Thursday, February 27, 2014

What Obamacare Means for Public Education

There are a number of people who dislike the Affordable Health Care Act, which has been dubbed “Obamacare.” However through the lens of an educator, Obamacare may be  beneficial to public education.  

              Obamacare has the potential to address many of the social ills that affect academic attainment and school climate.  If everyone is mandated to have healthcare, the potential to have healthier children in school would greatly impact the classroom.  

Imagine, if schools did not have to focus on uncovering vision, hearing, and behavioral health deficits because children came to school with glasses, hearing aids and under the supervision of a physician or psychiatrist?  A true partnership could be built where school, parents and physicians work together to support children. 

Imagine attendance in schools improving because fewer children are out sick. Imagine instructional time be used more effectively when children come to school fed with enough sleep and energy to be engaged?  Without these distractions, children would be able to focus on academics.  The ability to focus on academics should translate to increase tests scores and increase content knowledge.    


Finally, Obamacare could be beneficial to schools in addressing teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease and AIDS.  Imagine young adults being able to learn the various forms of prevention from a physician who can inform them of symptoms and provide medication.  Being under the care of a physician for a pregnancy, STD or AIDS could alleviate the pressure and anxiety and allow the young adult to focus on their education. 

If Obamacare can address just some of the social ills that affect academic and school climate, schools and children will be the biggest beneficiaries of a controversial law.      

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Growing Up Without a Filter

A child educated only at school
is an uneducated child

            A friend of mine posted this statement on Facebook.  The efforts to improve public education have primarily focused on students meeting content standards.  However, absent in the focus is the role parents should play in supporting their children’s education.  It is the absence of parent involvement that undermines the education of children.

There is a disturbing trend that is not being addressed and it has a tremendous impact on public education.  The trend is children who are growing up without a filter.  There are children who are witnessing, hearing and learning things that are not appropriate for their age.  Since there is no one to model appropriate behavior, these children come to school and emulate the inappropriate behaviors they witness, hear and learn. 

When their learned inappropriate behavior conflicts with expected school behavior, these children struggle and they become labeled.  These students are called disruptive, violent, emotionally disturbed.  These are children that will likely be placed in special education programs because they are unable to transition their inappropriate behavior to the expected school behavior.

While these children have now been labeled and placed in a special education program, the parents of these children continue to allow their children to be exposed to inappropriate behaviors.  When a child’s first instinct to conflict resolution is to fight, that child has witnessed, heard and learned the way to respond to conflict is to fight.  When a child is frustrated and they do not have the coping skills to calm themselves because they have witnessed, heard and learned to curse, yell, scream and threaten, that is what he/she will do.  Lastly, when children use inappropriate language discuss inappropriate content in their daily interactions with peers in public settings, it is because they have witnessed, hear and learned this in non school settings.  The question becomes, how can schools neutralize the lack of a filter some children have?

There is no easy solution to this problem.  A teacher and administrator can only do so much work with children who are growing up with no filter.  The difficulty is convincing parents to partner with the school to develop a filter for their child.  Unfortunately, there are some parents who do not believe in having a filter because they grew up without a filter. 


If we want all children to learn, not become labeled and not improperly placed in special education programs, schools will have to find a way to neutralize the lack of a filter in order for children to learn. This is where partnership with parents is crucial to the success of the child.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

The Purpose of Public Education

            What is the purpose of public education?  Is the purpose of public education for students to understand, retain and recall content?  Is the purpose of public education for students to learn a skill? Or is the purpose of public education something else?

            If you believe the purpose of public education is for students to understand, retain and recall content, then there has to be a more effective way for students to be instructed that would rely less on rote memorization and recitation and more on open discussion.  Having open discussions would provide students the opportunity to develop theories and opinions and have those opinions challenged by peers and by the teacher in an informal debate process.  Instruction in this manner engages students to become a partner in the learning process, develops critical thinking skills and should allow them to understand, retain and recall content because of their partnership in the learning process.

            Additionally, if the purpose of public education is for students to understand and recall content, then why are schools using standardized testing as the sole means of evaluation understanding and recalling of content?  Why not give students oral and written exams to determine their understanding and recall of content?  Would this not be a more valid measure of evaluation?

            If you believe the purpose of public education is for students to learn a skill, how would this occur in a system where there are few opportunities for students to “learn by doing?”  With the exception of a hand full of schools that provide skills for a specific trade, a majority of students are not learning the skills that will help them compete in the global workforce. 

            There is great concern from higher education, corporations and parents about a “skills gap” in public education.  The claims about a skills gap in public education has gained more attention due to the perception a skills gap is one of the reasons for the poor economy.  Blaming the over emphasis of standardized testing in public education and the consequences tied to poor outcomes, instruction shifted to ensuring that enough students pass the standardized test.  Lost in the emphasis on testing was the instruction of skills.

            It is rare in public education today that students learn content in a project based learning model.  There was a time when public education utilized the “applied” method to instruction.  The applied method connected content to real world applications.  Subjects such as Applied Math, Applied Science, etc provided instruction that was hands on and provided a connection to the world of work.  It was this type of instruction where students learned skills as well as content.  However, the applied method was not considered “academically rigorous.”

            Finally, if you believe the purpose of public education is something else such as developing productive citizens, sending students to college, or to be critical thinkers, then you will begin to understand the perception of public education as a struggling entity.


            The purpose of public education is different from state to state, district to district, parent to parent and teacher to teacher.  If the adults cannot come up with a common purpose for public education, why do we believe students will?