The Deeper You Dig, the Worse It Gets

So how did the education system get to be so poorly implemented in this country? Some of it seems to be about power. The teachers, principals and administrators with their education degrees and teacher's conferences see themselves as the guardians of information, and as we can see here, they can be very loath to give it out. Reminds me of the mainstream media in that they feel they have the knowledge, and the authority, and you are only worthy to receive what they deign to give out. Why someone should enjoy being the tinpot dictator of an elementary school is beyond me, but as we can see from the woman quoted here, educators are perfectly comfortable deciding what your children should learn, despite what feelings those who pay her salary might have on the matter.

But just like bloggers are taking away the exclusivity the mainstream media once had on information, parents are using the internet, and finding like-minded parents in their own community, to exchange notes and share options. Not only is homeschooling growing, but parents who for their own reasons do not have homeschooling as an option, have created afterschooling, filling in the public education gaps during afternoons, evenings and weekends. Parents can get immediate information on a curriculum used in their child's school, and also get immediate information on what might be useful to close any knowledge gaps.

It is sad that parents have to spend their own time and extra money beyond what they are paying in taxes, to make sure their children receive an adequate education. It's wrong, with the amount of money schools are receiving, that those children whose parents are not putting in the extra effort (and dollars) will be stuck with a poor education; see here and here. Of course, parental involvement matters, has always mattered. Even in Farmer Boy, Almanzo Wilder's parents did not play educational games with their children, give them worksheets or art projects, but their parents did expect them to behave properly and mind their teacher, and Almanzo's father even gave the teacher a little help with disorderly students. But for schools to fail so dismally at their basic function indicates a serious problem.

We were among the parents who thought to themselves, "Those homeschooling people might be on to something." We got tired of the arguments and tears from the Scientist while she struggled with homework, after a long day in school. We didn't like hearing that the private, Christian school we were sacrificing to send our daughter to, was about a year behind the upper-middle-class public schools in the same city. We wondered why the school that promised an individualized education for every student could not give our daughter the more advanced work that we requested, and that they admitted she could do. We wondered why the teachers with all their special knowledge and education could not help our daughter with her problems with concentration, beyond telling us to "work on it with her at home." We definitely wondered why a private, Christian school should be in the socialism business, taking all the students' colored pencils and distributing them out randomly. This meant, of course, that some students grabbed all the popular colors, and my daughter had to fight to get what she needed. I suppose she did learn something about socialism there, after all.

The waste of time and treasure in organized schools, however, is sad and discouraging. And it will continue until enough parents, and most likely enough of the parents whose children the schools are failing the most today, ask for some choices and take power back into their hands.