Swickard: Developing public school students correctly

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” Michelangelo
             His full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. He died at age 88, 453 years ago and left us wondrous art that we enjoy to this day. Two of his statements many years ago go directly to problems in our public education system today.
            First, we Americans are not aiming high enough for our students and assuming this generation cannot do things. They can do what they think they can do. It is critical to awaken the curiosity and passion inside each student early in their education.
            Example: public schools are telling young students that they simply must go to college. What about our society’s artists, artisans and trades people? We need electricians and woodworkers. But the Educational Industrial Complex needs students to go to college to keep those educational dollars up.
            The second statement is central to the dysfunction in our public schools. Michelangelo wrote: Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. The educational leadership task is to reveal what is inside of each student as to their curiosity and passion to learn.
            Instead, the Factory Model of Education believes the public schools should mold the students into something useful for the society, not necessarily useful for the students. Public schools are not looking at the wondrous statue inside of the child, rather, they are only focused on their own self-perpetuation.
            Example: in 2009 Sir Ken Robinson gave a talk about creativity. He found a music teacher in Liverpool, England who at one time had both George Harrison and Paul McCartney in his class. He had half of the future band, The Beatles but he noticed nothing creative about them.
            How many truly exceptional people are languishing in public school because the factory model is not looking for exceptionalism or creativity, it only rewards compliance with rules and learning to take tests well.
            The huge problem is that public schools are run by distant autocratic administrators who rarely see the little blocks of marble. Certainly, the administration does not see anything but test scores. How sad.
            The teachers can get a glimpse of greatness in students but are threatened with being fired if they do anything with the students other than what the administrators command. Why even have teachers, eh?
            The leaders of our educational systems must support the students rather than the adults working in the system. Superintendents of Public Schools must see that the students develop according to their curiosity and passion, not just to be a widget in society.
            That is an awesome responsibility that these leaders have. Can they be true to the students? We must watch for the student’s sake. Forget all the testing administrators. Our society needs more public school teachers who understand curiosity and passion in their students.

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