American primary and secondary public education is in a sorry state. This should come as no surprise, public education being affected so heavily by American cultural values. Where else but in America can one find plumbers, basketball players, garbage collectors, stand-up comedians, grocery store clerks, auto mechanics and police who are more highly paid than teachers? Yet, it is these teachers to whom the intellectual development of America’s youth is entrusted. Moreover, teachers in public schools are expected to wear many hats besides that of teacher. They are called upon to serve as police, social workers, ministers and daycare providers. Not only do teachers have to serve informally as substitute parents, some formally teach courses that were once the province of the family: conflict resolution, interpersonal skills, personal finance, and multicultural appreciation to name but a few. These courses take a larger and larger portion of the curriculum, leaving smaller and smaller portions to traditional academic courses.
What kind of individual would submit him or herself to this kind of low-prestige, low-pay, high-stress, high-responsibility job? Typically, two types of person: the highly dedicated and talented individual who is committed to making a difference, and the mediocre individual with few options for employment elsewhere. Unfortunately, the latter have a much higher survival rate as public school teachers than do the former. By and large, our public schools are staffed with those who were themselves mediocre students in schools or those who are talented but “burnt-out.” What kind of graduate should they be expected to produce?
The American family’s disintegration is another factor contributing to poor schools, and is a symptom of American culture’s emphasis on profit and material gain. In the recent past, one income was sufficient to maintain a typical American family in relative comfort. This is no longer true. Nowadays, not only do both parents work, so do most teenagers. Rare is the family whose teenagers do not work on weekends and even on weeknights. For what purpose do teenagers work? Usually, so the teenager can afford to purchase a car, car insurance, gasoline for the car, designer clothing, home entertainment equipment, etc. Most teenagers do not work to support the family or to put themselves through college; most American parents still see these as their responsibilities. Teenagers work, essentially, in order to “keep up with the Jones’s,” the “Jones’s” in this case being their peers. What did teenagers “of old” do instead of working for a salary? They studied; at least, they were expected to study. How can today’s teenagers get by with less studying? They can do so because their teachers make fewer demands on their time outside of school. Fewer demands on the students result in less work for the teacher. This produces a positive feedback loop resulting in ever lower standards and increasingly underprepared high-school graduates.
Teachers who maintain high expectations of their students receive little support from administrators. Who is more likely to be called to the principal’s office for a conference: the winning coach whose students all receive As and Bs or the hard-working teacher in whose classes as many students earn Ds as earn Bs? Definitely, the latter. In the mind of the typical public school administrator, the best teachers satisfy two criteria: (i) their students earn high scores on TAAS tests, and (ii) they are popular with both parents and students. High TAAS test scores can be achieved in two ways. Courses can be taught “to the test,” i.e. teachers can teach students how to outsmart the tests, or students can be taught to ask hard questions about their studies and can be motivated to find answers to those questions, thereby producing a deep grasp of the subject matter. Mediocre teachers can do only the former and it is usually the former that is pursued in our public schools.
Most people want to be liked. And teachers are just like people. Teachers who award low grades to the students who earn them are not likely to be liked by students, by parents, or by administrators. How can a teacher avoid giving low grades? By lowering standards and/or by offering opportunities to make up low scores through extra credit work – work that is often less rigorous than the original assignments. Students receive higher grades and, consequently, feel better about themselves; students now possess “self-esteem.” At the same time, the popularity of the teacher increases: another positive feedback loop resulting in still lower standards. Administrators and parents expect teachers to foster students’ self-esteem. What used to be the role of the family has, again, become the job of the public schools. One result is high-school GPAs that are typically much-inflated and fairly useless as predictors of success in any endeavor, especially college, UNLESS professors there are also of mediocre quality.
An educator who possesses integrity does not act with the purpose of making him or herself popular. This, rather, is the sort of behavior we have come to expect of the worst politicians who allow their actions to be governed more by popularity polls than by principles.
I do not make it my concern to bolster a student’s sense of self-esteem, or to permit a student to remain in college, in a particular major, in a particular organization or in a particular career path. These goals are properly the concern of the student and of his/her family. Unfortunately, not all students who are admitted to college belong there. A subset of those admitted will find that they do not possess the ability, the responsibility or the commitment needed to succeed at this level. I believe that it is a disservice to these students, to their peers, to the college and to society to lower standards so that these students can pass on to the next level.
Undertaking a college education is not without risks. These can be as superficial as wasting time and money on a worthless course, or as enormous as losing one’s entire value system. Just because one pays tuition, one is not guaranteed success or happiness. Nor is one guaranteed that his/her most cherished beliefs will go unchallenged. Indeed, many students find it difficult to communicate with friends and family after completing a college education because they no longer share the same beliefs and values. College has introduced them to new knowledge and new ways of thinking. For many, especially those raised by parents who were not college-educated, college is a time of “de-acculturation,” wherein one gives up the culture in which one was raised, and subsequent “re-acculturation” wherein one takes on a new culture. My hope for all of my students is that they will become acculturated in “the life of the mind.” This means that they will take responsibility for the quality of their education and for the quality of their thinking. They will base their actions on what they know to be true, rather than on what they wish to be true. They will see learning as its own end, not done for the purpose of passing a test or getting a good grade or getting into a particular career. They will dedicate themselves to their own lifelong education.
How can it be that while the primary and secondary educational system of the nation is critically flawed, American higher education is the envy of the world? Well, there is no guarantee that this will remain so. American higher education is far healthier than primary and secondary education only because it has been able to maintain higher standards. If it should happen that, due to economic pressures, student retention comes to be viewed as the mark of a good professor or a good department or, worse, that the student comes to be viewed as the “customer” who is always right, then American higher education will quickly and surely descend to the rank occupied by its “feeder” systems. It is the duty of college professors to provide example, leadership and resources to educators in these feeder systems. Everything possible must be done to improve the quality of the education of those who will become teachers. Yet, this will be wasted energy unless America does everything possible to improve the working conditions of these same teachers so as to recruit them, retain them and help them develop into ever better teachers.