Paul Simon didn’t do public education any favors with the lyrics of a hit song: “When I think of all the crap I learned in high school/ Its a wonder I can think at all.” It gave great legitimacy to students younger and older to say, I’m never going to use this stuff. Why should I learn it?
If a prize fighter is told by his venerable coach to run 3 miles every morning, to jumprope, and to lift weights its for a reason. The fighter won’t say, hey, I’m not going to skip rope or run distance in a fight. The trainers methods are understood and respected.
Like boxing, most endeavors worth pursuing require a variety of preparations and public school is the place we start. It’s the start of training our brains, developing our intellect. If we learn that the capital of Bulgaria is Sofia, how to find the area of a circle, or the cause of the Civil War, it’s not because these facts will directly enable us to become a doctor or an engineer, or a mechanic or a musician. By studying a multitude of diverse subjects, we develop a wide range of mental skills. We develop rational and logical and convergent and divergent thinking. When we study how people live and work in Montana or Sweden, we develop understanding and tolerance for people outside of our own communities.
These skills not only help us to succeed in the jobs we pursue, they help us to become wiser, more contributing citizens as well as better parents and spouses and neighbors. If you said to a parent, you should have your 9 year old sit quietly and just think for 15 minutes a day, the
parent might respond that a 9 year old is incapable of that. But that is exactly what a child does when he listens to someone reading to him daily. (In my many years of teaching public school, I found that 1st graders adapt to, and enjoy daily listening as readily as older children.)
So, I beg to differ with Paul Simon. Although teachers may differ in their ability to motivate students, and how they can connect to students, what they are trying to teach is developed by curriculum professionals and should be respected as more than useless crap.
Okay, here comes the group participation part. What elements of our society might be include in public schools to make the public school experience richer and more relevant. My ideas. (These for high school)
Firstly. I have heard a conversation such as, No, Canada doesn’t export oil to the US, we export oil to Canada. It is one of the most important of our industries and most people know little about it. The oil industry is composed of over 8000 private companies directly involved in the oil market and many others that are dependent on it. In fact, many US companies export oil to Canada and many Canadian companies export oil to the US. Companies that sell oil are private enterprises and must find their own purchasers either in the US or abroad. The “US” does not export or import oil. And if we are a net exporter of oil, why did the stoppage of oil out of the Straight of Hormuz make our gas go up at the pumps? I think 3 or 4 classes on the basics of the oil industry in social studies or civics would be beneficial.
In the US we believe democracy is the quintessential political element of of our constitution and our society. The delivery mechanism is the election. Exactly how do they work? Donald Trump said the 2020 election was “rigged” and “stolen”. His chief of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security (CISA) Christopher Krebs, who served as the top election security official for Trump said the election was “the most secure in American history.” So what is the security process for administering elections. How do they do it. How are ineligible people stopped from voting? What are the safegaurds? Important? Because this has become such a hot button topic, I believe 2 classes in civics or social studies learning about the administration of elections would be appropriate.
What are your ideas? What to teach?
