Is Public Education a Failure?
I like to think of myself as pro-homeschooling rather than anti-public schooling, but I cannot deny that there are many aspects of public schooling that i disagree with. Some that i strongly disagree with. Yesterday evening I read a post called Is Public Education Failing Our Kids? and it started me thinking.
A lot of my opinions have been influenced by John Holt and John Gatto, which can be a bit more “extreme” than what many people are used to. If you are not familiar I would suggest starting with Gatto’s The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher. In some ways I do not see failure from the public school system. If you follow what Gatto believes is the true purpose of schools then you can see that most students turn out exactly as they should be.
However, I do have a problem with some of the actual educational aspects that are commonly found in the public school system. Namely the “teach to test” principle that is all too common, where students are not taught subjects to learn more about them but just to pass the standarized testing that they are required to take. Many students walk away from the tests knowing little about the subjects they just encountered. Personally, I would rather my children fail a test but be able to find the information they need when they need it rather than pass a test but not know anythinga bout the information or even how to find it themselves if they should need it again. When children are force fed the information they are not taught how to go about finding it themselves. And, to me, knowing how to leearn is more important than simply having the knowledge.
So I am curious how do you feel about this topic? Are public schools failing children?
homeschool, homeschooling, education, public education, school, schooling, public school, learning
May 4th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Yes, I think public schools are in general failing our children. I was a “I think I want to homeschool but let’s see what public schools have to offer” so we sent our oldest to Kindergarten this year. She went for 2 months and I had seen enough, we started homeschooling right after Thanksgiving and have been so thrilled ever since. I try not to be “I hate public school” because it’s great for a lot of families, but the “teaching to the test” and “security issues” and “bribing my kid with candy to get everything done” and the “waste of time that is school” and the bullies on the bus throwing gum at the younger kids, etc. Anytime a week included a holiday that whole week was review, whether it needed to be review or not, so an entire week was wasted sending her to school to meet the requirements for attendance but nothing was accomplished that whole week. My final clue that this wasn’t working for us was my parent-teacher “conference” where I had to find a sitter for my children, swear on a form 2 months before the appointment that I would be there for my scheduled time or else, and then spent the whole 15 minutes (actually only 12 minutes as the conference prior to mine ran over the allotted time) listening to the teacher tell me how to read the school’s report card. Nothing was said by the teacher about my child and I really don’t think she had any idea who my child was by name or face. Because my child was always “good” without behavior issues she got lost in the classroom.
Oops, I went on and on…. I don’t like to even tell people where I had this bad experience because the school gets rave reviews from lots of other families so I focus on the positives of homeschooling when asked, not the negatives of public schools.
May 4th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Interestingly, I think some of the standardized test paranoia is a result of the backlash against the results of the predominantly social goals laid out for education by the previous generation.
I homeschool because I think it is superior and the primary model for education. Public education is a necessity on some level, but not for the reasons laid out by its staunchest supporters.
The family is the primary unit of society and most of our education…the shaping of the character and training of the mind…should occur there.
May 5th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
The reason there is so much debate on this subject is that the answer really depends on how you define ‘failure’. Not many would dare claim that our public school system always succeeds - graduation rates, drop out rates, etc. provide plenty of proof of this. Nor can anyone deny that public schools has successes. Certainly there are lots of people in all walks of life, income levels and job descriptions who recieved their education in the public school system.
The fact is that public schools are both succeeding and failing at the same time. There are kids who get through and move on without much difficulty. Then there are kids for whom the system doesn’t work, kids it can’t provide for because of the way the system is designed. How much loss is acceptable? Who’s in a position to say?
I have two kids that the school system doesn’t work for and two that it might have. But I choose private and homeschooling for all of them because I personally think a failure rate of less than 100% is unacceptable for my kids.
May 5th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
LOL. Make that less than 100% SUCCESS rate is unacceptable for my kids
May 5th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
[...] May 5th, 2007 I found this this passionate post about the failure of public schools through Mom Is Teaching. Are the public schools failing? [...]
May 5th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
I think one problem with this issue is that we narrow it down to succeed or fail. Schools are either failing our students or succeeding with them. As with most things, there is no black or white but many shades of grey. The vast majority of students are neither failing nor succeeding, they are just there. Bright enough to keep afloat even in an evironment that might not be best suited for them, but unable to really push forward to their most potential
May 6th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Many who succeed also do not really do it because of public school. The same with some who fail. Many will succeed no matter what system you put them in because they have learned that internal drive to do what they need to get where they want.