Brian Crosby's Take on America's Public School System
Almost half a trillion dollars is spent on K-12 education each year and look at the results.
One out of every four American children reads below grade level.
One out of every three high school students do not graduate, a stagnant figure for thirty years.
In New York City, less than half of students graduate. In Detroit that figure is one-fourth. That’s a staggering number that puts new meaning to the term “dropout factories.”
The problem is not all the bad students; rather, all the bad schools.
Who decided that taking standardized tests was going to revolutionize public education?
Why does such a critical job as teaching require only minimum training and pay?
When did parents decide to stop believing the teachers’ point of view, that teachers are the enemy, to be doubted and questioned?
Why are we amazed that kids who are forced to sit still in uncomfortable plastic chairs for six hours a day easily get bored, distracted, defiant?
Like a dilapidated ramshackle fixer-upper that is more cost-effective to scrap than to renovate, now is the time to bulldoze America’s public school system.
The change that is needed in public education must be huge, along the lines of the civil rights movement. The same fervor people exert in anti-smoking campaigns needs to be replicated in efforts to transform public schools.
The teaching of America’s youth should be viewed as a bulwark against democracy’s demise. It’s no good to just let students “get by.” We must demand excellence. Our country’s economic future rests on it.
What’s needed is a cohesive vision of a new kind of public school system.
Lengthen the school day and the school year. There is not enough time to cover all the material in 180 days. By adding 4 more weeks to the school year and an hour and a half to the school day, children will have an additional year and a half of education between kindergarten and 12th grade. And they will still get 11 weeks off.
Increase class sizes and teacher salaries. Schools can’t find enough highly qualified teachers so have fewer of them. Yes this will mean more crowded classrooms but better teachers can handle more kids. The money saved from fewer employees can be added to the salaries of those instructors who prove themselves invaluable.
Eliminate homework. With the longer day students and teachers will have more time to go over the work during class. Kids can leave work at work and spend more time with their families at home.
Place a moratorium on No Child Left Behind. Enough with the testing. Put the focus back on where it should be—the work students perform in the classroom day in and day out.
Bring back vocational education. Instead of shoehorning everyone into college, provide those students who demonstrate non-academic skills with alternative programs.
Kick out the bad kids. The concept that no matter how badly behaved a child is he still has a seat waiting for him in a school is incredulous and the main reason why parents pay money for private schooling. If a child can’t meet a certain degree of decorum, let his parents deal with him so that those children who do want to learn can learn.
A four-day work week for teachers. Other public servants such as police and firefighters work four sometimes even three days a week due to the stressful conditions of their occupation. Teachers should be afforded the same perk. On the fifth day highly qualified paraeducators can run the classrooms taking students on field trips and job shadowing expeditions.
Do away with tenure and teachers unions. Let bad teachers be easily fired and not cloak themselves in the teachers union armor. It is time to elevate teaching to a real profession with rewards and punishments.
Go back and teach students the Golden Rule and have them employ it in mandatory community service. Look at our society and the mess it’s in. Much of this has to do with lax parenting and non-existent social teaching in the schools. Students can become better citizens if schools mandate community service as a graduation requirement.
Put a lid on special education funding. Nothing has wreaked more damage to the funding of schools than special ed has. It costs twice as much money to educate a special ed student than a non-special ed student.
Start charging for public schools. Too many people take public school for granted: free learning, free books, free supplies, free child care, even free food. No wonder many kids disrespect their place of learning.
Will there be heated discussions about implementing these changes? Absolutely.
Do details have to be ironed out? Of course.
But if we don’t get started with a sound vision of solid public schools, every new school fix-it plan whether it’s more testing, block scheduling or the latest computer software will add up to nothing.
Yes, national security is a top priority (though many people can’t locate Iraq on a map), but the best form of homeland security is education security. Do we want our military to have poorly educated people in its ranks? You can’t outsource an army.
Every day forty-seven million children attend public schools.
Every day three thousand students drop out of high school.
What type of experience do we want to provide America’s youth?
The time has come to act.
We must provide a public school system worthy of them.
One out of every four American children reads below grade level.
