Some observations about making schools better. I write these because I’m so amused with the politicians and how they seem to have the answers for better schools boiled down to catch phrases.

Jim Wooten in the Atlanta Journal said a couple of weeks ago that reducing class size was not the answer. I wonder how much teaching Jim has done. He is also an advocate of reducing the number of administrators. He says that schools are top heavy with overpaid do-nothings. Having been in the classroom awhile, I can tell you that class size is critical. And having plenty of administrators is critical too. I’ve noticed that there are levels of teaching efficiency that pass away when class size is over 25 and again when it is over 40. I teach high school, so these numbers are likely different at other levels.

Jim is also big into all the Republican answers, which seem to be: 1) forget about teacher pay raises, they make plenty and private schools do better with less pay; 2) do away with certifications, any degreed person can teach; 3) vouchers are needed to subsidize my friends’ private schools; and 4) fire teachers of under-performing students (student failures must be instructional failures); 5) give merit pay to teachers who produce good test scores). I won’t bother addressing most of this crap.

I would suggest that radical school reform would include a lot more money—not a little more money—a lot more money.

I imagine different looking schools. Class sizes are no more than 15. Everyone can ask questions and have them answered. There is never so much noise that people don’t hear the teacher. No one is far away from the teacher. The teacher can evaluate student progress on each application in a minimum of time, ensuring forward progress for all. Who gets this treatment now? Only the Advanced Placement and the Special Education Classes. Why not everyone? There are extra rooms for special applications. Perhaps there should be rooms without desks, or hard chairs, just cushions or pillows and such. Like the computer lab, they would be available on a sign up basis.

Rooms should be finished out differently. Who lives in a space that is white concrete block, with no window treatments, or even. . . no windows? Our school children and prisoners at the jail live this way and that’s about it. Adults in business wouldn’t stand for living in such a setting every day. You can talk about maintenance, cleanliness, and fire codes till you are blue in the face and you just won’t be facing the facts. Humans like certain kinds of spaces. Soft and warm spaces, not hard and cold spaces, colorful spaces, not bleak spaces. When you imagine the fancy private schools, what spaces come to mind? Uh huh, I see them too. Wooden floors, wooden trim work around the doors and ceilings. Windows looking onto the quad. Grand windows in the staircases. And outside? Grass, stone buildings, arches, covered walkways. The visual space we work in has tremendous affect on what work we are able to do. Schools are pitiful spaces to learn.

Technology is woefully inadequate for schools. What business asks its employees to go down to the computer lab and sign up when they need to get on a computer? Why do we have textbooks to carry around when 1000 times more information could be on student laptops? The end of book bags and all book bag problems. Why aren’t there smart boards (computer interactive screens) in every classroom? We simply don’t take learning seriously.

As for teacher pay, it starts too low. It pays well enough after 25 years. But the beginning years can’t compete with industry at any level. This is a government scam. The government leadership shows teacher pay on the high end and says, “See what kind of money you can make?” But the accountants know that half the new teachers won’t make it to the fifth year, where the pay first starts to go up. It’s no accident there are no raises at all until the fourth year. Over 1/3 of the teachers have quit by then and you never have to pay them! Raising beginning teacher pay would draw in more candidates to choose from. Taxes aren’t too high. In fact they aren’t high enough. It’s not that we spend too much on taxes, it’s that the economy operates at such a low level that the tax burden is difficult. The tax burden is not difficult on the rich. If we educated our population at a much higher level, it would raise everyone’s standard of living.

Imagine things a different way. The Republicans say taxation is a weight that holds down the economy. The Democrats say provide for the poor and elderly no matter the cost.

Dr. G says: Educate the children. A truly educated workforce will invigorate the economy, find new economic horizons, and raise the standard of living of the world. That’s how to fight terrorism. Education. That’s the answer to illegal immigration, opportunity in every homeland so every father and mother can feed their child without fleeing to another country. Tax more. Spend more. Not on Highways, dams, presidential libraries, and stadiums, but on education. With enough money we have small classes, administrators to enforce discipline, salaries that compete with industry and adequate classroom supplies and technology.

Admittedly, part of the last paragraph is borrowed to summarize, from NYC educator’s comment section on May 5, the Nice Man Cometh.