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Re: PHYS-L Digest - 28 Feb 2000 to 29 Feb 2000 (#2000-68)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Herbert H Gottlieb" <herbgottlieb@JUNO.COM>

Richard
You have expressed the problems of the public school very well and I
fully agree with everthing that you write. Now let's take it a step
further and come up with some long term, as well as short term, solutions
to educating the "disadvantaged" students in the inner cities. Now that
there are fewer and fewer jobs available for school dropouts, what type
of education (if any) should be initiated for this growing number of
children? Should "vocational" schools be resurrected?
Or can you and others come up with other solutions that are more
practical?

Herb Gottlieb from New York City
(Where the problem of educating our "non-academic" high school students
increases every day)


Vocational schools are one aspect of a 'solution'. We of course have such,
but they have been pushed to the 'college' level where they do little good
for the HS dropouts.

IMO, motivation is the number one requirement if we are to improve public
education. Students must be motivated to learn. This is, of course, where
parental support can really help, but lacking that, there need to be REAL
rewards and REAL consequences for succeeding or failing to educate one's
self--and one really does educate one's self (with the help of the teachers
and the system). Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet. If students
perceive that they can be supported by the 'state' all their lives ('free'
lunches and now 'free' breakfasts start this impression early) then their
motivation can be low. If they perceive that they can support themselves
much better than their 'studious' friends through selling drugs and other
illegal activities, then they have little motivation to work at learning.
If they see illiterate athletes making millions of dollars a year, they see
little reason to study. If all the 'rights' of citizenship become theirs
regardless of whether or not they accept any of the responsibilities, they
have little reason to work. If they have no sense of moral and/or ethical
behavior even at the non-religious level of promoting a stable society, then
why bother?

Very little in the above list can be dealt with directly by the schools.
The society has to decide most of these issues and somehow we need to put
the family back together again (the number of children in city public
schools who live with both biological parents is frightening). Crime needs
to be prevented (not just punished). We could withhold privileges (like
driver's licenses) until students successfully complete HS--and could
require completion of HS for many other such 'rights'. (Yes we need
Vocational Tracks in the HS so that everyone has the opportunity to
'succeed'.) We can be more serious about 'citizenship' courses--of course
we need some public officials who are not constantly under indictment as
models. We can de-emphasize athletics in our society (FAT CHANCE) and stop
paying athletes and performers obscene salaries which only belittle the
efforts of most other working people. We need a society that clearly and
visibly values education and just as clearly spurns the purposely
uneducated. Money won't fix most of this (if any). Only the strong will of
the majority, but with an ever increasing fragmentation of the society
(often in the name of diversity), I see little hope of this happening any
time soon.

Rick

Rick, I think you have put your finger on the main
problem--motivation to learn. But this is an issue that goes deep
into our national psyche. As a nation, we were founded by
outcasts--convicts, indentured laborers, religious refugees, and all
sorts of other people who found the conditions in the old country
unbearable for whatever reasons. And we became a nation of "doers"
who spurned the intellectual life (I have often thought it remarkable
that the small group of intellectuals, perhaps the only ones in
America at the time, who put together our nation were able to
construct something that has been so effective over the years, at
least so far, and that survived in spite of the anti-intellectual
current that runs deep through our society). In this climate
education was limited to what people needed to get the immediate job
done--enough reading to be able to read a set of instructions and the
Bible, enough writing to sign your name and maybe write a letter home
when away at war, and enough arithmetic to be able to handle
money--anything more was a luxury for the rich. Lots of these
uneducated people, who saw no particular value in education, made
fortunes in the rough and tumble days of the 18th and 19th centuries,
which just reinforced their disdain of "book-larnin'."

Now combine that "frontier mentality" which looks down on
intellectual activities, with a society that systematically denies a
certain group of people the opportunity to fully participate,
regardless of the level of their education, and I think we have the
seeds of our present problem. This is a deep-seated condition, and
will not be fixed in a few years, or by a few half-hearted government
programs. Our society, which was founded by the "purposely
uneducated" (I like that phrase) is not going to change easily to one
that spurns its own heritage.

It seems to me that our only hope is to do our damndest to see to it
that the doors of opportunity are opened to everyone, by whatever
means necessary, and hope that those newly admitted bring a thirst
for learning that will eventually overwhelm our anti-intellectual
heritage and change it. A tall order, but maybe our only chance.
Otherwise, our days as the leading nation of the world may be
numbered.

Hugh

--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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