Educational Philosophy

There is no reason why every teacher cannot have an assistant to do such tedious paperwork. The authors of educational how-to-materials, school board personnel and politicians all have secretaries to do their everyday paperwork. But teachers with college educations have to do their own needless paperwork, and while they do this paperwork, their students are not receiving an education.

It appears as though those in positions of authority are more interested in having college educated teachers attend staff development meetings, (where they are not in their classrooms) fill out forms, (instead of helping students with their class work) turn in grade reports and write lesson plans (instead of teaching students) than they are in educating our children.

According to the authors of educational materials, school board personnel and politicians, a school of excellence is a place where the principal cultivates the success of the students by maintaining resources for a safe and orderly learning environment. Most teachers wish that the school where they teach were such a place.

But as I look around the schoolyard I see drain pipes emptying rainwater onto the walkway where students must pass each day. I see hallways that children must pass through that leak on those same rainy days. I see classrooms without air conditioning on a hot August afternoon. I see doors that will not remain closed on a cold winter day. During inclement weather, I see students that must leave one school building and go outside to another school building while changing classes.

I see these same things and many other deficiencies (the hidden curriculum that assessment tests cannot test for) in many schools and I see principals trying their best to rectify these inadequacies with the limited resources granted them by the school boards.

I look around and see politicians who are more interested in keeping gambling casinos open and building walls to muffle the noise along the interstate highway than they are in keeping our schools supplied with state-of-the-art equipment.

I see school board personnel who are more interested in making sure that the paperwork teachers must fill out looks professional than they are with making sure educators are professional teachers.

I see authors of educational materials receiving gross payments for their books and video materials. I see politicians and school board personnel who are more interested in making sure that they themselves are overpaid than they are in seeing that teachers are even adequately paid.

I see are authors of educational material, school board personnel and politicians endorsing magnet and specialty schools for those students who score well on assessment tests; a subtle attempt to return to separate but equal schools of the days before Brown v. Board of Education.

What I do not see are school board personnel or politicians opposing standardized testing. Nor do I see the authors of educational materials publishing anything about these deficiencies.

When a child fails it is often the teacher who is blamed for the failure. The teacher is also blamed when a child does not receive the quality education he or she is supposed to receive. But in both cases rarely is it the teacher’s fault.

It is not the teacher’s fault if he or she is pressured by the principal to pass a failing student so that the school’s passing/failing ratio looks better. It is not the teacher’s fault if he or she must use outdated and useless textbooks, inadequate and inferior teaching supplies or teach in an environment that is not even close to being comfortable.

The teacher cannot be held at fault if the student refuses to (or cannot) do his or her course work, does not pay intention in class or just does not come to class. The teacher cannot be held at fault if there are more than 15 students in the classroom (8 for special education classrooms) or if he or she must teach more than one skill level or education level at the same time.

In most of these situations, it is the local school board who is at fault for not hiring enough teachers, the politicians who do not give the schools the funds they need to hire more teachers and the authors of educational material for not writing about these deficiencies.

The only time the teacher can be held at fault is if he or she just doesn't teach what he or she is supposed to teach. But here the principal of the school will usually detect such lack of effort and dismiss the teacher.

Although most students are not going to college and many of those who do attend do not finish, much of the curriculum for all students is aimed at preparing all students for just such a future, instead of preparing for college those who are college material and those who are not, preparing them for some other type of career.

The authors of educational materials, school board personnel and politicians fail to perceive that many students would be better off preparing for college, while many other students would be better off learning some trades or skills or artistic talents that would help them later on in life.

They fail to understand that a quality education does not necessarily have to prepare one for college. It could just as easily prepare a student for his or her future life in the work force.

If a child does not have a proper education then that child will not be a productive member of society. He or she will be an expense to the community in which he or she lives. For those students who do not go on to college, if they have not received any vocational, professional or artistic training then when they do enter the job market it is the community that must shoulder the financial burden of teaching them job skills.

If a child does not receive a proper education then he or she is as a ship without a rudder. He or she is a slave to their own ignorance. In order to prevent this, the student must receive all the education that is possible to give to him or her while attending school.

It is frequently impossible to tell which students are going to go to college (and finish college) and which ones are not going to college. Thus, all students must receive both an academic education as well as a vocational or professional education. To give a student anything less is not to educate him or her.

Somehow many people have gotten the idea that without a college education a student has not received a quality education. But such is just not true. A quality education should prepare a student for his or her entrance into the business world but still leave room for that student to enter college if he or she should decide to do so.

A quality education should also prepare a student for college but still leave room for that student to obtain a vocational, professional or artistic education if he or she should decide to do so.

Finally, a school cannot determine whether a child is receiving a proper education with standardized tests while the student is still in school. Only after a student enters the work force can such be determined, because only then does the former student begin to put his or her education to use.

A Few Good Teachers