Fixing Public Education

it will all “come together” in the child and he/she will be fully equipped for life. The child will have a nice, clean, shiny, FULL toolbox of skills and knowledge to carve out a decent life for his future self, future family and future society upon graduating from high school.

This premise is also wrong. Handing dissociated pieces of knowledge to anyone is the least effective way of getting the whole picture. Research shows us time and again that if a learning module starts with the Whole and encourages kids to see how those little pieces fit into it when the child is ready learning occurs much more effectively. It adds M&Ms to the formula: Motivation with Meaning. Driver education is an elective. It has a waiting list. Why? Kids see themselves driving around in a car, able to impress their friends, or pick up a girlfriend, to join that class of kids in the ‘car fraternity/sorority, and to stretch out the boundaries of what it means to be an adult, i.e. Freedom. Because they see the big picture they are willing to learn about safety, car parts, highway laws, and go through tedious student driving – Why? Because they clearly see the reason for it. It is a means to an end they understand and desire. They are motivated because they see the meaning.

Go back into the classroom. We mainly force the memorization of pieces of some distant whole called ‘a successful life’ way down the pike. To keep it going children are convinced that higher grades are good, or we they get a reward for learning these uninteresting pieces. When that does not work we threaten kids and, now, their teachers, principals and schools to make cramming a better science. Those good at making cramming effective get to keep their jobs. Some schools are spending six weeks cramming for state tests now.

This is a sad way to view education. It is an even sadder way to DO education.

Now we begin to see what FIXING PUBLIC EDUCATION is about. It espouses a new way – the January Model of Educational Excellence – that illustrates how we can change this around in a win-win situation for everyone. Think on this: Having a ‘Race to the Top’ cannot work without creating losers as well as winners, right? If the prize at the end of the race is worth having, most of the participants MUST be losers. Is it realistic to think that all runners will cross the finish line together, evenly breaking the tape as one?

What if Secretary of Education Arne Duncan had laid out the actual truth in his Race to the Top strategy in 2008? The truth would sound like this: “We have a LOT of money we are going to give to the winners of this Race to the Top (no longer called No Child Left Behind). Most schools and their children will automatically be losers, of course. Odds are your child will be in a loser category…but think of it this way. He or she is part of the Race to the Top! Isn’t that exciting? Alright everyone: On your mark…get set…” Well, I doubt even his basketball buddy, the President, could have kept Mr. Duncan in office the first year as the hue and outcry would be deafening. “That is a stupid, stupid thing to do!” we would have screamed. “You are going to paint a majority of kids as losers so some can be winners? And we already know who those winners are…the rich parents’ kids and their beautiful schools in the suburbs! We want something that every child can win…no matter who they are.”

The authors of FIXING PUBLIC EDUCATION noticed that many of the problems plaguing schools – funding, reform, discipline, dropouts, achievement gaps, a general lack of enthusiasm for learning, and disengaged students and faculty, as well as the “accountability issues” we are trying to pressurize, standardize, and test our way out of – CAN be reduced, if not permanently eradicated, by adopting what we call the January Education Model of Excellence. It can begin now…each teacher could implement small pieces. A school or school system or state could implement the January Education Model close to a 100% if they would but open their eyes to some of these things.