There is probably no better place to kick off a rip roaring discussion which is central to the quality of life in America than on the subject of public primary and secondary education. Why don't we jump into that bear trap here at Cobb?
There are several big ideas that come to mind when I talk about public schools, but I'm going to start with giving my background and I would like others to do the same, because I think it can put a lot of things in context. I'm going to spend most of my argument speaking about what I want and expect for my own kids as they go through the system and what I've learned from my experience, then I'll talk about what I think could be improved for my own district and why I think that should be a standard. I do this with much of Malcolm Gladwell's recent book Outliers in mind.
I went to a public elementary school that was all black in the late 60s. I then attended a Catholic middle school, also all black and in the 'hood and then a Catholic prep high school which was a broad mix of classes and ethnic backgrounds, much more like the city overall, but no girls.
Anyway as I've said many times here. My wife and I decided to live in California primarily so that our kids could grow up to be near their cousins of the same age. That was the biggest factor in deciding where we would live - that we would have extended family all around. Similarly, my brothers and sister all moved out of the hood to more accomodating communities for their own and family lives. While my kids were in pre-school ages we were all within a 20 mile radius for my parents' 10 grandchildren. The next choice was, because of our finanical situation and the cost of living in California a choice between renting & public school in an upscale neighborhood, or buying & private school in a low rent neighborhood. This was the second most important strategic decision. We chose the former although we started most seriously considering the latter. There were three big factors in our choice and they had to do with our perceptions of the public parks and their programs, the weirdness of the local private schools and their costs, and the districting rules for public schools.
It turned out that it didn't take us much time to figure out that if you wanted your kid to get music instruction or any special benefit classes on the chance that they might excel, you basically faced a lottery. Everybody knew which schools had the foster children and which had the gifted children's program. I say 'everybody' meaning, picky parents like my wife and I could nose around and find out what's what. The limited resources made the structure of the schools into a game, which is why the lottery existed.
I am convinced that the ethics of multiculturalism and the dominance of collegian manners in our society (which happen to coincide with liberal if not progressive politics) have added to the kind of confusion about what the proper role of secondary education should be, and some of that has leaked into the primary grades as well, but not as significantly.
What kinds of things should public education do well that it is not doing? What kinds of things does it actually accomplish well that don't need rethinking? Where are the major controversies about the performance of public education? What works for you?
