: Education Policy, Education Reform, Social Skills and Character Tagged: academic achievement, blaming others for education, Education Reform, social-emotional learning, teachers unions
