{"id":27740,"date":"2011-03-28T08:11:46","date_gmt":"2011-03-28T14:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=27740"},"modified":"2011-09-07T10:38:58","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T16:38:58","slug":"despite-flaws-public-education-shows-resilience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/03\/despite-flaws-public-education-shows-resilience\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite flaws, public education shows resilience"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo by sidewalk flying\/flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Public Education has long been a \u201csoft\u201d target for political opportunists on both sides of the aisle. Why? Because it is especially vulnerable, difficult if not impossible to properly quantify and defend. Anyone who thinks that test scores alone measure academic achievement is seriously misinformed.<\/p>\n

Also, public attention to education manifests as either love or hate, bouncing between the two pillars usually in concert with the economy.<\/p>\n

In a February 1980 article titled \u201cDoomsday for Public Education,\u201d political pundit James J. Kilpatrick cited yet another pundit (you could call this a \u201cdouble dose\u201d of punditry, I suppose), George Will, as predicting that, by 1990, \u201cPublic Education in the United States will have deteriorated beyond significant recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kilpatrick went on to identify some of the causative factors contributing to the inevitable demise: the overblown structure of the \u201ceducational establishment,\u201d the stifling influence of government (sound familiar?), and the U.S. Supreme Court. Both of the pundits identified incompetent teachers, teacher unions, court intervention in general and the educational bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, The Economist<\/a> of March 19, 2011 seems to echo most of the two pundits\u2019 theses. So we can take it, I suppose, that in some peoples\u2019 eyes, from 1980 to the present, public education has suffered the same ills, the same causative factors that should have led to its inevitable deterioration. On evidence, public education is remarkably resilient in spite of its pronounced shortcomings, evading one doomsday after another. The monster is such that society seems to have no choice but to complain while, at the same time, paying for it.<\/p>\n

Considering for a moment the sheer number of \u201cmagic bullets\u201d that have been proposed (and dodged) to save public education from itself, we must conclude the monster is bullet-proof.<\/p>\n

Persistently gullible<\/h3>\n

Among the magic bullets proposed over the years are vouchers, magnet schools, charter schools, free schools, teacher and school grading, and so on \u2013 all of which (Yes! Just say it!) have failed to produce any significant long-term perceived or measurable \u201cimprovement\u201d in the education of America\u2019s children.<\/p>\n

What has always amazed me has been the persistent gullibility of politicians and the public as they whip-saw one another from pillar to post trying to tame the beast. Can it be the case, really, that public education is impervious to politically satisfactory (that is to say, measurable) improvement?<\/p>\n

I have to come to believe it is and, for as long as it exists, public education will remain a natural \u201csoft\u201d target for political demagogues of all stripes.<\/p>\n

In fact, until public educators and teacher unions stop being their own worst enemies and own up to a few inconvenient truths (that are some bad teachers and bad schools) they will always remain in the crosshairs of political opportunists. Well, they probably will no matter what actually happens, but so it goes.<\/p>\n

A question<\/h3>\n

Let me end this essay with a question. If you were a typical youngster in New Mexico, why would you believe disciplining yourself and getting a \u201cgood\u201d education would lead you to a happy and prosperous life? Looking around at the world as you see it, hear it, and live in it on a daily basis, what out there would sufficiently motivate you to discipline yourself to study and to achieve in school?<\/p>\n

I believe the foregoing may be unanswerable; nevertheless, it is a valid question, and one that must be confronted because it speaks to what is without doubt the most fundamental single force in education and instruction: motivation.<\/p>\n

In my next essay I will discuss the simple truth that, absent the students\u2019 motivating desire to learn, public education cannot succeed.<\/p>\n

Emanuele Corso has been a New Mexico resident for over 30 years. Prior to that he taught at the\u00a0University of Wisconsin-Madison\u00a0in the Department of Educational Policy Studies, where he received his doctorate in\u00a0education policy studies. He taught \u201cSchools and Society\u201d and \u201cSchool Reform\u201d to graduates and undergraduates. He holds two master\u2019s degrees and a bachelor\u2019s in mathematics. He is currently working on a book, \u201cBelief Systems and the Social Contract,\u201d which he started when he was teaching at\u00a0Wisconsin.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On evidence, public education is remarkably resilient in spite of its pronounced shortcomings, evading one doomsday after another. The monster is such that society seems to have no choice but to complain while, at the same time, paying for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2094,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,209,16],"tags":[125],"class_list":["post-27740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-corso-columns","category-guest-columns","tag-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}