“If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” – Abraham Maslow
“Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.” – Rabindranath Tagore
COMMENTARY: There are two serious problems for public education in New Mexico. First, political leaders only have one solution for problems in public schools: throw more money at the industry of public schools. This is the lazy political way.
This approach doesn’t require leaders to be thoughtful. They just trumpet more money for teachers. Every problem is addressed with more money and little real thought.
Courtesy photo
Michael Swickard
The second and more serious problem is the leaders of our public schools are from a different century. Every problem looks as if it was a problem they faced in a different century.
Former Speaker of the U. S. House Newt Gingrich wrote, “If, as the popular saying goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, the people who run our public schools fit that description.”
Public schools lag behind society rather than lead it. Their nature is top-down command and control rather than the current climate of bottom-up individual engagement. The command-and-control aspect is anti-curiosity. “Be quiet and pay attention to me” is top-down.
The climate in society today of individual engagement is one of individually driven curiosity. When I was young, most interactions were done in a group. Not so today. Much of the interactions of people are one-on-one, individually driven.
Curiosity is the currency of all learning. What public school personnel should be are the guardians of curiosity. Without curiosity, little learning is possible. Curiosity should drive public schools, but students are only in the equation to achieve political action.
New Mexico’s political leaders use public education as a jobs program to give them power. The more educators hired, the better the outcomes for political leaders. Ultimately, what is destroying New Mexico’s public schools is the fiduciary relationship of political and administrative leaders to adults, not students.
There are five steps to improving the public schools: First, the instructional and curricular activities must engage the curiosity of students. Second, students must be given numerate and literate tools to satisfy their curiosity. They learn those numerate and literate tools because of their curiosity. There is a usefulness of these tools that engages students.
Importantly, each student will have different curiosity threads, so public education must adjust to the individuals rather than the group.
Third, students must enjoy the passage of time. It doesn’t need to be a carnival, but if the students hate every moment, no learning will take place. Fourth, educational activities must be in line with the student’s yearly brain development. Finally, students must retain their dignity at all times.
Some politicians and administrators favor the Marine boot camp method in which students are roughed up academically and the rigor intention is for students to not enjoy education. But Marine boot camp is a couple months, and students are in public school for 13 years.
Former Gov. Bill Richardson put an extra billion dollars into New Mexico’s public education without lasting results. It appears the winners of the midterms are set to do the same again. The best predictor of the future is the past. More adults will be happy, and little else.
New Mexico’s public schools are controlled by a century old command-and-control culture. Will the public schools ever adjust to this society of individual connection? Doubtful, because the public schools are entirely for the benefit of adults, not students.
Michael Swickard is a former radio talk show host and has been a columnist for 30 years in a number of New Mexico newspapers. Swickard’s novel, Hideaway Hills, is now available at Amazon.com. Agree with his opinion? Disagree? NMPolitics.net welcomes your views. Learn about submitting your own commentary here.