The first two of my six grand children are now graduating from high
school. Though they responded to high school in very different ways- one
who learned to beat the system and come away with all its honors and one
who fought it all the way but managed to do well enough to keep his
options open. Both have been accepted to the Universities they chose to
attend. But more than that they are intelligent informed young men with
strong positive values and an appreciation of themselves and of others
of a wide range of backgrounds. In public schools they have followed
interests in the arts, in sports, in science, in building social
relationships that could not have been available to them otherwise.
There have been problems with schools and teachers and school programs
from time to time in the course of their education and my wife and I
have ached with them and their parents and at times taken an active role
in trying to advocate for our grandchildren as we did for their parents.
When you know, as we do, what experiences it is possible for kids to
have in school, when you see such wonderful education regularly as we
do, it is very difficult to stay out of situations in which our own
children and grandchildren are having bad experiences.
Over the decades in which I've worked as an educator, teacher educator
and researcher I've seen remarkable and steady progress in the
classrooms I visit. Today's North American teachers are the most
professional, the most knowledgeable, the most effective teachers the
world has ever known. And it is just for that reason that they are under
such attack. Are there public schools I would not want my grandchildren
in? Yes, but within public education there are currently choices for
informed parents and students (though those are under attack too).
I wish that public higher education had the support that it once had at
least in some places- I went to four high quality state universities on
the way to my doctorate. The last semester of my doctoral program at
UCLA my tuition was $96. Ironically one reason for higher costs is that
our schools produce so many qualified graduates that we have to keep
expanding faculties and facilities.
I have never objected to others opting out of public education though I
think too often it happens for poor reasons. I've worked with private
education (and public) in many third world countries noting the immense
difference between the resources of public and private schools. But even
there I've seen enlightened public school curricula and policies and
some improvement in availability in spite of meager public resources.
We- my family- have maintained our commitment to public education as we
did to changing urban schools when we chose to keep our daughters in a
city high school while our white neighbors fled to the suburbs. My
middle daughter, the only white young woman in her graduating class at
Mumford high school in Detroit, went directly from there to UCLA and
eventually on to a doctorate in public health.
Our system of public education, with all its faults, is the best yet
achieved in the world. The rest of the world is catching up. In Canada,
England, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavian countries there are fine
public schools (which are also under attack) Perhaps the Canadians have
excelled us. And educational progress in developing countries is
strongly aided by young people from those countries carrying the wisdom
and ideals they gained in our graduate programs back to their countries.
And as I said before, the alternative to public education is
unacceptable.
--
Kenneth S. Goodman, Professor, Language, Reading & Culture
504 College of Education, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
fax 520 7456895 phone 520 6217868
These are mean times- and in the mean time
We need to Learn to Live Under Water