March 1st Rally in Santa Fe for Early Childhood Programs

On March 1st I went to Santa Fe with my wife, grandaughter, and father to advocate against cutting essential early childhood programs by attending a rally in the capitol building rotunda sponsored by The Decade of The Child.  The Decade of the Child (DoC) is a grassroots advocacy coalition focusing on the well being of young children in partnership with other groups and agencies.  DoC is committed to empowering children and their families to discover and pursue their full potentials to ensure a positive future for New Mexico. 

Alan Sanchez, the executive director of St. Josephs was the moderator and his rallying cry of "We Need Money" was picked up by the crowd who had traveled from all parts of the state and hopefully reached the ears of their legislators.  The same legislature that is considering a 20% cut of state allocations for early childhood programs. 

Advocates insist we can not afford this cut because it devalues the quality of life for young children and their families and undermines the fiscal purpose of early childhood programs, to create future savings by investing in early childhood programs for learning and care.  The DoC and other advocates believe that early childhood programs help create healthy, contributing future members of society.  A new report by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national law enforcement organization shows that , "quality early learning can save $80,000,000 a year on corrections costs in New Mexico."

Baji Rankin from Decade of the Child cited a study in Michigan which showed a $1 billion savings from early childhood programs in 25 years. Diana Montoya from the NM Human Rights Commission spoke for her grandson Diego by saying "don't let us down." That message was echoed by former Governor David Cargo as he spoke to the lack of a level playing field that has been developed by uneven subsidies in the form of tax cuts to the people who least need them and then placing the burden of paying for state services on the middle and lower economic classes.  Jaime Tamez the executive director  Cuidando de los Ninos indicated that serving homeless children is difficult without a constant commitment from the state legislature.  Other speakers included Catherine Freeman the chair of the NM Early Childhood Consortium and Rosa Barraza a child care provider and president of the NM Child Care and Education Association.  A particularly poignent plea for funding was made by Deb Dennison who explained how comforting funding from Mi Via was for her as her son died of a rare neurological disease.  She pointed out the importance of expending as much money as needed to ensure the health of our chidren.  

All of the paricipants wanted the legislature to hear one simple message

 

Don't Lose Ground-Maintain our Investment in Ealry Chidhood!!

If our statement that "children are the future" is not just rhetoric, we wouldn't be cutting any money from the budget for these essential programs.

Math Education are we instructing the right part of the brain?

Some Interesting Websites
 Forvo is the largest pronunciation guide in the world. Ever wondered how a word is pronounced?  Ask for that word or name, and another user will pronounce it for you. You can also record your own pronunciations.
 VPike will fascinate kids and adults alike.  When you enter an address you will see a picture of that place. 
10 Cool Math Sites contains ten math sites for students of all ages, as well as teachers.  There are websites for everything from basic flash cards to game theory. 

Articles on Math Education
 A A-Maze-ing Approach to Math by Barry Garelick in Education Next
'Algebra-for-all' Approach Fount to Yield Poor Results by Debra Viadero Education Week
 West Brain, East Brain by Sharon Begley in Newsweek
Number Wars: School Battles heat Up Again in the Traditional versus Reform-Math Debate  by Linda Baker in Scientific American

Thoughts From Yrisarri
I recently read an article that asks whether or not a math teacher should have a degree in mathematics.  That depends a great deal upon what level is being taught and the amount of math study the teacher has completed.  It is probably a good requirement for a high school teacher with classes in upper level math because of the need for depth of knowledge needed to transmit not only the information but a love of the subject.  I have encountered many math teachers with minimum exposure to math who have been assigned to teach teach math at the middle or high school level.  Needless to say, these teachers are frequently ineffective because they don't know math. There are also many people who know about math but don't necessarily understand how to work with children.  It seems that this problem of math aptitude for the teacher has some real solutions.  The problem however, is deeper than who has a degree and who does not have a degree in math.

