Nothing is black and white

 Nothing is Black and White

 

There are lots of problems in our schools today.   There aren’t enough teachers.   Kids seem to have come back to school after the virtual non-learning experiences with increased mental health problems, respect and public opinion of teachers are at a new low,  and political office holders are using schools as platforms to get elected.

On the one hand, members of school boards are saying schools should just teach basic academics and leave the social teachings to families.  But what about the kids who don’t have a stable family?   Or kids who are part of a family that doesn’t have the knowledge base or skill set to teach kids.  And what about the original purpose of FREE public education, to prepare children to function as adults in a democracy. 

School leaders are singling out “black boys” as needing higher graduation rates.   So, the answer is to lower the bar so more “black boys”  will pass exams and thereby graduate.   Political goal achieved but the kids are probably worse off because they have a diploma that doesn’t represent any achievement.

We want to raise school academic standards and we do that by teaching students courses that only a small minority will ever need while eliminating the time for content they will all need.

Teachers are to blame too.   They sit back and let the politicians run over them instead of standing up for their profession.  Their organizations have long since been professional organizations and are flat out health and welfare unions, fighting for benefits and salary but ignoring professional control of the work teachers do.

We are barricaded at each end of the political spectrum, afraid to move toward the middle and desperately afraid of the gray areas.  Yet the gray areas are where the answers are.   The problems are incredibly complex, there are no easy answers and it isn’t likely that any answers will be found in the black and white corners.