How to criticize the schools

Criticizing schools is easy.  Just follow these simple steps.

1.    Think of something you consider basic knowledge.  The most common way to do this is to remember the sorts of things you have seen in elementary school classrooms, such as the names of the letters in our alphabet.
2.   Find a child currently participating in school.
3.   Ask the child to name the letters of the alphabet.  
4.   Listen carefully and note with satisfaction, if the child doesn't know any of the letters.  Any faltering or error means that you are right!  The schools are failing!

We can ask some questions about the procedure.  Probably the most fundamental of them relate to the connection between answering the question correctly and the effectiveness of the schools.  The most basic question is probably "Were the schools charged with teaching the knowledge to this child at this age?"  Then, did the schools attempt to do that teaching?

Even if the child cannot name the letters or the vice-president or the smallest continent, it still may be that

• the school was charged with that teaching,
• did attempt the teaching and that
• the child could and did answer the question yesterday. 
  

When we consider the number of facts and skills the schools are charged with teaching, we see that the curriculum is not continuous or linear.  That is, a child may know some items and not others. Any selection of known and unknown items is possible. We can also see that knowing is not a permanent state.  We all knew the names of the states' captials at one point in school but don't know them now.

Another large set of questions relates to other sources of knowledge than the schools.  We know several little children who have never attended schools but can already name the letters and give examples of words beginning with each.  If one of those children is tested using the steps above, we may get a false result from the test because of knowledge possessed but not learned from school.  Since humans are a curious species and often enjoy learning, more and more books, tv and computer activities relate to learning. So, we have more and more opportunities for non-school learning to occur.

A final area of questions is the all-important one of what is most valuable for the schools to teach.  I was nearly 70 years old before I learned to operate an iPod.  I was nearly 30 before learning to use a computer.  I learned to send text messages 6 months ago.  I learned some basic yoga when I was more than 50 years old.  I learned to meditate at 55.  Should my schools be criticized because they didn't teach these valuable subjects to me?


Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety