Jesse A. Schroeder

...American education -

I'm no expert, for sure. Yeah I'm in my fifth year of teaching, but I didn't take one class in even basic education theory. There is no state certificate for teaching religion, so I have figured out my own way the last five years. But that's not the point -

What seems broken now is the overall mentality toward education and personal achievement in America. Nicholas Kristoff is lamenting Congress' decision to trim the stimulus package by removing money for education  - and the response he gets from readers is so vicious and divided it is obvious that our country doesn't know where to go in terms of education. All we know is something is seriously wrong.

First some quotes from Kristoff:

"I’m increasingly of the view that our nation’s top priority...must be revitalizing
our education system." I wouldn't have a problem agreeing with this statement, but the "revitalization" has to penetrate beyond just the schools and into the homes of Americans.

"Come on, senators, education is the best way to fight poverty, the best
way to break the cycle of the underclass, the best way to ensure a
broader distribution of opportunity in America, the best way to
preserve our country’s economic competitiveness. And it’s just as good
for stimulus purposes as repaving a road — and you still want to throw
those school children out the window?" Right on - I'm so pissed at the latest "debates" regarding the stimulus package. Well-off senators talking about the "best interests" of Americans when it seems the concerns are more re-election and securing their "clients" (not their constituents) vote. Drinking my morning coffee, listening the updates every day, the partisan voting and "debating" - all I can say is euugghhkkkk.......How do we think throwing more money at the big corporations who are concerned with their bottom line and their CEO's salaries is going to "stimulate" the economy? I have appreciated Obama's long term view in this bill, but it seems that the Senators are to near-sighted and thick-headed to consider what "job security" is going to mean beyond next Christmas.

Beyond Kristoff's great article (and I so much appreciate his op-ed pieces lately), it is unnerving to read the comments on the blog: 336 just this afternoon, and many offering drastically different positions - pointing the blame in a hundred different directions - teachers, administration, the home, the students, lack of funding, diversity, etc. etc. This is why I'm most concerned about the nation's education system - it is so broken we are not even sure what it would mean to fix it any more. We can't locate the problem, and so we can't work to find a solution.

What I have learned by teaching for five years is that education is so much more than test scores and homework. There is an entire system (and I mean that in the most comprehensive sense) that shapes and impacts a student from pre-K through college. The biggest influence on this system is the prevailing worldview of America: Consumerism and Ego-centrism. In my opinion, this is what drives our education. The goal of students is not to learn for the sake of knowledge, for the sake of bettering themselves and society, for the purpose of development and contributing to make a more beautiful world. But rather students offer the answers they are supposed to so they can get it over with so they can get back to whatever it is they want to do - which is usually texting.

We need to paint a new picture, tell a new story and sing a new song. One that goes beyond fame and fortune, and finds beauty. We need to teach our students how to live, how to cope, how to wrestle with life and death. Instead, we are offering more money, more technology, and less education.

I hope we can find the problem soon so we can all work together to fix it - but just like the latest debates regarding "economic stimulus" have shown, the plank in our nation's eye is so huge, we are nearly blind.