The most important skill of any teacher, including the math teacher, is to motivate the students, provide the student with the proper challenge, and explain what they do not understand.  Unfortunately we seem to have a culture in which many people admit they do not understand math or just do not see why it is important to their life.  Elementary teachers reflect the society they represent and many do not understand the relationship between math and problem solving and are unable to motivate their students to want to learn math.  These teachers end up teaching math as a language by having their students solve and memorize equations.  Even if the student is motivated to learn math that is only a small part of learning mathematics .

An interesting study of east vs. west mathematical thinking demonstrates the difference in the ways each culture is taught math.  Using brain scans to determine what part of the brain an individual uses when confronted with a math problem the researchers found differences between eastern and western use of the brain.  Asian brains generally used the spatial/visual portions of the brain while their western counterparts depended upon the language area of their brain.

I spent a number of years in Asian cultures and my experience leads me to believe that a difference between how we learn math may contribute to the difference in how our brains treat math problems.  In the U.S.  we jump immediately to abstract concepts when teaching math.  The use of graphical representations runs counter to a child’s intuitive knowledge about math.  All kids know that three cookies on the plate are preferable to one cookie.  But, when we put the number 3 and the number 1 in writing and begin talking about what they mean, we have moved beyond the concrete operations the child needs to fully conceptualize what we are talking about.

The Japanese use the abacus to learn math.  I vividly remember young children doing math operations on the abacus much faster and more accurately than I could with pencil and paper.  When their students begin solving equations in all four areas of math using a concrete model, our students are memorizing math tables of graphical representations.  I believe this helps to explain why Asians use visual/spatial areas of their brain and we tend to think in terms of language.  I also recall that most Japanese students knew their "math facts" because of repetition on the abacus.

The aversion to math in our culture is often echoed by middle school children and their chants of “boring” and “I’ll never use this”.  This is not something they thought of on their own.  Frequently you hear their parents say exactly the same thing when you discuss their child's problem with math.  We need math teachers who can counter this national aversion to math by demonstrating and relating the subject to daily life and who understand that math is a way of thinking more than a specific operation.  They also need to motivate children by their teaching to want to learn math.     

Teachers do not necessarily need math degrees but they do need to understand and value math at various levels based upon the level they teach.  However, nothing will change unless there is a paradigm shift in our country.  As long as we do more of the same thing in our math instruction, our children will not want to learn math because it seems boring and useless to them.  It is going to require a commitment from the teachers to learn a different way of thinking about the purpose of math and giving our students positive messages about their ability to think in mathematical ways.

Graduation from High School After 10th Grade

 Some Useful Websites for Teachers
My Timeline will help you construct a timeline, adding events, descriptions, and images that help bring content alive.
How Stuff Works is a great site for a student to explore!
After School Activities brings hands-on activities and digital library resources into afterschool play!


Some Articles to Read 
(These articles may require you sign up to read them) 
Librarians' Roles Shifting to Address the Demand for Quality Online Content by Katie Ash 
'Algebra-for-All' Push Found to Yield Poor Results By Debra Viadero 
Educator Teamwork Seen as Key to School Gains By Lisa Fine

 

Thoughts from Yrisarri

This week I read a number of articles about plans for high school aged students to enter college and some about the importance of cooperation among teachers at schools to insure that all students get effective teaching.  I think these ideas have a lot of merit and could be utilized to make education more relevant and effective. 

Ky. in test that sends sophomores to college 
Information from: The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com 

Louisville Ky. (AP) — Kentucky and seven other states will participate in a pilot education program that will send some students to college two years early. The National Center on Education and the Economy is providing the program under a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  The Courier-Journal in Louisville reported that, under the program, students who complete the 10th grade with test results showing they can handle college-level studies will be allowed to enroll in colleges and universities.  The program is still being worked out, but is expected to begin in fall 2011 with 10 to 20 high schools taking part in each of the states.  Besides Kentucky, schools in Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont will participate.

