As the late business intellect, Peter Drucker, once noted: “there’s nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which shouldn’t be done at all.”
At this time of state and national economic uncertainty, when the things and the systems that we value most seem to be slipping away, we must recognize that the greatest single loss we are facing – is opportunity.
This economic crisis, like a home at the edge of a burning forest, is providing us the opportunity to reevaluate what is most important to us, and to build anew with new priority. We cannot lose the great opportunity this unprecedented time presents to truly change public education.
We cannot lose the chance to refocus on the practicality and pragmatism of public education as a process for preparing a productive citizenry, rather than as a cultural exercise in warehousing kids with the intent that they will gain the ability to learn if they so desire and become that most nebulous, mission statement type of learner: lifelong learners.
This is the time. Right now we have the ability to effect change with a capital C, on a grand scale, with no hesitancy.
And appropriately enough, President Obama opened the door to true reform even wider when he recently replied to a question about the importance of education as one of the four major points in his overall economic stimulus plan. President Obama stated that education must change for the sake of the future of the American workforce.
This declaration by a seemingly can-do leader who appears to “get it,” would seem to settle for our time the age-old philosophical debate of education – is it about content or about process (teaching the tools and skills to learn)?
Public education is apparently about both content and process so long as we effectively prepare individuals to contribute to society.
As a career educator, I like this. Finally, frank discussion about the purpose of education that frees the current system of the baggage we have accumulated.
We’re so beyond the agrarian calendar for school years, beyond seat-time in a desk and a classroom as a means by which to base state, district, and school funding, and staffing, and depth of student learning.
We’re so beyond homework as a measure of behavioral and academic performance that often trumps demonstrated mastery of competencies, beyond the destructiveness of tenure, beyond systems that work against our ability to truly address the problems we’re learning about through the accountability of standardized testing. And yes, keep testing, just give educators the tools and time to effect learning where it’s most needed.
We’re beyond the system as it currently exists, and most importantly, so are the kids.
Governor Ritter, like the President, is ahead of the national curve with his views on the need to reform the system. The Governor has charged a high-profile council with creating “a seamless education highway from preschool to college” for the clear purpose of economics.
Governor Ritter charges that “as a State we must do a better job of preparing Colorado’s young people for the rigors of a 21st century economy.”
Both the Governor and the President are sounding clarion calls for reformation of the current system. Clarion calls to return to the purpose of public education – careers.
I urge our state legislators and our state and local school boards to take up these calls and in the days ahead be courageous in your leadership.
Risks are worth taking so long as they are not reckless, and the reality is that few risks are more dangerous than the real cost of maintaining the status quo in public education.
A recent study found that the single greatest factor noted by high school drop-outs that led to their departure from school was – lack of purpose in their classes.
High school dropouts felt there was neither relevance nor real-life purpose for the 1080 hours per year of mandated-for-funding seat-time they were putting into school.
They disengaged. And as they disengaged, they found themselves losing the few electives, career and technical education courses, or extracurricular activities that gave them any sense of purpose at school.
So goes public education, so goes the American workforce – our economy, our standard of living, our perceived quality of life.
President Obama, whether intentionally or not, has refocused systematized education on the end result that every kindergarten teacher asks her students to consider on the first day of school: “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
Public education really is about career education – what or whom do you want to be when you are of the age to begin contributing professionally to our society? A performance-based system is ready to launch.
Our society and our schools are not homogenous entities, but rather complex organizations serving a complex clientele where the single greatest commonality is the driving question about purpose: “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
There’s a world of difference between an efficient system of public education and an effective one. Let’s not waste the opportunity for real change. The kids are ready.
Randy Johnson is a high school principal at the CEC Middle College of Denver. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
