US Presidential Debate On Education

Last question of the moderator, Mr. Schieffer, during the final presidential debate at Hofstra University on October 15th was on education. Both Senators, Barack Obama and John McCain, specifics did not meet my expectation. I thank them, though, for not forgetting parents as a significant factor in the success of education. I am just sad that Mr. Obama considered parents as the last ingredients, and McCain considered them solely as a decision maker as to where their kids go.

What American education really needs are change of priority, equality of compensation and attention, and complete trust and support for its classroom teachers.

Most teachers are very good and gifted; however, it is also true that there are few bad tomatoes among them. Teachers were not born yesterday. They pretty well know what are in store for them in the classroom. They were trained as educators for 4 years and have passed the certification exams. Therefore, America does not need to have what Obama called new generation of teachers and what McCain suggested to weed out poor-performers. Ousting bad teachers have been going on ever since. That's the reason why the school administrators do both announced and unannounced evaluation of classroom teachers' performance several times in a school year.

The USofA needs to change priority in its educational system. It needs to emphasize the 3Rs not just math and science. It is just too bad that many schools are now emphasizing non-academic programs, like competitive sports. I cannot forget the shock while teaching middle school in Port Arthur, Texas. I learned that the entry level salary of a football coach was twice as much as the academic teachers. (And check the differences of a college coach salary to an academic professor. It could be worst.) With the incongruity of salaries, tell me, what is the priority and what signal are we sending to the school children, not to mention the kids' knowledge on the salaries of professional athletes. If schools would continue to instill and reinforce the culture of sports, there's no way for America to improve its educational system.

It needs to emphasize students' discipline in the classroom. And America needs to give complete trust and support as to how teachers instill discipline and manage their classroom as long as such discipline program is not abusive. The problem facing the system nowadays is the fear of teachers of being ousted by the district or sued for "excessive" discipline by over-protective parents. True, there is a need to monitor the disciplinary action of every teacher, but to create the feeling of fear does not help teachers with their classroom management. Time outs and putting middle school student in a corner are barely helping, especially if there are 30 rowdy students in a classroom. There was a time when I was tempted to yell at a student,"Settle down or I'll whack your butt real hard." Parents can say that to their kids, but why is it abusive for teachers to threaten them like the parents do? Yes, teachers could send undisciplined kids to the assistant principal office to be paddled, but what help does the paddling do when students ended up coming back to the classroom with a wide grin on their faces, because the paddling were not painful at all. Slight whacking is, for me, a complete joke. And for the students? They consider it fun (or funny)and an opportunity to be out of the classroom.

I would like to suggest that when a rowdy kid needs whacking, the school should call on the parents. Have that parents come to school and have them whack their own kids right in front of the assistant principal. I believe this would achieve active participation of parents to the education of their kids, at the same time, free the school personnel from their fear of being sued. Pulling off TV set and putting away video games is not complete participation of parents in their kid's education. Having them come to school and actively participate in the disciplinary action is, to me, a real active participation. But ask any public school teacher what happened during an "open house" and PTA meetings? Teachers would tell you that there would be very few parents come if attendance would not be checked. But ask the parents what they'd do if they heard their kids hurt or complained of being abused. Parents would sprint to the principal office and elevate their complaints to the school board.

Look what happen recently at Simeon High School in Chicago. A volleyball coach was ousted for employing corporal punishment to the players. Chicago Sun-Times(Oct. 8)quoted this statement from the overly protective mom,"...I couldn't believe it. I lost my mind." Did she asked the kid why? Did she try to rationalize the coaches action or did she immediately went berserk. It seemed that the latter was true. Did the school board asked themselves, why were the other kids mad at this kid after the coach resigned?

The rowdiness of students can never be discouraged if teachers are even afraid to stop a fistfight in their classrooms. Teachers are not only afraid to be hurt, they are afraid to be sued by the parents if they accidentally pushed or touch a sensitive part of the student. One Caucasian science teacher at the school where I taught was asked to resign by the school board after he accidentally pushed one of the two African-American kids, who had a fistfight, onto a wall. I was a little bit fortunate that my principal and most of my students were on my side, when a rowdy 7th grader, complained that I touched her breast. Her parents immediately rushed to the principal office. I was made to explain the case. Other students were interviewed. The principal considered the allegation unfounded. The parents threatened me to take it to the school board. The parents were not successful in convincing the district, so they ended up threatening me on the phone.

I cannot forget while my colleague and I were on our way to a professional development workshop in Beaumont, Texas. My colleague told me that she gets frustrated, because even with all these development trainings, it seems that the principles and methodologies that she learned at the university and in seminars and workshops are ineffective. I knew she loved to teach. I knew she was smart. She was even teaching an honor's English class. I told her that probably what we need in order for teachers to teach effectively is a training on military strategy and tactic.

Look! Military curriculum is an elective course in American educational system and it is offered to high school kids, while it is a prescribed program in other countries. Why could we not have a compulsory military training among the middle school kids, where discipline (or shall I say classroom management) have been very problematic. Military program instills discipline and develops proper conduct,not competition. This would help take care of querulous and rowdy kids.

So there you are, my friends. Yes, we need to correct the American education system, but we don't only need to remunerate our teachers well and re-prioritize the school program. We need to strongly show our complete trust and support to the teachers' classroom management, and to require parents to board the ship and actively participate in in-school disciplinary actions.


NOTE: For Filipino readers, I wrote another weekend blog exclusive to GreatPinoy.com. I would appreciate it very much if you also could check it out. Maraming salamat!