Why not take this idea further?  Mandatory public education should end after the 10th grade for students who are prepared for the next level of education.  One of our educational problems is the 9th grade.  Young adolescents are beginning to view the world around them with a different frame of reference and become impatient with the schooling process.  I believe if they knew there was only one more year of mandatory schooling, there would be more motivation to finish.  My experience is that students in early adolescence have a hard time assessing their long term future and a shorter goal to graduation would help.  Not all students need to go to college at 16, but they do need to have a curriculum that is relevant to their lives and ambitions.  At end of mandatory public education is the beginning of what Australia calls Tertiary Education

from Australia's Government Website  http://www.dfat.gov.au/aib/education.html

There are two types of tertiary education programs: those offered by institutions, private training providers and industry in the vocational education and training (VET) sector; and those offered by universities and other higher education providers.

Why not allow students to make a decision about their education at this point?  Something that is often overlooked about our educational system is that anyone, at any age can change the direction of their careers by going to school.  Some students may choose to work and that should be encouraged and be a part of a planned tertiary education experience. The tertiary experience would provide for a diversity of curriculum, programs and experiences for young people prepared to take that step.  I believe that offering this program would cause many more students to be prepared.  Not everyone will be ready at this point but those who are not can be mentored and tutored in a more effective manner than flunking or passing to the next  level without the skills they need to suceed.

It should be understood by all Americans that  life-long learning is encouraged by our society and there is no real end point or time in life when it is too late to study and change.  Just as there should be no subjective value placed on the work individuals choose to do.  In a democracy such as ours there should be an egalitarian approach to vocational and professional choices individuals make.  All jobs should be understood to have paths for growth and advancement, and that security is possible with most choices made about work.

So how do we decide if a young person is prepared to take this step? It would require cooperation among school, community and business to create a meaningful diploma.  A committee chosen from representatives of the larger community could evaluate a student’s portfolio and decide if they had met the predetermined standards and benchmarks the community believes are necessary to begin the tertiary stage of education and guide them in the execution of their next step.

from When Should Students Graduate ... And Who Should Decide ?
By S.G. Grant  Education Week On-Line

What would happen, we wondered, if state policymakers took themselves largely out of the picture and allowed local, district-based committees to define the assessments that would demonstrate students’ readiness to graduate? Students would still need to sit for and pass the standardized state exams, but those results alone would not determine whether a student was competent and ready to graduate. Instead, state exams and their scores would be part of a larger slate of assessments that gauged students’ knowledge and understanding in more realistic and authentic ways.

A system like this would require that we care about each individual and work together as learning communities.  The burden of success would be local rather than centererd in some distant bureaucracy.  Each student would be required to have an educational plan evaluated at predetermined benchmarks.  Teachers would have to cooperate  to insure that student plans are successful in the long term.  This would cause schools to take advantage of the full talents of their teachers and administrators.

from Teacher Learning: Sine Qua Non of School Innovation
By Stephanie Hirsh 

You wouldn’t know it from current discussions about teacher effectiveness, but the talent and expertise needed to raise student achievement already exist in many, if not most, schools. Unfortunately, too few of them have a culture that encourages teachers and administrators to work together on a regular basis, to consult each other more often on matters of teaching and learning, to share responsibilities for instructional improvement, and to implement professional-learning opportunities that address both their needs and their students’.

Having the right conditions for professional learning promotes trust and respect among educators, the essential ingredients for an honest dialogue about what is working and what needs to change. Absent these conditions, the most effective teachers and successful schools will continue to operate as “islands of excellence,” rather than as places all educators can turn to as a way of learning how to improve their own results.

This plan would require us to focus on the individual students, give them a voice in their educataion, allow for the growth of diverse curriculums in the teritary system, give students authentic instruction, and provide for community and school cooperation at many levels. It would also depend upon rethinking what schooling, education and learning mean and how our society views the value of different types of work in our culture.

