School and Society
The Saturday Wall Street Journal ran an essay on the benifits of more school time, a la Saturday School. It was written by Chester E. Finn, Jr., the secretary of Education in the Reagan administration and a professor of education. The article is a good read because it has nearly all the misconceptions typical of people who have never actually been in a classroom with kids who really need the help the teacher can give.
What are the misconceptions. First, motivation of the student matters. In the U.S. we have compulsory education. Public shools must educate every student. Public schools must go to court and charge truent students with fines so they or their parent feel compleled to keep them in school. Public school must accept students that are at school only to stay out of jail. Public schools must reaccept students who attack teachers and fellow students, or choose to be disruptive in the classrom knowing they will get expelled and get a vacation. Public schools are judged on the performance of all students, even those that are just there to stay our of jail. Kipp and charter schools are not. To enroll in KIPP parents have to contact KIPP and KIPP decides who to accept. While they say they are open, then standards for admission are not published. And while Public Schools have public discipline procedures, KIPP has no such requirement.. In effect, KIPP is selective and has the freedom to remove students.
What does this freedom mean. Many of friends and I went to Public School. But the schools we went to were exclusive. We could be removed. This created a profound pychological efffect for us. No longer was the compition about who could annoy the teacher, or who could do best at sports, or who could skip the most classes. Now the competition was which of us were going to make it throuhg 9th grade, knowing a significant percetage of us would not. The competition was who was best, who was going to get the best teachers, who was going to work on the best equipment, and which of those were going to be losers that did not get an education. These were public schools with 90%+ percent title I, 80%+ minority, and, unlike KIPP, very minimal facilities. The issue was not public schools, but exclusivity. Comparing a comprehensive private school to KIPP is simply inappropriate to the point of being incompentant. If one school accepts unrepentant convicts and the other doesn’t, there simply is no comparison.
The other errors of the essay will be discussed in future blogs
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