I have been thinking a lot lately about how my political views affect my educational perspective. I consider myself to be something of a Libertarian. My social views tend to be liberal, while my fiscal views tend to be very conservative.
It's hard for me to find a happy medium as it pertains to education. The socially liberal side of me thinks everyone should have equal opportunity when it comes to education. The idea that many students receive sub-par education because of where they were born just does not seem right.
The fiscal conservative in me says, "who's going to pay for it?" We want to improve the educational system while simultaneously trying to find some sense of equality. We have discussed that improved education involves more mindfulness than absolute knowing. It involves a more noble goal than economic prosperity in the community. This is going to get expensive. And who is going to pay for it? If we try to grow schools, while possibly decreasing the economic goal, who is going to be willing to pay? I personally would not feel comfortable with my tax dollars going into a school system that employs any goal other than economic growth.
This class has allowed me to explore many ideas I did not spend much time thinking about. I find myself more confused than ever, but excited to see how I will work this out within myself.
I couldn't agree more. We're sort of stuck in a no-win situation. We want, and try, to give everyone an equal opportunity in school but there just isn't enough money to go around to make it work.
ReplyDeleteThe only way I can think to fix it - and this is only a very, very rough idea - is to create a system that gives students a more realistic education based on the school district.
Our education system tries to pretend like a class structure doesn't exist. Holding everyone to the same standards sounds nice, but it isn't practical.
Maybe if we put more effort into preparing students for jobs they realistically may obtain, we could have more success across the board.
For example, we can try to give the same education to students in Chagrin Falls and Cleveland Public schools for the next 100 years - we're never going to reach the point where each set of students truly has an equal opportunity due to forces at work outside the school.
Perhaps some schools could offer a path different than the current one which everyone is expected to take. I think one issue some low-performing schools have is that some students believe at a very young age that college simply isn't an option. Maybe if we provided what they viewed as a more practice education for their situation their performance would improve, and who knows, maybe they could even get back on the more traditional path.
As I said, I don't know exactly how this plan would look in practice, but it's something to think about...
You bring up a very good point I never thought about. Maybe the problem with equality is that we are pushing some students too hard. They feel that too much is being expected of them. If they don't try, they can't fail.
ReplyDeleteI went to Mayfield High School, and we had a vocational program. It seems to be something that is invaluable to students who felt like the curriculum was either too hard or just not for them. They were able to learn actual skills that they could build careers out of. It would be nice to see this sort of program available to all students.
I love this post Chrissy. It shows the "reality" we face in education today. I think sometimes people expect classrooms to be ran a certain way, but what they do not take into account is that students are different and therefore they learn differently. We as educators must accomodate to that issue to ensure that all students will have a rich educational experience.
ReplyDeleteI know that offering a different education to children because of class or racial differences is NOT equal opportunity. Instead, by definition, it is discrimination.
ReplyDelete