The Crisis in Education

Useful Websites
Cramster.com  is a good site high school and college students, it is an on-line study community with lots of useful resources and advice.  Social networking for study!!!
The Week in Rap is a novel way to let your students learn about the news of the week in the language of rap!
Veterans History Project - The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.
Today in History Calendar - One of the free educational resources at Thinkfinity.  A great bulletin board addition!

Books to Read
The Education of Gospel by W. Norton Grubb and Marvin Lazerson discusses the idea that more schooling for more people is the remedy for our problems and that the aim of education is to prepare for work.

Interesting Articles about Education
For Students at Risk, Early College Proves a Draw by Tamar Lewin from New York Times on-line.

There is a payoff for the long bus rides: The 48 SandHoke seniors are in a fast-track program that allows them to earn their high-school diploma and up to two years of college credit in five years — completely free.

These Things We Believe by John Norton, Teacher Magazine on-line (you may need to subscribe to read this article)

 Good teachers are frustrated, I believe, because they care so much about the work they do. They feel strait-jacketed by conflicting directives from above, and overwhelmed by constant budget cutting that makes a hard job even harder. More and more, there’s a temptation to respond to the constant criticism with angry rebuttals that point out society’s mixed messages: “Teach to the test.” “Individualize instruction.” “Stick to the teaching script.” “Transform students into critical thinkers.” Then, when teacher tempers boil over, we hear: “How come they’re always whining?”

A Climate of False Crisis by Deborah Meir from the blog Bridging Differences in Education Week on-line.   (you may need to subscribe to read this article)

Narratives are easier to remember, and so we invent them. And, we always insist that at this moment we cannot move with caution because—it's a crisis in need of an immediate fix.

Thoughts from Yrisarri

For more than a decade the American school has been under one of the severest attacks it has ever encountered in its history. This assault is focused, in part, on the school's alleged inability and inefficiency in helping our children master the knowledge and skills they need to live in a highly technological and constantly changing society.

This statement is from Philosophy and the American School by Van Cleve Morris and Young Pai. The book was my Philosophy of Education text book in a class I took in 1979!  My entire career has been one marked by the educational crisis. This drumbeat of crisis in American education has been the driving force for change in the public schools. When we change we have to buy new curriculum materials from educational publishers. My guess is that the crisis is not real but manufactured for America's two competing/cooperating institutions - government and corporations. It is part of the  philosophy that allows us to remain in a state of stress about the future so that we will buy ideas and programs to alleviate that stress. What I have seen in my career in response to this fear is a movement away from local control of education to increased state control and less local curriculum development in favor of purchased curriculum programs.

There are problems in education that need to be addressed, but to place the future of our country on the shoulders of our children is wrong.  One way to improve learning in our schools is to decrease the stress on children not increase it.  As Jonathan Kozol has pointed out in his books, there are deplorable schools in our nation's urban centers. It feels as if the educational reformers want to make educators the scapegoats for society's neglect of  inner cities and rural schools.  We have been busy fighting terror in foreign lands when it festers in America.  A terror that makes children look to gangs and violence as answers to their problems rather than school and education.  This is not the fault of our schools; it is the fault of our national priorities.  To punish all schools for this problem does not make any sense.  I have always maintained that any one can get the best education in the world at about any school in America if they are motivated to learn.

Our biggest problem is that children and adults are rejecting the traditional American education while government and corporations, who have taken control, insist that what needs to be done is more of the same.  Charter schools, home schools and technology are providing new avenues for the customers of education and they are using these new tools in ever increasing numbers while the public schools are not allowed to compete.  Teachers and their learning communities have good ideas about what is needed.  They know that learning is more important than passing tests and they know how to make that happen.  They realize that they must motivate their students by providing a curriculum that is interesting and contains the correct challenge for each student.  They know that all students need differentiation because each person is unique and to provide a blanket curriculum across a nation as diverse as American is counter productive.