One out of every three high school students do not graduate, a stagnant figure for thirty years.
In New York City, less than half of students graduate. In Detroit that figure is one-fourth. That’s a staggering number that puts new meaning to the term “dropout factories.”
The problem is not all the bad students; rather, all the bad schools.
Who decided that taking standardized tests was going to revolutionize public education?
Why does such a critical job as teaching require only minimum training and pay?
When did parents decide to stop believing the teachers’ point of view, that teachers are the enemy, to be doubted and questioned?
Why are we amazed that kids who are forced to sit still in uncomfortable plastic chairs for six hours a day easily get bored, distracted, defiant?
Like a dilapidated ramshackle fixer-upper that is more cost-effective to scrap than to renovate, now is the time to bulldoze America’s public school system.
The change that is needed in public education must be huge, along the lines of the civil rights movement. The same fervor people exert in anti-smoking campaigns needs to be replicated in efforts to transform public schools.
The teaching of America’s youth should be viewed as a bulwark against democracy’s demise. It’s no good to just let students “get by.” We must demand excellence. Our country’s economic future rests on it.
What’s needed is a cohesive vision of a new kind of public school system.
Lengthen the school day and the school year. There is not enough time to cover all the material in 180 days. By adding 4 more weeks to the school year and an hour and a half to the school day, children will have an additional year and a half of education between kindergarten and 12th grade. And they will still get 11 weeks off.
Increase class sizes and teacher salaries. Schools can’t find enough highly qualified teachers so have fewer of them. Yes this will mean more crowded classrooms but better teachers can handle more kids. The money saved from fewer employees can be added to the salaries of those instructors who prove themselves invaluable.
Eliminate homework. With the longer day students and teachers will have more time to go over the work during class. Kids can leave work at work and spend more time with their families at home.
Place a moratorium on No Child Left Behind. Enough with the testing. Put the focus back on where it should be—the work students perform in the classroom day in and day out.
Bring back vocational education. Instead of shoehorning everyone into college, provide those students who demonstrate non-academic skills with alternative programs.
Kick out the bad kids. The concept that no matter how badly behaved a child is he still has a seat waiting for him in a school is incredulous and the main reason why parents pay money for private schooling. If a child can’t meet a certain degree of decorum, let his parents deal with him so that those children who do want to learn can learn.
A four-day work week for teachers. Other public servants such as police and firefighters work four sometimes even three days a week due to the stressful conditions of their occupation. Teachers should be afforded the same perk. On the fifth day highly qualified paraeducators can run the classrooms taking students on field trips and job shadowing expeditions.
Do away with tenure and teachers unions. Let bad teachers be easily fired and not cloak themselves in the teachers union armor. It is time to elevate teaching to a real profession with rewards and punishments.
Go back and teach students the Golden Rule and have them employ it in mandatory community service. Look at our society and the mess it’s in. Much of this has to do with lax parenting and non-existent social teaching in the schools. Students can become better citizens if schools mandate community service as a graduation requirement.
Put a lid on special education funding. Nothing has wreaked more damage to the funding of schools than special ed has. It costs twice as much money to educate a special ed student than a non-special ed student.
Start charging for public schools. Too many people take public school for granted: free learning, free books, free supplies, free child care, even free food. No wonder many kids disrespect their place of learning.
Will there be heated discussions about implementing these changes? Absolutely.
Do details have to be ironed out? Of course.
But if we don’t get started with a sound vision of solid public schools, every new school fix-it plan whether it’s more testing, block scheduling or the latest computer software will add up to nothing.
Yes, national security is a top priority (though many people can’t locate Iraq on a map), but the best form of homeland security is education security. Do we want our military to have poorly educated people in its ranks? You can’t outsource an army.
Every day forty-seven million children attend public schools.
Every day three thousand students drop out of high school.
What type of experience do we want to provide America’s youth?
The time has come to act.
We must provide a public school system worthy of them.
I'm struck by the numbers, it perhaps also reflects on the fact of about one million teens on the streets of the US. Don Noyes-More, Editor
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Thank you for your comment, Don. Imagine how much more productive our country could be if all of those teens roaming around were given better training in our schools beyond college preparation only. That's why I'm in favor of bringing back vocational education.
