Trib Editorial; superficial understanding of a complex dynamic

Our failing schools need more than talk. (link)

The editors place the brunt of the blame on No Child Left Behind. Although there is more than enough anecdotal evidence that, NCLB is causing more harm than good; it is far from the greatest barrier standing between children and a quality education.

If you asked me; or if you asked teachers to tell you what stands between children and their quality education; they would offer;

• that children aren't interested enough in their own education,

• and that children don't have self discipline enough to learn despite their abject lack of interest and/or motivation.

The biggest problem with the NCLB, is that it requires that we teach subjects that don't intrinsically interest or motivate students.

Which is not to say that there are not mandatory subjects. Children for example, should be able to read as a result of their public school education. NCLB compels us to reach that goal by having every single student in every single classroom, reading on the same page, in the same book, and on the same day. The NCLB requires that the book be one that students would not be, at the moment, reading of their own volition.

What if the choice is;

1. you teach children what they want to learn. You turn schools into happy places where children are eager and hungry and excited about learning. (And you hope that over the length of their public school education; they have learned all of the things that they need to know to become decent human beings with adequate skills sets for their life.)
2. Or, you demand that children learn what you tell them , and when you tell them.

The old saw applies. You can lead a horse to water; but you can't make it drink.


The editors observed;

Among these efforts is a shakeup that, in part, is moving veteran principals from successful schools to unsuccessful ones to fix them. Such rotations might or might not work, but the sheer magnitude of the problem seems to preclude this as the sole solution.

correctly.

Still, too much effort and too many resources are being spent in the effort to prove that if you just assign enough administrators, the horse can be made to drink.

The editors echo that sentiment;

Part of the equation, we suspect, might be to test less and teach more.

In other words; if we continue doing the same thing,
but we do it more;
we will achieve a different result than the result
we have always achieved, ...always.

Isn't that the definition of crazy?