3.18

After a month of stretching my satirical muscles (which, admittedly, often had spasms that resembled something closer to inanity), I’d like to get back to the trend I began last semester of tackling issues in a more straightforward and sincere fashion. Satire has its place, naturally, but to actually take on issues with the respect they deserve, you need nuance and clarity. Ideally, anyway.

With that said, I wanted to start out by taking on a topic that is at once immensely important and close to my heart (as a gestating secondary teacher): education.

It might sound self-congratulatory, coming from a publication whose existence depends upon an institution of higher learning for content and readership, but I truly think there’s little doubt that education is one of the most valued services our society supports and our government provides. Many people see education, and rightly so, as the primary means to produce a responsible, ethical, and “successful” (financially and psychologically) populace. While there’s significant debate as to where, how, and what that education should be, I have yet to hear a sincere argument that every child should not receive some form of education, regardless of their means.

That, to me, is one of the most significant indications that education and democracy are fundamentally linked. Your intelligence, knowledge, and reasoning has the capacity to have a direct effect upon me as a result of our governing structure. Therefore, it’s not only in your best interest but mine as well for you to receive a quality education.

That much isn’t particularly objectionable. What are objectionable, though, are the questions I glided over earlier in the column: who delivers the education, who decides what it shall consist of, where will it be, how will it be funded, etc. etc. There are almost as many myriad opinions on the subject as there are people who have opinions at all.

Obviously, all of these people can never be satisfied. But the extent to which so many people are dissatisfied is, in my mind, particularly noteworthy. Most people, in my experience, will tell you that our public education system is deficient. Some say “inadequate,” some say “inequitable,” some say “broken.” How often do you hear “the public school system is great?”

However, for a subject that so many people value and so few people agree upon, it's amazing, to me, how little informed discussion takes place about it. I say “informed” because it is, indeed, true that many people, when commenting on the state of education, will posit various solutions to their perceived problems. Rarely, though, do those solutions come from anything outside of anecdotal experience.

So let's start talking about it. Let's talk about how to motivate students and teachers without commodifying either. Let's talk about how to provide choice in content and school while maintaining (or, indeed, creating) equity. Let's talk about how to make teaching a desirable profession rather than a fallback for those with no other prospects or a stasis chamber that fosters bitter and bored individuals for whom the job is nothing but a retirement benefit waiting to happen.

Let's talk about the merits of “general education” in the information age. Let's talk about how to make material engaging while teaching material that's necessary. Let's talk about the use of grades as, often, the sole motivator for an unwilling student populace while maintaining accountability and quality assessment. Let's talk about how to foster innovation in teaching while maintaining oversight and regulation. Let's talk about how to treat and regard students as they age, respecting their growing capacities for responsibility, choice, and control, while maintaining an orderly, safe, and productive school environment helping them to succeed.

Let's talk about higher education. Let's talk about the merits of a “publish or perish” research culture while ensuring continued progress in the battleground of ideas. Let's talk about the negative valuation of teaching versus the positive valuation of research and the ramifications this has for students, faculty, and the administration. Let's talk about the merits and detriments of the Honors Program, the Haslam Scholars, merit scholarships and any other designation that asserts fundamental differences between students in terms of privileges, assets, and perceived ability.

In other words, let's talk about education. I will admit, I've been remiss in this, too (aside from a few instances). Admittedly, it's a topic (like the economy) that's often written off as a niche, complicated issue best left to professionals. But, just like economic policy, it's also something that has affected each one of us and continues to affect our children.

I certainly don't have the answers (and, admittedly, even my suggestions are riddled with imperfections). But I don't think that's an excuse for not exploring the topic. It's a mistake I intend to remedy (some of my fellow columnists have done just that in the past weeks). Who knows. Maybe we'll learn something.