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I agree with much of what you discuss, however, your statement "When did parents decide to stop believing the teachers’ point of view, that teachers are the enemy, to be doubted and questioned?" gave me pause.
As a parent, I would love for my children to have teachers who are competent in their respective fields, who know more than a cursory amount of subject matter in the subject they are teaching, and have the professional skills to enable my children who are several years ahead of their classmates academically, to continue to grow and be challenged in school. Instead, my children have consistently had teachers who have been content to let my children be the teachers' helpers, to sit quietly in class and read so they don't disturb anyone else, and to become bored and depressed that they have to face many more years of this type of "education." So, as a parent, I do question the teachers. I want to know how they plan to reach my child at the level they are at, and encourage them to grow. I question them when my children bring home information taught by their teachers that is blatantly incorrect. I question them as to how, as a parent, I can help them do their job more effectively; for example, by going to the school board and standing up for teacher collaboration and the time to do so, by donating supplies or money so that the teachers can do their jobs without having to worry about how they will provide for everything.
Both of my children have been fortunate to have 1 teacher each in their school careers that have been the kind of teacher that has done this. Those school years were the best years in terms of our children's social, emotional, and academic growth. Since then, they have seen nothing but mediocrity in the classroom.
I applaud you for taking the time to evaluate what is working, and what is clearly not, in education. I can only hope that your voice is loud enough to make a difference.
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Thank you for your thoughtful and insightful comments. It is clear you are one of those parents who we need more of, who take a vested interest in your children's education.
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Jennifer, when comments similar in nature to the one by Mr. Crosby are made concerning parents and their children, the reference is usually concerning parents who defend children that are disrupting our teaching and the proper functioning of our classrooms, children who are refusing to put forth maximum effort, and children who refuse to take responsibility for their learning (which is as simple as listening and trying to follow directions) not the parents who are concerned about the quality of education their children which it seems you are of the latter group.
Good teachers should welcome the concerns of parents as pertaining to curriculum and whether the needs of each student are being met. I encountered many gifted students through the course of my career. It is disheartening to me when I cannot give them the time and learning opportunities they truly deserve. Jennifer, I applaud you for your advocacy for your kids and I encourage you to continue. It is the gifted students who are getting lost in the current education environment.
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"Do away with tenure and teachers unions. Let bad teachers be easily fired and not cloak themselves in the teachers union armor. It is time to elevate teaching to a real profession with rewards and punishments."
Brian, you had me 100% until this point. I have no issue with your point about tenure and I agree with your reasoning behind why you seek for teachers unions to be dissolved, but, unions also exist to protect teachers from administrators seeking to abuse their power and provide sound legal defense for teachers when disputes arise. As a hard-working teacher who has been the victim of a student's lies and his vindictive parents, I would no longer have an opportunity to continue my career were it not for the work my teachers association did on my behalf. They saved my career when county administrators attempted to circumvent fair dismissal laws and tried to terminate me without a hearing. (The parents threatened to sue if I wasn't terminated.)
I am still disheartened to this day over what teachers may face if we dare suggest to a parent that their child is disruptive or if we dare present consequences to a student. I am in total agreement with your statements about kicking out disruptive kids and about parents who aren't receptive to the teacher's point of view.
In other professions, a department of human resources exists for employees to go to when grievances arise, but, those departments are not there for the employees. Their job is to protect the employer. The need for teachers unions will exist as long as teachers are treated without dignity and respect and policy makers continue to use our servant natured dispositions to enact policies and legislation that strip away at labor related benefits and workers rights. What other recourse would (innocent teachers) have? Most of us don't generate enough income to keep a lawyer on retainer for instances such as these.
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I'm sorry to hear about the difficulties you have encountered as a teacher, and can certainly understand why you feel the need for job protection. I have said in both of my books that teachers unions are to be commended for their work back in the 1960s and 1970s in raising income and conditions for teachers. However, they have fallen behind the times and too often block true reform from occurring. They need to be less AFL-CIO and more AMA. If teachers truly were in charge of their own profession, you wouldn't need unions. Continued good luck in the classroom.
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