Our aim in American schools should not be to educate based on the average of the data to solve society's problems but to educate each person to reach their potential.  Our country will be much stronger if we allow individuals the freedom to learn what they need for their future.  More government and more corporate control will not accomplish this task.  Just as each student is an individual so the needs of each community are unique.  Let's put our resources behind helping each community meet its needs and that will further larger national interests more than dictating those needs from the top down. There is not a crisis in what our children know, but rather how our politicians and governments use them to further their interests.

Standardized Testing is a Narrow Measure of Teacher Effectivenss

Interesting Websites
Xpeditions a National Geographic website with an interactive “museum” that takes you on geography journeys. Here you’ll climb a mountain, hover over the Earth, speed across Europe, visit an archeological dig, and even order sushi—plus games, animations, and more!
Thinkfinity.org   is the cornerstone of Verizon Foundation's literacy, education and technology initiatives. Their goal is to improve student achievement in traditional classroom settings and beyond by providing high-quality content and extensive professional development training. This free, comprehensive digital learning platform is built upon the merger of two acclaimed programs Verizon MarcoPolo and the Thinkfinity Literacy Network. 
Lifestyle will introduce children to the wonderful world of writing with four websites they will have fun exploring. 

Articles to Read 
Retaining Teacher Talent This article contains research from Learning Point Associates about teacher effectiveness.  The studies probe teachers for their views on what makes and effective teacher. 
Moms' Depression in Pregnancy Tied to Antisocial Behavior in Teens is a Science Daily article about a study with some surprising findings.  
Physical Education to Valuable to Sacrifice to Budget Cuts an article by Besty Hurd from Saginaw Michigan explaining the importance of PE to a community that just cut those programs from their school.   
Convergent Education  (You have to subscribe to be able to read this article) is a special report from ESchool News about the growing schism between students use of technology and the way schools want them to learn. 

In short, students no longer are limited to learning only in classrooms under the tutelage of certified instructors during designated school hours–and this change has profound implications for educators.

 Thoughts From Yrisarri
There has been much in the news lately about evaluating teachers as a core principle for educational reform.  Much of the discussion is politically driven as part of an effort to challenge educational unions and some of it comes from corporate effectiveness models.  All of this discussion leads one to believe the schools are full of bad teachers that we can not get rid of and that effective teachers have students with high test scores.  Evaluating teachers is an important aspect of the job and I have certainly met some who should not be teaching.  That does not mean we should develop narrow prescriptive tools for evaluation purposes. 

But what is an effective teacher and who determines which teachers are effective?

Our new policy makers want to create a one size fits all test for effective teachers,  student achievement on standardized tests.  If your students aren’t performing well on those tests you lose your job; if they are doing well you get a bonus.  This seems to me to be a narrow approach to a complex situation.  If that is all it takes to be an effective teacher let us just put all the kids on computers and let them study for the tests!

Teaching is a combination of skills and artistry that takes time to develop and should be measured in a more responsible manner.  Teachers must motivate groups of children and differentiate their learning to match their developmental needs.  Students are not products to be formed in molds but individuals with unique needs and wants to be counseled and given guidance.  The effective teacher connects with their students and helps each one to reach their potential.

Measuring a teachers effectiveness has to be done in the context of the community.  This does not mean we should not hold all learners to high standards, just that what is a high standard to some is not perceived to be so by others.  Expectations need to be realistic from student to student, school to school and community to community.  Teachers should not be judged in isolation, but as part of a team.  All the teachers who teach a child are responsible for his or her education, not just the teacher being evaluated.

If the aim of education is to develop learners into effective and productive citizens, you may not be able to evaluate a teacher until the students are adults and in the workplace.  Shouldn’t we expect our schools to develop healthy, happy adults who love to learn?  That is what I expect.   How do you measure a teachers ability to do that?

Sometimes things teachers do are not immediately learned.  How do yo measure the effectiveness of teachers who plant seeds that do not grow right away?  There are teachers who develop the social emotional skills of their students, those are just as important for their future as academics, but not easy to measure.  Are those bad teachers?

