A Teacher's solutions for America's School Problems

Perhaps the following thoughts will provoke a conversation about schools in America. I went to public schools and a state university for my own schooling. I have taught in a university school of education, a public high school, a community college and in two private girls' schools, one boarding and one day.

First, I would argue that schools of education should be designed as a fifth year program after a bachelor's degree. Intensive courses should accompany a paid internship in a public school. In my opinion, learning to teach is something one learns by doing and therefore apprenticeship should be the model for teaching prospective teachers to teach. The large majority of the courses offered in most teaching programs are next to useless and only serve to employ university professors and create a guild structure to keep potentially excellent teachers out of the system.

Second, I believe that many of our problems with schools are due to two problems: school size and class size. Excellent education on the k-12 level is personal education, that is, learning accompanied by the shaping of character. Large schools result in anonymity and large class sizes turn teachers into "classroom managers" and policemen patrolling halls rather than what we would classically hope a teacher is about.  Recently, I have noticed a new debate about the importance of class size.  It is said that teacher quality is what makes the difference, not class size.  This is a partial truth.  Reducing class size from thirty to twenty-five or even twenty will not necessarily produce a significant benefit because that range of reduction can't really produce a difference in teaching style.  But reducing the number to sixteen or less does enable a teacher to shift into a teaching style that is more discussion based and recognizes each person in the class as an individual in a conversation.  This style of education fosters the development of individual voice.  On the other end of the spectrum, classes can be too small.  Classes smaller than eight tend to lose dynamism perhaps because it becomes more and more difficult for the teacher to "disappear" into a discussion.  It is true that the best teachers will maximize learning in whichever class he or she enters; however, I have never heard a teacher argue that the seminar style teaching with a class size of (8-16) wasn't optimal from the point of view of a student. 

Third, All public schools' tax funding should go into a statewide pool and strictly apportioned on a per/pupil basis. It is a crime that we have unequally funded schools because of differential property values. Our school succeeds, in part, because of the cultural and socio-economic diversity of its students. School systems need the freedom to design admissions/assignments for as much diversity as possible. Parents need the right to enroll their child in any school in an urban area, even if it is not in their neighborhood. Addendum to this item. I have recently come to believe that tax dollars should be apportioned on a per pupil basis to all schools public, private or even parochial.

Fourth, I am a strong proponent of the idea that single sex schools should at least be an active option for all public school students. That means creating or converting a lot of schools to single sex. I believe that sexual politics in schools is intense and destructive. Students spend far too much time posturing to each other rather than focusing on learning. For an interesting discussion of the new scientific evidence for single-sex schools I would recommend: Why Gender Matters by Leonard Sax (Broadway Books, NY 2006). Sax believes that single-sex schools give both girls and boys time and space to explore their respective femininity or masculinity apart from socially determined gender stereotypes. My own experience teaching would tend to confirm his argument.

Fifth, I believe in teacher empowerment. Respect for the professional status of teaching is constantly being undermined by bureaucrats and administrators. Everyone seems to have complete faith that they know how to fix schools without ever having been in a classroom. What we need are well educated, passionate teachers who are given a proper chance to lead. Standardizing curricula and standardizing tests is the exact opposite of trusting and respecting teachers. We need more diversity in curricula, not less. We need more diversity in styles of teaching, not "best practices."

Sixth, Attention needs to be paid to the environment and architecture of schools. When they appear to be and feel rather like a prison without windows, they will become like a prison. Once I toured a real prison in California called Vacaville state prison. I was shocked by how much it reminded me of my high school. I have seen a lot of schools and the few that are appealing are typically private. I am fortunate to be currently teaching at a private girls' school that has beautiful greens, varied architecture, many teachers living on campus in community with students. We have almost none of the problems that a typical public school teacher has. We have motivated, caring students and teachers. We have small class sizes. We have teachers who are not overloaded with classes and therefore have the time to plan imaginatively for their lessons. Teachers stay at our school, not because they are particularly well paid (public school teachers in our state have far better salaries, pensions and benefits than we do) but because they feel emotionally satisfied with their profession. Here a teacher has every chance to actually teach.

These are a few simple suggestions but they would go a long way to solving our "education crisis". I put education crisis in scare quotes because I object to trying to do anything out of fearmongering. So often we hear about how our students perform compared with x country on some standardized exam or other and chicken little's cry goes up. Schools reflect cultures. If we have a failing, militaristic democracy, then our schools are likely to be in disarray as well. If we live in a society in which the truth is rarely uttered and news is a variety of entertainment, then don't expect much. Teachers will be valiant in helping students sort their way through , but we aren't often allowed to be counter-cultural for long.