Today I substitute taught at my alma mater, Terry Parker High School in Jacksonville, FL. As soon as school let out, I went and sought out one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Dave Roberts. Mr. Roberts was my psychology teacher when I was a senior. After exchanging pleasantries, I asked him how Parker was doing after these 11 years since I graduated. He laughed nervously and then his smile faded and he gave me a thumbs down. Parker, he said, went waaay downhill.

And I got the downhill experience that day, I’ll tell ya! Four times I was cussed out by students. Three students in my 3rd period class, who were causing me big problems, well, it turns out they weren’t supposed to be in that class anyway. They were skipping someone else’s class. Almost every student had an mp3 player with headphones and almost all of them had cell phones that they carried with them to class. Every school now has an assigned police officer and a security team.

To some of you, this is no surprise. To others, this may be a shock. Well, I have seen a variety of schools in two different big cities (Louisville being the other). And although some schools are above average, with well-behaved, hard working students, I assure you they are in the minority. Even still, I find the basic fundamental flaws in the “good” schools as I do in schools like Terry Parker- they’re just not as obvious. Also, I believe that if a method works, it should work not only when things are going well, but when things are not going so well. So, for as many good schools one could point to as evidence that the current education paradigm is working, I can point to ten where it isn’t. So, in my mind the current paradigm doesn’t work at all and therefore needs to be changed.

Those of you who know me, know how much disdain I have for public schools. For those of you who do not know me, I do have some experience working in public schools, so my opinion is not totally as an outsider. I have been a substitute school teacher now for three years. On top of that, my wife was a sub for a year, my sister has been an elementary school teacher going on 7 years now, my sister-and-brother-in-law both are public school teachers, and my mother-and-father-in-law are both public school teachers. So, I’ve been in and around public schools for quite some time.

Needless to say, at least in the big cities, many public schools are failing big time. It’s no longer just New York, Chicago, and LA that have problem schools. All cities have them now. And having devoted a lot of thought to the problem, I have come up with my own list of reforms that I believe need to be made so that the problem schools have a chance.

I am philosophically opposed to the idea of public school (ironic, I know- I work for the public school system). But, if we’re going to have them, then we should do our best to make them work. I recognize that this is an exercise in futility because these changes will never be made wholesale. But, in doing this, I hope people will realize how bad off public schools really are and will make the necessary sacrifices and get the heck out of Dodge- meaning, send their kid the private school or home-school them. As a Youth Pastor and a public school teacher, my heart goes out to parents who may not have any other way to educate their children. If that describes you as a parent- then take these reforms to heart and do your best to be aware of the problems in your child’s school and BE INVOLVED as a parent.

So here are my top 10 reforms in no particular order:

1. Stop treating schools like a corporation. Consolidation and mass producing do not work when dealing with people’s lives. So, massive schools that pack the kids in like sardines may work for Super Wal-marts and Disney Worlds, but they contribute to too many students getting lost in the fray.  Instead, split the size of the schools and put them in more locations. This creates more of a community feel and allows the administrators (not just faculty) to get to know the students better and more easily meet their educational needs.

“Oh, but that would cost way too much money”, you say. “You’d have more building costs and have to hire more faculty/administration.” Yes, that would cost more money. But, you’d have that money if you can save money in these areas…

2. Cutting down the size of the schools cuts down on the need for bussing. More neighborhood school zones mean less buses. This saves money. (This also saves the nightmares that kids like myself have of the years they had to ride a bus to school.)

3. Downsize the sports programs in our middle and high schools. We do not need costly football, baseball, and basketball programs to teach physical education. If elementary schools can keep the sports to just P.E. and intramurals, then so can everyone else.  “But- but what about all of those kids whose only hope for a scholarship is football??” Yeah, get rid of football and you get rid of the excuse for not studying. Besides, Friday night football games, as fun as they are, HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH EDUCATION!!!!!!! Getting rid of sports programs alone will save millions in these big cities.

4. Let schools go mid-tech.  We’ve heard of hi-tech and lo-tech. I am not suggesting schools go lo-tech. Computers for science application classes and an all-purpose computer lab are appropriate for education. But, the idea that better technology leads to better education is… well, that could have only come from a mind that was educated in public school.

