It was over 40 years ago that a local club hosted visiting teachers from Europe. Lodged in private homes, the teachers were introduced to the everyday life of an American community. There were guided walking tours of the village of Marcellus, picnics in our park, as well as visits to local points of historical interest in surrounding communities. The visitors were, of course, welcomed to our schools and spent many hours in classrooms and in conversations with Marcellus teachers.
When we discussed the differences among schools in Europe and here, there were many differences in curriculum and in the ways in which schools segregated, in the sense of sorting, youngsters who sought careers in the trades from those who sought a university degree. Both, interestingly enough, were supported and respected as goals. The major differences that resonated then, and still do now, are the esteem with which the teachers were viewed by their communities and the value that those communities attached to education. Teachers were viewed as professionals, compensated appropriately and honored for the role that they played in the life of their students and the future of the community.
The Program for International Student Assessment is given every three years to 15-year-olds around the world. In the U.S., students in Florida, Connecticut and Massachusetts were among those tested. As a country, we did not shine. We were a tad above average in reading, close to average in science and below average in math. Only the poorest countries scored well below the U.S. Now, if you read the commentaries about this, there are any number of apologists who point to poverty, immigration and a myriad of other factors that “explain” the poor performance of students who live in the richest country in the world. But examination of those who excelled demonstrates that the factors that explain our failure are present in many of those countries that have surpassed us.
Those who are trying to explain the miserable results of the PISA test can manipulate the results in any number of ways, but there are strong indications that we are missing the boat when it comes to basic perceptions of what constitutes education.
The most cogent arguments involve an examination of the shared characteristics of education in the successful countries. Among them are a common belief in the value of a strong, challenging educational system and the equal value of a professional cadre of educators. In the U.S. we have a rather tentative expectation when we talk about the value of education. We want our children educated, but not too much … reflective of the “I don’t trust professionals” choir that downplays the relevance of authority, basically an ode to mediocrity? Don’t challenge students too much; don’t require that students practice what they’ve learned … otherwise known as homework.
At the same time we are touting this rather-confusing description of a quality education, we have yet to come to understand that not all people need to attend college, that quality professional trades education has value too. And what about teachers? How often do we find a groundswell of accusations hurled at teachers who, according to that same population that wants this “quality” education, wring their hands at teachers’ salaries? How often do we hear about the cost of educating a student in a district, the amount of school taxes that we pay and dismay at the quality of that education? We paid for it. Why isn’t it better without actually defining what would be better. We know the cost, we question the value.
Interestingly enough, compared with teachers in the countries that have surpassed us, U.S. teachers have larger classes and spend more time in those classrooms. The actual school day in most of the successful countries is shorter and the collaborative and planning time for the teachers is longer.
In a multicultural society, schools are the glue that holds the culture together, they give us common experiences that prepare our children to participate in the democratic process for success in later life and, on a larger scale, allow this nation to compete economically with the rest of the world. How we structure our schools, how we train and support our instructional staff, how we view this critical part of the social fabric in a democracy is up to us.
It is like planting a tree. Providing the proper soil, nutrition, water, etc. we prepare it to provide shade for a future time. It will cost us to do this, but beyond cost, there is something far more important and that is value. Let us not be those who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
