{"id":30019,"date":"2011-06-16T08:11:05","date_gmt":"2011-06-16T14:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=30019"},"modified":"2011-09-07T10:38:51","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T16:38:51","slug":"school-reform-first-we-need-parenting-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/06\/school-reform-first-we-need-parenting-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"School reform? First we need parenting reform"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_23644\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 270px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23644 \" title=\"Desks\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Desks.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"270\" height=\"227\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by sidewalk flying\/flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>We are presently witnessing an historical moment of truth as one state government after another begins a budget massacre. Getting the axe first will be the softest target of them all \u2013 public education.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from the obvious, immediate damage this does to public education, it shows how deep the belief in education goes in contemporary American society. The \u201creal\u201d social value of education to the public and to politicians these days is revealed \u2013 when budget cutting is the current issue, education gets it in the neck first. The only reasonably intelligent question that can be asked is, \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One possibility is that education is no longer as valued a part of the national belief system as it once was. Education seems to no longer be held as an investment in the future, but more of a fungible line item in a strained budget.<\/p>\n<p>Why should it be this way? Here are some of the arguments being expressed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Has education made getting a job easier or even possible?<\/li>\n<li>Teachers are merely putting in their time to retirement.<\/li>\n<li>Teachers have too much prep time.<\/li>\n<li>Schools have too much vacation time.<\/li>\n<li>Teachers are paid too much and there are too many of them.<\/li>\n<li>Kids aren\u2019t learning how to read as well or as quickly as the new \u201cexperts\u201d tell us they should, and that is, no doubt, the fault of teachers.<\/li>\n<li>Schools, we are told, need the guidance of \u201cexperts\u201d like Jeb Bush of Florida and Hanna Skandera in New Mexico, neither of whom has a background in education. Apparently they don\u2019t need experience or background. I suppose we could all be grateful they aren\u2019t interested in doing brain surgery.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_30020\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 120px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30020\" title=\"Corso, Emanuele\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Corso-Emanuele.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Emanuele Corso<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Easier to pick on teachers<\/h3>\n<p>Why have public schools and teachers become the soft target of the moment? One reason, I believe, is because schools are simply vulnerable to this sort of attack; they are easy to criticize and difficult to defend. Not all kids learn at the same rate nor do they all have the same motivations to learn \u2013 they are not production-line widgets; hence, their achievement progress is not uniform.<\/p>\n<p>Children too often come from homes where parents are more interested in big screen TVs, sports, recreational activities \u2013 anything but learning. Research has shown that many children come from homes where there are scant if any reading materials at hand.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and let me suggest one more reason \u2013 parents\u2019 lack of interest in assuming responsibility for their kids\u2019 performance in school.<\/p>\n<p>If politicians and the new educational experts were to pick on parents the way they pick on teachers, it would be a parlous situation for their political ambitions. If the new self-anointed experts spoke up about curriculum and instruction, it would be too obvious that they don\u2019t know what they are talking about.<\/p>\n<p>So, the response is to require more testing and pick on teachers \u2013 much easier. Imagine, if you can, one of these politicians standing up before an audience of parents and saying, \u201cThese are your children, dammit, and you are responsible for them.\u201d Not in this lifetime, I assure you.<\/p>\n<h3>Parenting reform<\/h3>\n<p>Where can we go from here? We cannot even begin to discuss school reform until we deal with parenting reform. How can we convince parents that they are the front lines of education? I would suggest one first step would be to stop the politically motivated rhetoric.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Next, stop the eye-wash and propaganda about testing. Seriously, folks there is no better indication that you don\u2019t know what you are talking about when you promote more testing as educational reform. An experienced classroom teacher is never not testing. Never!<\/p>\n<p>Next we need political leadership that instructs \u2013 yes, instructs \u2013 the public about their role in the process of educating their young. (See above.) We need public dialog that elevates teachers and teaching to the same level as firemen and cops.<\/p>\n<p>Have you ever heard a politician mouth-off about firemen and policemen on a par with what we hear about public schools and teachers? I doubt it.<\/p>\n<p>Teachers, for their part need to get their backs up and start educating the public \u2013 not just parents, but the body politic.<\/p>\n<h3>Teachers, weed out the deadwood<\/h3>\n<p>Teachers also need to clean up their profession and weed out the deadwood. Stop hunkering down and denying the obvious \u2013 there are ineffective, lazy people in the teaching profession, and teachers and their unions are the only ones who can properly get rid of them.<\/p>\n<p>Be proactive, get over the notion that protecting the deadwood protects you &#8211; it does not. In fact, you will all look better when you give those guys the boot.<\/p>\n<p>When I was a member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, I never saw a bad carpenter protected by anyone. The best were separated from the good, the good from the bad, and the bad eliminated. It wasn\u2019t the employers who enforced the standards either, it was the union.<\/p>\n<p>The carpenters and joiners are a strong and respected union because they insist on excellence. If they can do it, so can the American Federation of Teachers. Come on Randi*, get with it!<\/p>\n<p><em>* Randi Weingarten, AFT president.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>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. You can find him online at <a href=\"http:\/\/siteseven.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">siteseven.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We cannot even begin to discuss school reform until we deal with parenting reform. How can we convince parents that they are the front lines of education?<\/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-30019","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\/30019","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=30019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}