Schools do not need their morning announcements done by a student news crew via close circuit TV.  They do not need computers in every classroom and therefore do not need the internet in every classroom. In Louisville, they are pushing to have all Jefferson County middle and high school students to have their own provided laptop- at $400 a pop. That’s millions of dollars people. Why, dear Lord, why do they all need laptops???? That’s just one example of over-the-top tech. Oh, and downsizing the massive buildings we call schools will also lessen the need for high tech machinery and supplies that are needed to maintain said buildings.

Those are my cost-saving reforms. These reforms will allow for the kind of savings you need to build more schools and therefore, hire more teachers in order to have smaller classrooms.

Here are my discipline reforms…

5. Outlaw all personal electronic devices (except those needed for medical reasons). No ipods, no cell phones, no headphones, no video games, nothing. EVER. For the life of me, I cannot think of any reason why a student needs any of those things to be educated.

6. Bring back expulsion.  Forget the lawsuits. If you are not there to learn, then you need to leave and not come back. Public school is not a tax-payer paid babysitting service. Students don’t need four or five chances to turn their life around and actually do their work. At most they need two. In Louisville, they have an entire school dedicated to those students that are between 19-21 years of age. They are giving them too many chances! If you don’t get it right the first or second time around, then you need to go get a job (or have your parents pay for you to…)and get your GED by paying for night school classes. Stop wasting taxpayer money with the “let’s give ‘em one more chance” mentality.

7. Bring back swats. Again, forget the lawsuits. For 230 years our country has given out swats to students as a form of discipline and we are JUST NOW enlightened enough to think we don’t need it? Give me a break.

And other reforms…

8. Go back to a classical curriculum. For elementary schools: This means teaching phonics before you teach vocabulary. Teach grammar before you teach literature. Stop the journals! Journals are pointless for most elementary school students; especially if they do not know how to write. “But- but you’re stifling creativity in our elementary students.” Kids that young do not need to learn creativity (they do it naturally). Besides, creativity in education comes later after you’ve learned all the basics (later as in junior/senior in high school). Elementary students need to absorb lots and lots of facts. That should be their primary goal.  Then, In MIDDLE SCHOOL, they see how those facts connect. And finally, in high school they can test those facts and reach beyond what they’ve learned to begin learning on their own. I know this is a shoddy summary of classical education, so if you want to know more read: Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning by Douglas Wilson.

9. Instead of putting new teachers into problem schools that will (and do) scare the bejeezus out of them, being that it’s their first year, put them in decent schools and instead pay more experienced teachers a boatload more money to go back into the problem schools and help reform them. How backwards do we have it when we put the least experienced teachers into the toughest schools, while those with “seniority” get the luxury of working at upper-middle class prep schools!

10. Last and definitely not least: REQUIRE parents to attend PTA meetings. They don’t have to attend every month, but most certainly every other month. And REQUIRE that they attend Open House (do they even do those any more?). This reform is in reaction to the indifference that parents have given to their own child’s education. The teaching “professionals” have shoved the dogma of “let us have your kids to teach and don’t tell us how to teach them” down parent’s throats for so long now that the parents have actually fooled themselves into thinking that it’s best for their children. The professionals may be experts at their subjects, but they pale in comparison to parents on being experts of their own children.  It is high time that teachers recognize the important role that each parent plays in their child’s education. And it is hight time that parents reclaim that role.

I would even go so far as to say that each school needs to have an elected Parent Advisory Board that acts as a sort of Board of Trustees to the school. They may not be able to make policy changes, but at the very least, it will provide some accountability from the parents: the school will be forced to listen and the suggestions to policy changes made by parents would be on the record.

 

And there you have it. This of course is just spitting in the wind, because these reforms will never take place. Too much money tied up in too much beaucracy with a good dose of liberal/socialist ideology mixed in will make sure most if not all of these reforms never take place. That is why I will take my child the private schooling (or homeschooling) route. “That means you don’t have a right to complain.” That’s only partially true. I am still an employee of the public school system. But, once I quit, the only thing I’ll be complaining about is when my kid’s grown up and has to put up with his public school educated employees.