Public Education

“It seems ironic to me that we send our children to school in the hopes that a quality education will help them get ahead in life, when that very education so often smoothers individual talent in the name of serving the many.”

- Brent Cameron as quoted from his thought-provoking book on alternative education called “Self Design” which can be found here.

My Dear Readers,

We forget that our public education system was built to solve a set of constraints which American society faced early in the 20^th century. At that time, American society was in the midst of a profound shift from farming to manufacturing. The bulk of the population was shifting from the countryside to the cities.

Our borders were in the midst of allowing many new Americans to come in search of a better life than the one they’d left behind. America was percolating with energy. Many would argue, and I’d agree, that this was the time which laid the foundation for the dizzying heights of success which America has achieved.

Diversity is a beautiful thing. It does, however, produce a unique problem for a society built on democratic ideals. Democracy needs a citizen-group which understands the importance of the Constitution, of voting, and which shares a basic awareness of the issues topical to the society. Most importantly, though, democracy flourishes in a society which has bonded through a set of shared experiences. It was in this spirit that a public school system was developed.

John Dewey, often considered to be the father of the American education system, discusses this at great length. He pointed to the importance of bringing the youth together in a forum which builds awareness of citizenship. Through the development of shared experience, it was his hope that all of the children of these disparate groups might find a common sense of what it is to be American. Time magazine, this week, discusses a story in the same vein: namely, about what seems to happen in a world that becomes increasingly separated. The article investigates the social realities emerging because of the wall which splits Palestine with the rest of Israel.

The public school system is about finding a common body of experiences on which a sense of society might be constructed. This system continues to serve an important function for our society. However, it is challenged to serve this function and to develop the high level cognitive abilities which we’d like for every member of our society.

Taking into account what we know about the brain and the individuality in processing which seems to be built into its very biology, we now seem to be more and more ready to accept that there is no single characteristic exhibited across our species which can be labelled as intelligence. Each brain manifests learning differently. The storing, accessing, and application of information, the biological acts which we can simplify in the term wisdom, are different from individual to individual.

Knowing this, can we put all children in a single room, teach them the same way, and expect for each to reach his or her potential? My head, my heart, and my guts all say no.

While politicians are always an easy target, I just can’t finger them for the challenges facing our education system. Their influence is only on the surface. They advocate for the policies that they believe represent their constituents. And most people, even many teachers, just don’t know much about how learning occurs.

It’s not that the teachers or the curriculum are flawed or unprofessional. Besides a few unprofessional individuals, I don’t believe that this is the case across the board. I know from first-hand experience that there are a lot of thoughtful and intelligent people working hard everyday to educate our children. Many of them enroll in programs such as the one I administer, study hard, and produce excellent work in the pursuit of a doctoral degree. The depth of their insight is always astounding.

Thinking that our children are to be blamed for the challenges facing their cognitive development is also unreasonable. Children are moving through their individual trajectories of maturation at their own pace. We cannot force their development; we can only obstruct it. I need only point to the example of feral children as proof. Children need an enriching environment and the mentorship necessary to fruitfully delve into it in order to develop talents.

I respectfully submit that our ideas about the purpose of education are the roots of the challenge which faces public education. With all due respect for Dewey’s legacy, the time has come for us to begin thinking about re-orienting the purpose, design, and objectives of our education system. And in the face of all of the developing ideas about the brain which have become more and more widespread, it is time to update a system which takes into account all of the new research about cognition.

If you enjoy this blog, then please take a look at my book available here or here.

Thank you and have a wonderful Tuesday!

Dr. Z