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 In my previous post, I focused my attention on what I perceive to be the problems facing our public school system. They are varied and complex, but I believe they can be solved. I’d now like to briefly highlight a few of the solutions I propose in my book, Outrageous Learning. Before I do so, I want to reiterate that my criticisms are primarily directed at the system. I know there are many talented teachers and administrators that are doing their best to educate our children within a broken system, but there is a shocking absence of common sense and it only seems to be getting worse.
To illustrate that point, let’s turn our attention to corporations for a moment. In our region, we have a number of very large companies – Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks, Costco, Amazon, Nordstrom, to name a few – that have enjoyed a great deal of success over the years. Can you imagine stripping their CEOs of the power to make personnel decisions or control their budgets? Of course not. It doesn’t make any sense and it would be disastrous. Then why do we limit the ability of our public school principals – the CEOs of our schools – to make similar decisions? I want to see a system that empowers principals to reward and promote the exemplary teachers rather than a system that provides little differentiation between the insanely great teachers and really crummy teachers. Introducing a system of performance pay and gradually phasing out tenure is one way to accomplish this.
I also believe that parents deserve a louder voice in determining how, where, and by whom their children are educated. Parents and children are the customers of our public education system. Rather than drawing arbitrary geographic boundaries and using them to assign students to schools, we should allow parents the freedom to choose the school that is best aligned with the interests and learning style of their child. Some schools might be project-based rather than using traditional course structures. Still others might want to be interdisciplinary in approach, offering classes that integrate the arts, philosophy, science and mathematics. Others might offer year-round courses. Some schools would adopt uniforms for students while others might prefer to maintain an informal atmosphere in class. Ultimately, allowing choice among schools would offer parents vast opportunities to provide for the education of their children based on factors that are important to them. If a particular school has strong leadership, remarkable teachers, and the students are outperforming their peers at other schools, what parent wouldn’t want to send their children to be educated there? It’s a simple but powerful concept.
In addition to these concepts, I delve into eight others in Outrageous Learning. They are:
- More Time Spent Educating;
- Early Learning Rigor and Optional High School;
- Muster an Army of Volunteers;
- Standardized Curriculum…Not;
- Early Intervention and Specialized Instruction;
- Spend Money as Though It Were Your Own;
- Plant the Seeds of Success in Life: Values, Character, Leadership;
- Establish a Culture of Excellence.
The barriers to reform are formidable and I believe that catalyzing a broad-based movement will be the only way to overcome all of the obstacles. I know I’m not alone in noting that the establishment has become skilled at offering excuses for failure and adamant in its refusal to change existing practices. Policymakers enact laws intended to increase resources and improve outcomes, but they don’t deliver the systemic reform urgently needed to give each child in every classroom the best possible teacher. This is why I’m hoping to enlist parents, students, teachers, and principals in this effort and compel them to demand these reforms.
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