Why not allow the evaluation of teachers to be done by their customers, the community they serve?  What if parents were allowed to choose their children’s teacher or even their children’s school? Wouldn’t that be a pretty good indicator of what the community views as a good teacher?  How about allowing for peer review and student input?  How about improving that the process for hiring educators to insure that dedicated competent individuals become our children’s teachers.  Why not guarantee that a teacher can advance in salary and responsibility to insure better schools?   There are many ideas for measuring and improving teacher effectiveness.  Why do policy makers seem to be stuck on the narrow measure of teacher effectiveness based only on standardized testing?

Unfortunately education is under attack and has become highly politicized at the national and state levels.  Fears about the future, wars against unions, calls for narrow agendas, and misunderstanding about what teachers do all contribute to a climate that causes us to look for scapegoats for what is perceived to be a deteriorating education system. 

Evaluating our teachers is too important to allow policy makers and bureaucrats to create narrow systems of evaluation that measure only one aspect of a teacher’s work.  If we want better schools, then we must expand the discussion about how we will evaluate the job our teachers do.

 

Friends of Early Childhood-NM Lesgislators Reception

One of the most important aspects of educational reform is to recognize the importance of early childhood programs in developing children who are ready for schooling.  That is why the Friends of Early Childhood reception for New Mexico Legislators at Rio Chama Steakhouse was a lobbying event in truly in the public interest.  Hosted by the NMAEYC, Voices for Children and the New Mexico Community Foundation should have been attended by every NM legislator.  For even if a legislator believes that responsible parenting is the key to child development, it is important for them to recognize that it is not the fault of the child if the parents are not responsible parents.

The attendance was better than anticipated with many familiar faces from both the house and the senate showing support for our youngest citizens.  There were over 40 supporters from the legislature and various departments of state government impacted by early childhood programs.  Of particular interest was the attendance by Representative James P. White from District 20 in Bernalillo County which includes some of the East Mountain communities.  That is one of the areas in NM in need of assessing their early childhood programs because of the rapid pace of change due to an exploding population.

Aron Segotta, the NM State Police Chief, addressed the gathering and stated his belief that early childhood programs will eventually reduce the amount of crime in our state and reduce our prison population.  Dorian Dodson, the cabinet secretary of CYFD,  was there to show her support.  She stated that close to half of her budget goes to early childhood programs and the rest to programs in the juvenile justice system.  With funding of more early childhood programs the future of this department could be one which spends less money repairing the damage done to children in their early stages of development.

The program included a viewing of the video Change The First Five Years and You Change Everything made available to all NM legislators by the Decade of the Child organization.  This video was produced to help develop a better understanding of why preschool children need these programs and influence the legislature to find more money to help early childhood programs in New Mexico. 

Baji Rankin from Decade of the Child and Emily Nunez-Darnell from the New Mexico Community Foundation were hosts of this event.  Our youngest citizens are grateful for your attendance, but talk is not enough.  Will the programs to help children in need be funded?

College For All: An Unnecessary Goal for Public Schools

Some Useful Websites
Lure of the Labyrinth- A cool way to develop pre-algebra skills
Map Maker is a great site for middle school and high school students who want to add maps to a report.
Architect Studio 3D On this Web site, you can design a house, walk through it in 3D, and then share it with the world. You can also learn more about architecture, past and present, and explore Frank Lloyd Wright's life and work.
The How-To Series The five posts from the blog Free Technology for Teachers give directions on how to use Web. 2.0 tools in the classroom

Articles to To Read
Revolution and Evolution in Educational System by PRof.MSRO ICFAI, University of India

 Education and character are two sides of same coin and one without the other makes no sense. Money can come and go, but it is the character that is valid from the beginning to the end of life. Any person, whether they can be equipped with the formation of character of each part of the world beyond. To put it in the words of Martin Luther King Jr. Put “The function of education to teach an intensive course, to think and think critically intelligence and character ….. .. .. This is the goal of true education. “

