My Public Education: an inside view of Publik Edukation in ameriKa

Introduction:

Well, this is something I've worked on for about seven years. Actually my ex-wife forced most of it out of me, word by agonizing word, before she like kicked me out of the house. It's just taken a long time to put it on the site. I do this more because I think it lends credence to my assertions that the status quo is incredibly corrupt because, while I have no theological credentials, so to speak, there are statistics and test scores which attest to the fact that I was an effective teacher right from the start. (That this was due merely to the fact that I tried to teach, not that I possessed any skills, is rather central to my story.)

It's really incredibly painful and personal and I haven't begun to read it through since it was put on a floppy disk and given to my (would-be) therapist in maybe '96. (By the way, I'm thinking the reason there aren't any names in most of the "verified/didn't verify" spaces [a check-list for the intended recipient of the letter] is because the therapist took them out. The only copy I had for years was that floppy he gave back to me with a weird little smile, years ago. As far as I can tell, he made no other changes. Those names escape me. Well . . . I didn't read enough to see if the names are still with me.)

Speaking of names . . . I noticed names in here through the long hours of putting this together. I left them in there. This is definitely (well, it was when I gave it to the therapist and think it still is) my side of the story. That's all I'm claiming it is. If there's anybody named in these pages who would like to tell their side of it, I assure you that I will at least provide a link to your side of the story. (I just don't have a whole lot of space in this account or I'd volunteer to host.) If anyone can provide a compelling reason why I should take their name out of this account, I will certainly consider it and if I find it appropriate, gladly remove your name from the account.

What I learned, basically, is that public education in ameriKa is, on average, a big failure. And it's nothing new, it's just something most people don't want to acknowledge. A preacher the other day talked about a math course he took that he just could not get a handle on. What he didn't say was what kind of grade he got. I know I learned zip, zero, nada in Latin, but made what might have been the only C of my high school days. The average student in that class, on the omnipresent bellcurve, learned nothing. Take it from me, I was there. The average student in I expect the great majority of classes in the kountry doesn't learn much at all. A good way to check would be going to the school and looking at all of the major tests your child(ren) take. And I don't mean to say that all teachers are bad teachers. Just that most of them are.

Some are actually unconscionable. Well, maybe their administrators are more to blame. (Amazing the impact a good principal can have. [The impact is that more of the teachers try to teach.]) My erstwhile sister (an eduKator herself) laughingly told the story of how her daughter had a bad teacher in grade school, who couldn't teach anything but it didn't matter because of the spiral curriculum. Which is the perfect example of how low our expectations are, and how little the average student learns. And how strong the teachers' union is, whether you join or not.

For most (would-be) teachers it's all about going through the motions. I was commiserating with a college prof about his having to teach a lot of freshmen classes because most of them don't have the prerequisite knowledge to be in the class and he was utterly amazed at my attitude. See, it just didn't matter to him that on that god of the bell curve most of his students got Cs and that those Cs represented the average accomplishment which was and is next to if not nothing. The requirement for a C is playing the game, which means you mostly show up for class, turn in something most of the times you're supposed to, take tests when they're handed out even if you know zero answers (multiple choice much more popular with most [would-be] teachers and students because they're easier to take and grade and the odds are better that more answers will be right), and definitely never talk without raising your hand (which might be the first and most important rule of the ameriKan classroom, said lesson beginning the first day of school and continuing every day thereafter).

And actually, edukation in ameriKa's publik skhools is more about playing the go-along-get-along game than learning. That's why the kollege prof could not believe I didn't understand . . . kollege is hog heaven . . . discipline problems don't exist because all the students are good at the game if not the learning. And hey, they already don't know how to learn by the time they get to college, don't have the background to learn what's supposed to be taught anyway, so what if the great majority don't learn what they're supposed to, especially if it's the quiet majority at the same time.

And listen, the reason there are discipline problems in the earlier grades, maybe especially in junior high or so, is because kids are naturally smart enough to realize they're not getting it and they're trying to get the attention they crave on a multitude of levels. (There's a good bit about that in the following pages I think.)

That said, my (long; four pages of about 50K each) account of my struggle to be a good teacher
(not that the skills were difficult to acquire, but rather that the status quo incredibly enough did not want me to work because that put pressure on others to do the same) begins
here.  (2014 note:  i glanced at some of this and it sure seems petty, but even to day public education in this kountry is rightfully struggling to gain credibility it seems to me)

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