By Joe Midzalkowski
POSTED: Sept.
18, 2002 5:35 p.m.
I was sorely
disappointed by the series of three columns in the AC-T
published by
Thomas Sowell. He has fallen into the trap of
oversimplification
into which he was preceded by many hack writers and
demagogic politicians.
First of all,
Mr. Sowell writes of education as if it were a vast monolith
through which
every child in this nation is taught the same things in the
same way. Wrong.
There are 50 states and several federal school systems
in this country.
Each has its own set of standards and curriculum. Within
those are thousands
of local districts whose autonomy varies. Within those
local districts
are tens of thousands of schools, each managed by a
principal
who gives the day-to- day direction for instruction. Within each of
those schools
are dozens of trained professional educators who still have
a great deal
of decision making power simply because no one is looking
over their
shoulders.
Does this sound
like the great monolith Mr. Sowell describes? I think not.
In fact, the
primary strength of public education in this nation lies in the
fact
that the corps of teachers, who deliver the goods everyday, have the
judgment to
ignore much of the micro-management of politicians at all
levels so they
can do such a first rate job of educating our youth.
Great
job? Did I say "great job"? I use that description unapologetically.
Those of us
who have (or in my case, had) devoted a career to teaching
children are
so very sick and tired of hacks and cheap politicians running
around like
chicken little waving in front of the public test scores purporting
to show that
our schools are failing in comparison to those of other
countries.
Bull feathers. No other country tries so hard to keep the children
in school as
long as we do. We fight for every child who wants to drop out.
We educate
handicapped individuals who would never have seen the
inside of a
school in other countries. Many other nations channel children
who don't seem
to have college in their futures to drop out and/or attend
manual training
centers. Those tests compare our general student
population,
including those who want to drop out and those of marginal
intellectual
ability, with the survivors in other countries.
The third graders
I taught came to me knowing things about computers
that weren't
even thought of twenty years ago. They know how to find
information
they need on the Internet. Can Japanese children do this also?
Certainly.
Do we want to emulate their system and thereby gain their child
suicide rate?
Definitely
not.
Mr. Sowell's
series did nothing to help improve our system of public
schools. Rather,
his misinformation may have hurt their effort by
undermining
the vital support needed. Unless the general public believes in
our schools
they will be unwilling to support them with both their time and
their money - both of which are desperately needed.
Joe Midzalkowski is a
retired third
grade teacher. He has served as president of the Polk
Education Association,
as well serving The Board of Directors of the Florida
Teaching Profession-NEA
and was an elected delegate to the annual
National Education
Associations Representative Assembly for 12 years. He
and his wife,
a retired fourth grade teacher, split their residence between
Bryson City and Highland City, Fla.