Crimson Wife found an interesting article over at the American Spectator which suggests that Americans are not as interested in academic standards as some might suppose, leaving many discussions of reform to fall on deaf ears. In No Parent Left Behind, author RiShawn biddle writes,
Reformers, however, fail to consider two questions: Are parents even convinced that the nation’s public school system is broken? And do they really want school reform? There are no clear answers to either one.
Biddle proceeds to build a case that Americans really are not as interested in academics as we might at first think.
Parents seem to agree that schools are a mess…But the fact 89 percent of the nation’s students still attend traditional public schools suggests that most parents aren’t dissatisfied with the status quo.
Unfortunately, the conclusion does not follow. The only conclusion that can be drawn from this is that parents are not dissatisfied enough to pursue an alternative course of action, not that they are satisfied. Many parents feel trapped in the system. They cannot afford private school, and do not think they can homeschool whether hindered by real or imagined barriers. Many Christians feel it is their Christian duty to remain in the system to be light in the darkened world. The fact is that there are many reasons for remaining in the system besides being happy with it.
The anecdotes provided are more interesting and seem at first reading to support Biddle’s case that Americans, particularly middle class Americans, are more interested in “lifestyle and aspirations” than they are about academics. While I have no doubt this is true of many, I also think Biddle may be missing an important point.
Academics does not equal education.
Academics are merely the academic subjects. Reading, writing and arithmetic. Book learning. There is nothing wrong with academics and any educational program should have rigorous academic standards. But academics are not all there is to education. Education is defined as “the bringing up, as of a child, instruction; formation of manners.” It involves the intellect, preparation for future employment and the development of character.
Keeping this in mind, take a look at some of the anecdotes and think about whether they describe an American populace unconcerned about education or one who sees education as something broader than academics.
Meanwhile battles in Pennsylvania and Maryland over proposed exit exams, which would require high school students to pass the tests in order to graduate, show that standards aren’t also fully embraced. As American Enterprise Institute scholar Frederick Hess points out, standards provoke opposition among parents because it is their families that suffer the costs, including extra homework and failing grades.
There is nothing wrong with standards per se, but there is a problem with a rigid reliance on a single test as the sole measure of a student’s educational achievement. Being opposed to the specific standards laid out by any particular district does not necessarily mean that parents are opposed to academics or even standards in general. There are too many issues involved to summarize this so quickly as evidence of apathetic parents.
And parents may worry less about their kids’ scores than they do about the timing of the tests: In states such as Vermont and Indiana, parents complain that fall testing schedules lead to earlier opening school days, cutting into vacation time.
You can see similar things with fights over the amount of time children spend on homework, the loss of recess and the energy parents will put into acquiring playground equipment for their local schools. Academics are important. So is family. And playtime. Parents have the duty of protecting all of these areas of a healthy education.
In low-poverty schools, there is a 65 percent probability that the parents would pick a teacher more concerned with satisfying students over the one who got kids to hit the books, according to a study by University of Michigan researcher Brian Jacob and Lars Lefgen of Brigham Young University.
I do not know that this is really a fair summary of the research. Parents in higher income districts were concerned about academics, but they were also concerned about classroom environment, recognizing the importance of the affective domain in education. It seems to me that these parents desired more than academics rather than merely “satisfying” their children.”
…just 16.5 percent of parents surveyed by the Education Department cited academic dissatisfaction as a reason for keeping their kids out of traditional schools. Most parents home-school out of concerns about school environment and to provide religious instruction.
I cannot really add to what Crimson Wife has already posted on this segment of the article so I encourage you to read her thoughts. I suspect, however, that no matter how we read the statistics, most parents who choose to homeschool do so because they perceived homeschool to provide a superior education for their children. That will naturally have academics, issues with school violence, religious instruction and pedagogical views mixed in with it.
Because education is larger than academics.
[tags]education, homeschool, academics, school[/tags]
Very interesting. I’m thinking of conversations I overheard at my 2nd grader’s flag football practice. Three moms in particular(one of them the PTA president) spent a lot of time discussing school. These are very involved moms. They volunteer. They are diligent about homework, etc. To listen to their conversations you would have thought they were unhappy with the school, or teachers. But to talk with them specifically about it, they will say things like, “It’s a good school” and “most of the teachers are Christians.” They congratulate me for being brave and patient and smart to be homeschooling. They think it’s great. But they are not willing to give up the social aspect of going to school in the small community where we live.
There are a number of situations like that. In fact, if that statistics are to be believed, that seems to describe most Americans. I do not think it is evidence that they do not think academics is important, just that they rate on more than just that.
I do not have complaints with parents involved enough to protest an exit exam, too much homework, testing dates, etc. These are the involved parents who care very much about their children’s education and what it will do for them.
The problem lies with the ones who are silent and have completely abdicated their authority over to the school.
Wow! Just last night, after reading a long list in a well known book about “why” people homeschool, I went to bed thinking about the reasons I chose to homeschool…because so many of the reasons I chose to homeschool were not even listed.
Academics may be on that list at some point, but in the elementary/grammar school years it comes down to so many other reasons for me.
