Want to know how to push American kids back to the top of the education ladder? A leading educator has an agenda for teachers and parents.
(via the Western Confucian)
Those who defend the West against the East argue that there is a difference between rote memorization (or more accurately, memorization and being able to calculate) vs. original, creative thinking. In this comparison, the West excels in creative thinking, as evidenced by its technological innovations, and so on. (See the comments to Steve Sailer's posts.)
My reaction to the essay is mixed. I think one of the causes for the failures of the American public school s ystem is moral (on the part of many students). But I don't believe comparing the United States to other countries, based on a measurement of ability, gives us enough information about what needs to be done. Does a text on math and science an accurate predictor about the economic future of a country if it is heavily dependent upon technological innovation? But what if the information age, along with the industrial age, are unsustainable because energy will no longer be cheap? How much innovation, then, is necessary?
The author's recommendations:
An agenda for teachers and parents
First, break the monopoly of the public school system. Give parents back their tax money so they purchase the education they believe is best for their children, whether secular private, religious, internet-delivered, home schooled or even old PS 22. Free up the system, but make the results highly transparent.
Second, change the “work environment” and change our expectations of students. Extend the school day until 5 in the afternoon as so many other countries do. Extend the school year from 180 days to closer to 240. Without giving into the empty slogan “education should be fun!”, make schooling more interesting and connected to their futures. Currently in the US, teachers and students are obsessed with the results of paper and pencil objective tests on reading, and math, an obsession which has blocked out time previously devoted to art, literature, geography, history, music and physical education. It is little wonder that students are seeking escapes and the educational enterprise is so dispirited! The drill, drill, drill and test, test, test approach is killing teachers and students alike.
Third, use school-parent contracts to get a new set of student expectations in place. For instance, parents should be “under contract” to provide a quiet, media free study place for their children. They should strictly limit time and exposure to TV, to the internet and social networking and anything that interferes with their children developing the knowledge and the work habits the future will demand of them.
Fourth, re-empower teachers to be character educators. Instead of the current model of teacher-as-information-dispenser, teacher should be prepared and expected aggressively to teach children the good habits or virtues we know constitute a worthy life, that is, habits of responsibility, self-discipline, justice and respect for others. Educators should recapture the tradition of teachers being in loco parentis. If some students are unable to accommodate the new, more serious school environment, removed them to other, more structured environments until they are ready to return. We owe that to both the offending students, but also to the teachers and students who stay behind.
Fifth, de-sexualize school. Switch from the current urban fashion to school uniforms. Outlaw foul language and “public displays of affection” with has come to cover everything from groping, grinding and worse. Leave “condom distribution” to the local drugstore. Teenagers, in particular, always were and are hungry for romance. Nevertheless, schools should be sex-free zones.
Sixth, the young need a meaning system, a worldview, which is bigger than their own appetites. A nation of self-oriented pleasure-seekers will have a short, inglorious future. It is a fundamental duty of parents to transmit to their children an understanding of where they come from, who they are and where they should be going. Churches are a great resource here. So are the schools, religious and private, that are freed from the “science-only” worldview of US public schools. Parents, however, have the ultimate responsibility to, as a friend once said to me, help children escape the “Great Suck of Self.”
The author is a proponent of character education in American schools (see the links below). (He is also a member of the Ponticial Academy of Science!) The state does have a stake in the moral formation of its citizens. Teachers must model virtuous behavior, and.guide students in practicing virtue. (Does Dr. Ryan explicitly talk about virtue elsewhere? I think he does.) Who can deny that there is a moral element to the interaction between students and students and the wider community? All of this sounds good to a conservative, but can one trust the American public school system as a "guardian of values"? Even the virtue of justice may become twisted, given the PC notions of equality and tolerance thath dominate in so many areas and districts.
As for his second recommendation, I do think education should be more well-rounded, but I do not know if what he would have this accomplished through more book-learning. A large segment of time should be devoted to giving students practical skills for everyday living, skills that will become more prominent in a postcarbon era. I have talked about cultural education elsewhere, so I won't repeat myself except to briefly write that an attempt to do so, in the absence of a genuine community, is artificial and will probably not be successful. Finally, I currently deny the claim that students should be spending more time in school. I'd rather have them out doing the things that will integrate them into the community and practicing domestic skills at home. (Assuming that the area at large is making an effort to end social atomism, which includes more opportunities for communal leisure.)
(Regarding the desexualizing of school -- the best way to do this is to separate students by sex, if not by schools then at least by classrooms.)
Steve Sailer on the PISA:
PISA scores for Shanghai
More PISA school achievement results
PISA and Mexico
Kevin Ryan
Kevin Ryan (wiki)
Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character
10 Tips for Raising Children of Character (Growing Character)
The Six Es of Character Education
Mining the Values in the Curriculum
Those Who Can, Teach (alt, GB)
The Aspen Declaration on Character Education
Character Education Manifesto
Related:
Character Education - Teachers Without Borders
Character Education and Psychological Models of Virtue
Morals - The Gateway to 21st Century Skills
Character Education Books and Other Resources
Character Education Resources
The Teel Institute
Moral Education: A-L and Moral Education: M-Z By F. Clark Power
How Not to Teach Values: A Critical Look at Character Education by Alfie Kohn
Karen Bohlin (current director of CAEC)
Pipl profile
Dr. Karen Bohlin, Director of the Center For the Advancement of Ethics and Character
Susquehanna University Presents Annual Lecture in Ethics
The Ultimate Test of Character: Gratitude
Citizenship and higher education: the role of universities in communities and society (GB)
Karen Bohlin's Keynote address at Bayridge's 50th Anniversary Reunion from bayridgeresidence on Vimeo.
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