Newspapers expound on the downward spiral of public schools, and parents move heaven and Earth, as well as all their worldly possessions, to give children the opportunity to go to the best schools available. Parents fear that a child who is turned down by a selective high school or college will be consigned to mediocrity.
But in the midst of alarmist newspaper articles and fearful parents, I developed some needed perspective today. I came across a fan marked “JACOBS, ROOM 232,” and remembered Edison High School, my first teaching job — a school without air-conditioning. On the second floor, the rooms reached 100 degrees in June and September, and a fan gave us the illusion of relief.
A few years later, when I transferred to an air-conditioned building, I put my fan away. Seeing it again reminded me how much better Fairfax County schools are — in myriad ways — than they were when I started teaching.
The principal of that first school resigned under a cloud of sexual harassment allegations, and one of the lesser administrators was rumored to have sold drugs to students. It was wise, in that era, not to inspect such rumors closely if you wanted to keep your job.
We did make an effort to do our best in the classroom, however, but most instruction was teacher-centered, with lectures the preferred method. Worksheets were also popular, photocopied from teachers’ manuals — big on the skill of recall, and meager on the skill of critical thinking. I am proud to say that I never used a worksheet or asked students to answer questions at the end of a chapter; those assignments always struck me as insulting to student intelligence.
In the intervening decades, student-centered learning has been utilized more often than not, and teachers have discovered that students often learn more from working on group projects than they do from their teachers. Critical thinking activities, both oral and written, are now mandated in most curricula. Administrators take seriously student and parent complaints about boredom, and student engagement is stressed at all levels of learning.
A year ago, when I left the high school classroom to teach full-time in college, I was struck by how little college teaching has changed compared to the changes at the high school level. Since students are better able to absorb lectures at college age, this lack of change is not alarming. But given how much high schools have evolved, it’s hard to take seriously the doom and gloom pronouncements of many school critics.
My favorite story on perspective comes from a Wall Street chief executive officer on his way to a meeting at the Federal Reserve a year ago. When the aide with him commented that he couldn’t take much more of the financial crisis, the CEO replied, “You’re getting out of a Mercedes to go to the New York Federal Reserve, you’re not getting out of a Higgins boat on Omaha Beach, so keep things in perspective.”
Public schools aren’t Higgins boats either, so it’s well to keep cries for school reform in perspective. Of course schools can improve, but we should also remember how far we’ve come. Schools need constructive criticism, not devastating indictments.
Erica Jacobs, whose column appears Wednesday, teaches at George Mason University. E-mail her at [email protected].
WHAT THE KIDS ARE READING
Saturday, Sept. 26, the National Book Festival — with 75 writers and illustrators talking about their work — will take place on the National Mall. The following are some of the many children’s authors speaking in either the Children or Teens & Children pavilions (in parentheses) at the designated times.
Children’s authors speaking at the National Book Festival
1. Judy Blume, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” 5 p.m. (Teens & Children)
2. Sharon Creech, “Walk Two Moons,” 2:05 p.m. (Teens & Children)
3. Carmen Agra Deedy, “The Yellow Star,” 12:55 p.m. (Teens & Children)
4. Kate DiCamillo, “Because of Winn Dixie,” 10 a.m., 2:40 p.m. (Teens & Children)
5. Tony Diterlizzi “Kenny and the Dragon,” 2:30 p.m. (Children)
6. Nikki Grimes, “The Road to Paris,” 10 a.m. and 11:35 a.m. (Children)
7. Craig Hatkoff, “Winter’s Tail: How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again,” 12:10 p.m. (Children)
8. Megan McDonald, “The Rule of Three,” 10:00 a.m. and 1:55 p.m. (Children)
9. Jon Scieszka, “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs,” 10 a.m. and 4:50 p.m. (Children)
10. Mo Willems, “Big Frog Can’t Fit In,” 3:05 p.m. (Children)