For officials to come to any sort of conclusions without direct input from parents is foolish as far as I am concerned, for many of the reasons you point out…but also because our society has set up a culture that needs a place for our young people to be during the day for many various reasons…and the mass majority of people have become so conditioned to believe this that we almost fear young people on the streets or in the malls, etc. Laws are being passed to prohibit young people from being out in such place together or during specific times.
When we don’t allow our young people to be any place but schools, no wonder academic thought gets diluted in the minds and eyes of parents. Schools become more than places of educations and learning and academics, and legislators with their emotional, philosophical, physical distance from their constituents and their higher earnings do not always see this reality.
No wonder the author draws the conclusions she does when we continue to enforce a mind set of young people and families that we do in this country; when we neglect to inquire directly with parents as to their reasoning and feelings on the subjects–it is overwhelmingly apparent that many disapprove of NCLB from what I can see and hear and read during these early campaigning days. Why aren’t the architects and defenders of this program listening? Why can’t they hear that parents are not happy with the idea of a test representing the end all of their child’s knowledge base–an exit exam test, a yearly state test measuring then national and statewide, etc?
I was so engrossed in this post I burned the waffles. It’s good I like them extra crispy. : ) I shouted, “Amen” when I got to the line, “Academics does not equal education.”
To add in a little different spin, I was struck this week by a conversation with a fellow homeschooling parent who cautioned me against raising “the bar” too high in my children’s education. Now, it’s not like I hound my children day and night or expect them to “perform” high above grade level to satisfy my ego. We’re a Charlotte Mason family and my children learned to read early. What’s so high bar about that? Basically, this gentleman’s concern was that my homeschooling methods might intimidate and overwhelm fellow sisters in Christ. By no means do I want to overwhelm anyone or make them feel like they have to homeschool a certain way just because I do, *but* I was completely floored that he actually considered a challenging education to be more of a detriment to homeschoolers in general than a benefit!!! Am I supposed to stick to the public school standards just so I don’t step on any toes? Even within homeschooling circles, there is a wide range of parental attitudes toward what truly makes up an education and how challenging that education ought to be for the children. Regardless of methods and educational philosophies, I guess before last night I had assumed that most homeschoolers wanted a better than average education for their children. Now, I’m beginning to see that even that is not a safe assumption.
JacciM, Not to sound overly critical of someone I have never meant, but that is the queerest argument I have heard yet. : )
I would say most want a good education, but we are not agree on what that is. Some will see that as spelling bees and geography quizzes, others will see it in character issues and values, others will see it in pedagogical views.
Many do caution against pushing academics too much (or at all, depending on the philosophy we are talking about) but that is separate from education in my mind. Education involves academics plus character, etc.
Renae, I’m sorry about your waffles. I’ll try to make future Sunday morning posts less interesting for you. : ) Maybe I’ll share our pastor’s three month long study of the Lord’s Prayer.
Thank you for your thoughts, Shawna, and I agree. I think a lot of people do see a problem with what you are talking about which is why they protest the homework, loss of field trips, etc. These are not the apathetic parents, and they do not deserve criticism as being somehow uninterested in academics because they want more for their children. Opposing the school is not equivalent to opposing education and I do not think it is fair to the many involved parents who are fighting to improve their children’s education in these ways.
JacciM, I wanted to make sure it was clear I meant that it was the argument that you should do less to not make others feel bad that I was accusing of being queer, not what you were saying. But then, I was told as much regarding some of my test scores in school so I know there are people who think that way. It is at its core a socialist philosophy, I think…one that attempts to hold us all at the same level.
Too much food for thought when I didn’t get a good night’s sleep. I’ll have to come back and reread later.
“The only conclusion that can be drawn from this is that parents are not dissatisfied enough to pursue an alternative course of action, not that they are satisfied.”
Regarding that thought, I’m just wondering WHAT IT WILL TAKE for parents to be “dissatisfied enough” to pursue an alternative education for their children. What level of school violence, bullying, atheistic teaching, mind-numbing drivel will it take?
Fascinating! I,too, had to read it twice!
LOL, Dana. At first, I admit, I thought you meant me. I thought, “Oh great. What mindless drivel was I writing late at night”
I understood after a sentence or two, though. Funny.
I agree with you on education being more than academics – more even than “making a man”. I see education as growth, broadening, deepening, and equipping. For me, it involves the imagination and soul every bit as much as the mind.
I dig your blog
Keep the good posts coming!
Blessings,
Jacci
That is very nice of you to say, Jacci. I’m sorry I was unclear originally. I guess I could have as easily deleted and rewritten the comment, but I figure since you guys don’t have that privilege, I’ll let my boo boos stand, as well. : )
Jennifer, I don’t know. But I suspect it has to do with the feeling that the problems with education do not actually affect “my” school. Until they are felt, there will not be many who will act…although there are more and more every year. And the more homeschooling is known, the more it will be viewed as a viable alternative rather than as a “last hope” sort of thing.
I’m playing a bit of post-Thanksgiving catch-up, sorry for being late to the conversation! Anyways, I just wanted to say that you’ve written an excellent post
Thanks! And I gave up on catching up and just cleared my feed reader. I may have missed something important, but I’m hoping most people did not have too much other than turkey on their plates last week!