Despite endless head scratching and tons of money American education is firmly in the doldrums, little better than it was thirty years ago. More than ever is spent per pupil, class sizes have shrunk, testing is more thorough (too thorough?), national standards have been revised, all to no avail.
The answer, maybe, can be found in Finland, Japan and Canada, where teacher training is very much more professional than in the US. It has been assumed that good teachers are born, not made. This is not so. The teacher has to adopt an attitude of lifelong learning, study videos of his or her conduct in class, undergo the rigorous business of constant post-mortems and performance measurements. No teacher teaches alone. The aim is to make teachers better and better throughout their careers. The result in Finland, for instance, had been that, from a dire situation where Finnish schools were near the bottom of the European league tables, Finland now has some of the best schooling available. (inspired by an article in The NewYorker, Nov 10th, 2014).
Wouldn’t you think that someone out there would have thought of this years ago? It famously takes ten thousand hours of practice to make a concert pianist. German engineers are not thought to be trained until their mid-thirties. Wherever you look you find that people who work hard and long to master their crafts get the most pleasure out of their jobs, and, indeed, usually the greatest financial benefit as well. So why do people suppose that you can spend a year or so in a teacher training college and be able to handle thirty undisciplined kids from the ghetto by yourself from day one, with only the occasional appearance of a mentor?
The idea of the Epicurean “pleasant life” includes the pleasure of knowing your business, the self-confidence that comes from working hard and conscientiously to become a respected expert in your field. How dismal it must be to reach the age of retirement as a teacher, and feel that you have made little difference, and that pupils in your school are still leaving semi-literate. Epicureans believe in professionalism and life-long learning. The sense of achievment is its own reward.
“Education is not a product: mark, diploma, job, money – in that order; it is a process, a never- ending one”. Bel Kaufman
I agree that the American educational system is in dire need of reform in order to fulfill the needs of a healthy society. It’s also true that the U.S. education racket is hobbled by vested interests who resist reforms.
It’s problematic, though, to cite Japan, Finland, and Canada as models. The three countries are relatively homogeneous and much smaller societies than is the U.S. Reforming institutions with 120 million people, (Japan), or 35 million (Canada) or 5 million (Finland) is much easier than what U.S. reformers face.
A population of 325 million souls generates qualitative differences. Defeating educational vested interests who resist reforming their rackets and who are fragmented into local, state, and federal systems is qualitatively much more difficult.
Teaching is about personal relationships.
Firing teachers, competition, online learning, the introduction of technology, yet another type of test – none of these are working. They are dreamt up in think-tanks by people embued with business school methodology. What is necessary is human contact and encouragement.
All the American programs that have been successful in teaching children the love of learning and which have reduced the drop-out rate have been based on mutual trust, respect and personal attention. Successful programs like Success for All, Diplomas Now, Big Brothers Big Sisters and YouthBuild have one thing in common: the personal touch that brings more adults into the lives of children and offers mentoring for those with dysfunctional homes in particular.
This requires patient, dedicated teachers who are genuinely interested in children, not huge amounts of money spent on technology, or even paint on the walls.
But where do we find the teachers? The UK, for instance, is in the middle of a baby boom. Nursery and primary schools are bursting at the seams. With between 30 and 40 children to a class ( and a lot of those children who don’t even speak English at home), how is anyone to give personal attention to the children. Of course, it is the bright ones who get no attention at all. No surprise if they get quickly disillusioned. The waste!
In an Epicurean world teachers would be paid more than bankers and command the greatest respect in society. Our values are seriously awry.
(Adapted from comments in an article in the NYT by David L. Kirp. professor at the University of California, Berkeley)