Top Education Issues for this Year

A column in the Huffington Post here describes what the columnist thinks will be the top ten education issues this year.  The focuses on the usual suspects:  testing, guns, funding, common core, tech, inequality . . . 

Okay, yes.  These are all important issues.  But the column doesn't focus on the most important one of all:  developing a love of reading in students.

Avid readers read better, write better, concentrate better, think more clearly, and have wider frames of reference that make all learning easier.  They are also more gentle kids, since their wide reading has exposed them to hundreds of narrators who describe to them how other people are feeling, and what other people are thinking. 

In my 37 years of teaching high school English, it was my avid readers who went on to top colleges, and into very competitive professions.  And you know what?  They hated, and avoided at all costs, the kind of exercises being pushed to "teach" the common core standards.

Ed. Reform in Florida

A Washington Post column here notes that Jeb Bush's ed. reforms in Florida have created more chaos than reform:

It is so depressing to me that in all this talk of reform, no one is talking about developing a love of reading in children.  That one simple reform would make most of the other ones unnecessary.  Avid readers read better, write better, concentrate better, and have larger fames of reference that make all learning easier.

Endless testing just drives kids away from books, never mind using up all of the money that would be better invested in town and school libraries.

Should All Public Schools be Charter Schools?

A column in Ed Week  here proposes that all public schools be turned into charter schools--not because charter schools seem to be doing any better, but because parents have more faith in charter schools.

An amusing suggestion. 

Essentially, I think anything that gets rid of the huge administrative overhang in large districts has the potential to be valuable.  Before teaching for 28 years in a public school, I taught for 9 years in private and parochial schools.  I always thought their main advantage was that the teachers and the building administrators could work out the problems and issues themselves. 

But the idea of all of the local schools being charters is full of problems.   Public schools are largely run by local officials, who can be voted in and out of office.  What kind of governance will these charters have?  What about special ed.  Will charters be able to refuse admittance to students they don’t have programs for?  Who decided who gets to go to which charter?

I have a simpler solution.  Make all of our charter and public schools centers of avid reading.  Fund libraries.  Add developing a love of reading to the Common Core Standards.  In fact, it’s really the only standard you need for literacy, as kids who are avid readers acquire sophisticated reading skills, and adequate, grammatical writing skills. 

I know this sounds  radical but, really, ask yourself:   How can the suggestion that children be brought to a love of reading be radical?  Is that more radical than turning all neighborhood public schools into charters, especially when the research shows charters don’t even perform any better?

The Troubles of Barnes and Noble

NPR has an interesting program on Morning Edition here about the difficulty Barnes and Noble is experiencing.  Their Nook has been especially disappointing.  My comment:

As a high school English teacher for 35 years, my main concern is always what kind of setup will make it easiest for kids to get books. 

The B&N bookstores are wonderful, but expensive for the average family.  Avid readers develop by reading book after book after book.  My avid-reading students (and these are the kids who go on to the top colleges) report reading three or four books a week, especially in elementary school.  They like series books, and will read through a thirty book series in a matter of months.

They used to have more luck getting these series books in a library, but libraries have been underfunded for so long that that’s not usually possible anymore. 

For me, the knight in white armor has been Amazon.  Once a kid has an e-reader, there are literally thousands of free and very low cost books on Amazon.  There are all kinds of series that are self-published, and sell for a dollar or two a book.  When most kids have gotten access to an e-reader and an Amazon account, they will be self-sufficient about getting books, no longer having to talk someone into driving them to a bookstore, and then paying six or seven dollars for a slim little paperback.   It might be the end of the stagnant reading scores.

What I’d like to see B&N do is open up a used book section for children’s series books.  This would get kids back into bookstores, and make the development of avid readers much more affordable for the average family.

Boring Common Core Standards

The Wall Street Journal has an amusing article here describing the difficulties that researchers have when they are studying boredom.  They have trouble finding enough boring material to put subjects in front of.  Building a fish farm was one thing they came up with:

You think learning to set up a fish tank is boring?  Look what the new Common Core Standards are now requiring of fourth graders.  A direct quote:

“CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.7 Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.”

Nine-year-olds should be hunched over fascinating books, like Harry Potter, or the Rick Riordan books.  Avid readers acquire sophisticated reading skills.  Kids dragged through exercises like this just learn that reading is a boring chore.

Better Food for Children

NPR Morning Edition has an interesting broadcast here about the difficult parents have providing a good dinner for their children.  A major reason is that the time between the end of work, and bedtime, is so short.  Also, there was concern about the lunches the kids were getting at school.

I think some simple things could be done at schools to help, at least, with the school lunch part of the problem.

When I taught, I had a microwave and little refrigerator in my classroom. I told my students they were welcome to use them, and many did. They came in early and left their lunches in the refrigerator, and then stopped on their way to the cafeteria at lunchtime to heat them up.

It was my minority students who did this the most. They brought in delicious-smelling chicken and rice dishes and other dishes I wasn't familiar with. Plus they could bring milk and yogurt from home and keep it cold in my refrigerator.

I don't see why schools couldn't set up some microwave and refrigerator stations in the cafeteria, Kids could bring healthy food from home. When I taught, I used to make a big pot of soup on the weekend, and then bring portions in all week. Food brought from home is usually better than cafeteria food, and much less expensive.

I know this doesn't deal with the time crunch parents feel in the afternoons and evenings. But if they knew their home cooking at dinner time would also provide nutritious, inexpensive lunches for their children the next day at school, they might make the time.