Restructuring and re-engineering schools

Before we can recommend changes, let’s briefly review where we are today in the public school system. Since the 1900’s, the school system has continued to build layer upon layer of bureaucracy.

It now has a whole galaxy of boards of education, commissioners of education, deputy commissioners of various departments, directors of vocational education, supervisors of special education, principals, assistant principals, supervisors of subjects, guidance counselors, human resource personnel, nutrition experts, legal counsels, attendance officers, bus drivers, (did I miss anybody) who do no teaching but are concerned with keeping the system going. And every year we heap another layer onto this bulging top heavy bureaucracy. It reminds me of a tree trunk which annually adds another ring around itself as it grows larger and fatter.

Problems in American education are not being solved by looking at the structure, but by adding another layer to the bureaucracy. And in all this top heavy system, the teachers who are the key role in educating children are positioned further down the bottom of increasingly rigid, top-heavy vertical hierarchies.

Is it any wonder that more and more teachers leave the profession after a few years? And that fewer and fewer of our bright university students desire to enter the teaching profession which St. Augustine called the greatest act of charity.

In recent years the changes that have been taking place in American education are those that are possible to implement without systemic change. We have lengthened the school year by a few days, pay teachers a few dollars more, do more testing, stiffen high school graduation requirements or require better licensed teachers. Thus the public school system continues to add bandages to an ailing and floundering system.

Steven Schlossstein in his “The End of the American Century” makes a revealing statement: “Demographics is destiny, in education as well as in politics.” From this he goes on to discuss how the American family has changed. A large percentage of our children are raised in single parent families, mothers and fathers both work full time outside the home, children are beleaguered by the mass media, especially television, pop music, special clothes and food directed at them, drugs are readily available, alcohol is within arms length as are many other damaging influences. A large percentage of our youth experience divorce more frequently than before. Many experience divorce in their lives twice before they reach 18 years of age.

As a result of all this, today children have different emotional problems than before. Because of this lack of close parental supervision and because of an overpowering outside influence, children think, feel, react differently from before. Yet the school system fails to understand that teaching must be done in a environment that takes all of this into account. An old adage states that you can lead a donkey to water, but you cannot make him drink unless he wants to. Students must want to learn and no coaxing will do it.

The public school system must restructure and re-engineer itself if it is too survive. We have advanced our technology to new heights and it is seeping into our school system, but we must be cautious on how we apply it. Recall how television and other technological wonders were going to revolutionize the educational techniques and failed. What must be done is to incorporate these electronic wonders into a new structure.

Tomorrow I will discuss how we can decentralize, deregulate, and decontrol–in a word restructure and re-engineer the entire system. Teachers will be the center of the entire system. Teachers will become the solution, not the problem, in educating our youth. Have a beautiful day, neighbor. (continued)