I find that I have a penchant for using the physical objects of my childhood as metaphors for my thoughts on education, society, and social change. When it comes down to it, both are about finding joy in small things.
Do you remember when children of the 70s and 80s would add beads to the spokes of their bicycle tires? These beads would employ gravity and centrifugal force and fall alternately toward the axle then toward the wheel rim as the tire rotated, making a series of loud, clacking sounds. A similar effect could be created by sticking a playing card or baseball card in the tire.
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Why would these simple yet noisy items have been used by kids? The noise announced to others, “Here I am!”, “Here I come!”, and especially when a group of kids came down the street, “Hey, look at us!” These were never dangerous items, nor did they imply any kind of social structure (unlike basketball shoes, electronics, etc.). Any kid, from any family, on any bike, could have this simple joy.
How does this relate to education, you might ask?
Competition in the realm of education is unavoidable.
Competition is acknowledged and indeed encouraged at every, single level. Building-level decisions, district mandates, state monitoring, and international rankings try to get us to look at the competitive picture. Consider each of the following data fields, which encourage competition:
- High school graduation rates, retention rates, ACT/SAT average scores, higher-ed acceptance percentages, drop-out rates, yearly scholarship offer totals, athletics records
- Middle school advanced program populations, state test scores, success numbers by demographics, discipline rates
- Elementary faculty-to-student ratios, reading scores, gifted/talented programs, PTO fundraising totals
Every piece of data can be (and is) used to divide our educational communities. State legislation which allows student/family choice has given parents the opportunity to pit schools against one another, for competition of state dollars. In Indiana, the per-student funding to schools follows the student to whatever public (and, in the case of vouchers, private) school they like.
Although created with good intention, the ability to pick-up and move students at-will/at-whim is damaging our schools, public and private alike. Uncomfortable situations are seldom worked through when a family can just transfer to another local school. Student mobility has caused socio-economic segregation to run rampant in our public schools, giving struggling districts and schools very few options for great improvement, and alternately creating elite schools and struggling schools within the same district. (More on this next time…)
Competition is innate in humans and nature, and can have some good effects (positive self-esteem, student empowerment, and community pride). Some might argue that without competition, our schools would be less.
What would happen if the competition for tax dollars was removed from education? How would our school systems, at every level, change, if data was used for informational and guiding purposes, rather than punitive ones? How would the guiding practices of administrators and the teaching practices of educators change if they were afforded enough trust (through long-term contracts or tenure) to try new things, fail, and have enough time to adjust and grow into success? What would children DO, BE, or LEARN, if they took a test once a year, or (GASP) once every 2-3 years to mark progress?
These are bold ideas, indeed. Yet if you listen closely, you can almost hear the “clacking” of bike wheels, and the long-distance shouts of children yelling, “Hey! Look at US!”.
Until the next bell…
~K