Meeting Kids Where They Are-Not Where We Wish They Were  by Jack Schneider From Education Week

Precious, in all likelihood, is not going to college.
This runs contrary to the aims of the dominant players in modern school reform, who, whether they are in government, school districts, or philanthropic organizations, routinely employ the phrase “excellence for all” in justifying their expenditures. The theory of change among the educational entrepreneurs, it seems, is simple: Find what works and make it available to all students. As Teach For America’s chief executive officer, Wendy Kopp, has said of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan: “He just wants to find and scale the ideas that work"

 Adolescence and Mistake-Based Education by Carl Pickhardt PHD in Psychology Today

In childhood, the age of dependence, a conscientious parent is often the best teacher. In adolescence, the age of independence, confronting hard consequences is often the best teacher. 

The Dramatic Rise of Anxiety and Depression in Children and Adolescents: Is it Connected to the Decline in Play and Rise in Schooling? by Peter Gray in Psychology Today 

Rates of depression and anxiety among young people in America have been increasing steadily for the past fifty to seventy years. Today five to eight times as many high school and college students meet the criteria for diagnosis of major depression and/or an anxiety disorder as was true half a century or more ago. This increased psychopathology is not the result of changed diagnostic criteria; it holds even when the measures and criteria are constant.

Books to Read
Happiness and Education by Nel Noddings

Jonathan Kozol, author of Savage Inequalities and Ordinary Resurrections  says, 'Noddings' thesis and argument that happiness and education not only can but should coexist must be taken seriously by everyone concerned about preparing children and young adults for a truly satisfying life in our democratic society.'

Quote of the Week

I used to think that a college degree was the leg up to success in life, an accomplishment that made you a better person, a stronger contributor. I thought it mattered less where you went to college than what you did with that education. Now, I understand that as a first-generation graduate of Regional State U, and a Baby Boomer, I was simply part of "credential creep."         Quote from Nancy Flanagan in the blog, Teacher in A Strange Land

Thoughts from Yrisarri
Educational policy reform is being driven partially by the idea that our public school system should prepare all students for college.  This is not only unnecessary but it is unrealistic and based upon arrogant beliefs about the value of work.

The goal is being proposed by well-intentioned people who believe in diversity and want all Americans to have the advantages of a college degree.  The argument is that statistics show that a person with a college degree is more likely to have a higher salary than their peers who do not.  As a matter of fact, as you progress on the educational ladder you statistically improve your chances of higher lifetime earnings.

While that is true, what about individual desires?  Why should we base educational goals on population wide statistical analysis?  There will always be individuals who are not ready or do not want to enter into a program of studies at a college.  Many of our high school graduates can benefit from going to work, or doing volunteer work to help them make informed decisions about their futures.  Why should they have to prepare for college in the public schools?

It is arrogant to think that the only pathway to success in America is through a college education.   There has been a misguided notion about the trades and their importance in our society.  After all, Benjamin Franklin was a printer who was as erudite as his better educated peers.  The value of work should not depend upon completion of a program but upon the quality of that work.  It seems to me that in today’s world the value of work is determined by the needs of corporations.  They provide large salaries to workers they need to create more money, not those who provide a high quality of work.

We seem overly concerned about another set of statistics.  Those that measure success in being able to make high scores on tests.  Our children’s relative standing among nations of test takers seems too low for many and we have to improve.  Once again we are not thinking about quality education but about being able to pass a test.  America has always been at the forefront of innovation because our educational system has worked.  We have provided the best scientists to the world, not the most.

College is not truly necessary for success in America.  What contributes to America’s success, however, is our ability to go to college whenever we are ready.  This requires a citizenry that values education for its own sake and pursues learning as a normal part of life.  A recent study indicates that anxiety and depression have increased exponentially in our children over the past 50 years.  This is not going to provide a foundation for success in the future.  As long as we place our values on statistics and corporate needs and not on individual needs and desires, our foundation for success will be weak.