Teachers on edge - Pink slips loom

The easy answer to the question 'What is the purpose of schools?' is to teach children but as they say, the devil is in the details. Few people will argue that schools should teach subjects like math, reading and history. But from the very beginning, schools in America have taught more than basic skills. In the Jamestown colony, which was founded as a profit center for its English investors, education's prime purpose was to maintain order and discipline. In the Massachusetts Bay colony which was founded as a religious experiment, the colonists' education was designed to instill loyalty and faithful obedience to the Church.

The American school system we know it today has its roots in the Common School movement of the early to mid 1800s which was shaped by the political, cultural, religious and economic forces of the time.

Schools were created to maintain the social order of the time which was defined by the Anglo-Christian majority. One meaning of the term common with regard to the schools of the time was that students would receive a common moral education based on the principles of morality as found in the Protestant Bible.

The term common also had political meaning. It was hoped that if a common political creed was taught to all students, these shared beliefs would reduce class tension between the rich and the poor and reduce political violence.

The question of the purpose of schools came to mind this week with regard to the issue of homeschooling. In the court's ruling on homeschooling, Justice H. Walker Croskey quoted a 1961 case on a similar issue where the judge in that case said, "A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare".

I wonder how many people today would agree with that judge?

On February 28th, Santa Rosa resident Thomas Feeney had a letter to the editor published in the Press Democrat in which he comments on a survery given to teenagers about their knowledge of American history. The survey results were not encouraging. Mr. Feeney concludes that the "survey proves that the liberal curriculum is dumbing down our children."

In response to Thomas F. Feeney's comment about the dumbing down of our schools:

Disclaimer: I teach classes at Santa Rosa Junior College and Sonoma State.

Liberals blame conservatives for the problems in our schools and conservatives blame liberals. Truth be told there is plenty of responsibility to spread around for the present state of U.S. education and neither side can claim the moral high ground when it comes time to point fingers at who is to blame.

When seeking to determine who has caused the dire straits of U.S. education, schools are the easy target but blaming the schools is a cheap shot. It makes them the scapegoat for those who are unwilling to bear their share of the responsibility for the problems that exist.

While I believe the schools do bear some of the responsibility, they are just one aspect of the problem. When looking for a culprit, everyone in this country from the President on down to the average citizen need look no farther than her or his mirror to find the source of the problems our schools and school children face.

Our schools are a reflection of the society in which they function and these are some of the conditions in which schools are forced to operate:

• Over the past two decades, state spending in the U. S. on correctional institutions (adjusted for inflation) increased by 127%. During the same time period, spending on higher education rose by 21%. For every dollar Virginia spends on higher education, it spends almost .60 on corrections. Maryland spends .74 on corrections for every dollar spent on higher education.
• Teachers have to face parents who refuse to accept that their child is failing in school and needs to repeat a year at school. Parents pressure teachers to pass their child regardless of the grades the child is earning.
• Schools are under pressure to produce good test scores on standardized tests mandated by No Child Left Behind. They know poor scores could mean the loss of funding or worse, being taken over by the state or shut down. For all the good intentions of No Child Left Behind, one of its unintended consequences is that teachers find themselves teaching the tests rather than a well-rounded curriculum.
• We live in a society that fails to acknowledge the importance of the role of teachers. As a result, we underpay our teachers. When our society acknowledges the key role teachers play in creating the leaders of tomorrow and pays teachers salaries comparable to other professionals, the teaching profession will start to attract the best and the brightest graduates. Until that happens, only a small percentage of the best and brightest will take jobs as teachers. You generally get what you pay for.

The America in which schools function needs to acknowledge the vital role education plays in shaping our democracy and preparing Americans for life in the 21^st century. We need to make supporting education a top priority. Will we take the easy way out and blame the schools for our lack of commitment or address the issue of education as a national priority? In the end, we will either take the credit or have no one to blame but ourselves for the end result.