What is Equality, Really?

Equality is defined as the state of being equal. This is a hard concept with education.

Basically, we are to believe in nurture over nature in education. That we can school the hell out of someone and make them all the same. First of all...BORING. Second, this is a joke. Why do we want to create a uniformed, cookie cutter, one size fits all, a b c or d generation of kids? We are all equal in the fact we all have unique and amazing gifts we can offer the world. We are not all equal in IQ, talents, ability level, interest or outcomes. SO why are we striving to make this the case in our education system.

There is a goal for this equality of test scores, in an effort to prove that the educators are pulling their weight in our culture. We seem to want all students, including special needs and bilingual students, to achieve the same level. That is demoralizing to a special needs student who may never be able to achieve the goals set forth and depressing to students with high IQs who will be bored to tears by the back to the basics approach. We will never wipe out inequaties by just teaching kids to take tests. Here we talk about achievement gaps and label schools and teachers failures without looking at the cultural implications of the world around us on the students and their performance level. How dare the powers that be demand miracle work from the education system while ignoring the basic systems in place in a working society.

Lets look at this two ways. First, imagine in some alternate universe it was possible to educate everyone to an equal level, overcome all learning disabilities and outside influence on a child's education and give everyone an above average education where everyone achieves advanced college level degrees (on their own, with out grade inflation). Suddenly the entire next generation, for example, is college educated. Who the hell is gonna pick up our trash? Who is gonna fix our cars? Who is going to work our grocery store check out lines and serve us meals at restaurants? If the goal is for everyone to be a doctor, lawyer, investment banker or even a teacher, doesn't that destroy our entire cultural system? Isn't the idea that there is always a level in our culture that is working to achieve higher social status while tending to the basic needs of our systems? There is no way the idea of equality for all, where everyone is college educated would help our society. And again it goes back to what we think it means to be equal. Is someone less of a person if they are not college educated? Seems to be many people think that. When the truth is a college education does not make you more empathetic, it does not make you a better Mother or Father, it does not mean you will succeed in life.

The other way to view this is while we are busy making sure everyone is "educationally equal" we ignore the innate gifts and crush the creative soul and spirit of students who could be the next great painter, musician, scientist, philosopher and so on. Making sure everyone knows the right answer for some standardized test is making a generation of people who assume there is always a right answer. There isn't other than math, there is always an alternative view, another way to inturpt the information and a way to analyze things that calls for creative problem solving. A really smart kid can see why a, b, c and d could be ther right answer. Here we are destroying what America does best, create and innovate. And we are forgetting that our education is not the sum of who we are it is a part of what we have to offer. Some of our greatest minds did not go to college. Some did not do well in school, because the structure limited their thinking. We are so greatly limiting thinking right now we have probably set our culture back generations.

So, what is equality? What makes a person equal to you, better than you or less than you. I dare to say it is not their education level.

Obviously I believe in good, even great, schools for all. But I do not believe we want the same outcome for everyone. We are struggling now with how to provide a good education to all, an education system we can be proud of. But in the process of trying to find this system we are destroying what we had that worked. I believe we want to help all students achieve to their greatest level and share their greatest gifts with the world. Whether that ability level is 4th grade math or their greatest gift is being able to identify what that noise in my engine is. All students should not go to college, it will do nothing but crush the spirit of many. All students should be given the chance to realize their vision of what a good life will be, not what we believe a good life should be.

Starting My Rant

I figured it was time I started actually writing down some of the stuff I am constantly thingking about. Of course being a stay at home Mom of 2 young boys, I doubt I will ever really acomplish writting anything that is more than stream of conscious babble about how I fear for the education of our children and in the long run the state of our country because of how flawed our education system is. But, I dont think the reform and plans we have to fix our schools now is the least bit right...it is a step off the edge of the cliff instead of towards safety. I will try to explain why I think that in this blog to the best of my ability.
I am a former teacher. Mind you I was an art teacher, so take that however you like. But I got to look in the education system and see some of the faults and some of the bandaids and watch hoop jumping for teachers and students alike in an effort to prove to Washington or whoever that our education system could improve...but in all that effort to measure accountability and figure out how to qualify education, a love of learning and creative thinking have been throw out the window.
Before I start to really babble let me try to set forth an outline of the things that I hope to address and where I see the issues. Again, I was an art teacher, not an english teacher and this is just a step towards trying to get my thoughts in order. A rough draft if you will.
- Standardized testing crushes creative thinking and captures only a moment in the learning process, it is not the answer to understanding student performance (or teacher performance, cause lets face facts...that is what this is about)
- Strict curriculum standards and guideline halt teachable moments and enrichment that could pull students into the learning.
- The loss of vocational education in our schools is a step in the wrong direction. For many kids this was the reason to go to school and helped students who would not achieve in college understand their own talents and gifts
- We need to be OK with failure and the fact that not all students are A students.
- Our teaching to the lowest common denominator has lost our best and brightest students to apathy and boredom.
- IEPs are a guideline, but they have become a prison for some students who begin to think they cannot achieve outside the structure of their IEP and therefore could not achieve in the real world since your boss in the real world does not give you an IEP.
- C's are OK...it means you are average. How giving away A's to make students feel good about themselves and keep parents happy is not helping anyone.
- Why differentiation is good in theory, but doesn't help anyone in the long run.
- Why teachers should be in charge of education, not government.
- Why our American education system should not be compared to other countries; and what America does best in education.
- It is time to stop teachers unions in their current form and restructure how the union supports education.

Okay, so there is a start to my thoughts. I figure if I can just begin to try and articulate why I feel so strongly about how the current education plan is ruining our children and our culture I might feel better to have just gotten it out.