Education’s Dirty Little Secret
by Rachel Hicks on February 18, 2008 in Blog, The Blackboard
Everyone is an education expert.
No really, I’m serious. If five years in the field of education have taught me anything, it’s this: everyone knows what’s wrong with American education.
I’m not really sure why this happens. Maybe it’s because everyone in the U.S. is required to attend school for at least a decade (experience=expertise). Or perhaps it’s because America doesn’t value the teaching profession so all things education-related must be easy, too (education=easy). Whatever the cause, I cannot escape the everyday education expert.
As a student at the Harvard Kennedy School, I often wonder if students of other policy areas feel the same way. Do the international security folks feel that the general public is full of suggestions on how to fix America’s foreign policy woes? Are the energy wonks constantly besieged with helpful and informed proposals on how to slow climate change? Have the future economic advisors of the world already honed their response to John Q. Public who has a brilliant plan to end the next recession?
Based on no empirical evidence at all, I reject the hypothesis that the answer to these questions is yes.
So why do I, as an educator, get caught at parties in conversations that go something like this:
Uninformed Party-Goer: So, what is it that you do with your life?
Me: I used to be a teacher, and now I study education policy.
Uninformed Party-Goer: Oh, that’s sweet. Well, you know nothing is ever going to improve unless we find some way to solve the parenting problem.
Me: You mean, other than educating kids better before they become parents?
Uninformed Party-Goer: You know what I mean. Schools just can’t do anything when kids have a bad home life. My mother/sister/boyfriend/second-cousin-twice-removed works in a school, and they say it, too.
Me: Actually, the research says…<Here, I try my best to convince my fellow party-goer that the problem is a lot more complex than Bad Parents=Bad American Education. This usually ends with the person nodding politely and telling me how great it is that I care so much about children.>
Substitute “testing” for “parents,” and you can imagine how 90% of my conversations with the uninitiated go. (I’m sure I’m not the only person in education with this problem. Here’s a parenting rant by Jay Mathews of the Washington Post where he may have been channelling me. Here’s a rant about testing, the scapegoat-du-jour, that a person like me may have to endure.)
So, there you have it. Everyone is an education expert, and I have now written myself out of a job. After all, if everyone has the answers, why hire me—or read this blog, for that matter?
My wit and charm notwithstanding, there are far more compelling reasons to listen to those of us who dedicate our lives to the more pedestrian policy pursuits (you know, social policy). The first is that if it were so simple, we wouldn’t be paying so much money to go here, and No Child Left Behind would never have been passed. The other is more personal: at some point in your lifetime, you will probably have children (or know someone well who does), and those children will go to school. Are you not the least bit worried that parents and/or testing cannot explain the entire difference between one kid’s educational attainment and another’s?
If not, never read this blog again. In fact, tell the Ed in ’08 people in the Forum to stuff it, and never read this article about the challenges of a school in my home state of Mississippi.
But if you’re slightly more curious than Mr. Uninformed Party-Goer, check back Friday when I’ll be writing about the research on whether school funding really matters to student achievement.
Until then, here’s your homework.
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One Response to “Education’s Dirty Little Secret”
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Well written, Rachel!
Although I don’t think it’s the only factor, I do believe parenting plays a huge role. As an non-Educator, I’m interested to see what empirical evidence you will lay out on Friday.
Congrats on the blog, and keep up the good work!
-Eddie