Tell Me What You Want, What You Really, Really Want

MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2011


I'm not a big fan of the Spice Girls, but I love the song cited in the title -- I also like the idea of liberated women boldly stating exactly what they want and boldly asking, "What do you really want?" I shall do so herein, with apologies to the Girls:

Do we want to educate the children of our nation? Seriously? Do you really, really want that?

If so, then which kids? Rich kids? White kids? Christian kids? Clean kids? Well-behaved kids? Normal IQ and above kids?

All kids?

Could you stand it if every student exiting public high schools was in fact college ready? (Whatever the hell that is -- I think that means ready to teach themselves with little or no help, or better yet, they already know everything they need to know so professors can profess and not be required to teach.)

Could you stand it if every single classroom, every single school, every single district was high performing? (Whatever the hell that is -- guess you know what I think about standardized testing already.)

If you said "yes" that you seriously want to educate all kids, then we are on the same page. If you said yes, sort of, kind of, but not all kids, just my kids and the kids like my kids, and others can do OK, but I want this group to do better than other kids, then we are not on the same page. And if you do not believe in providing a public education to all kids, then please have the integrity, the honesty, and the political fortitude to announce that you really do not believe in a public education system for the children of this nation or your state. Do not wrap yourself in the gaudy flag of patriotic support for the public schools then set about dismantling that system as rapidly as you can so that only a few children who are precious to you succeed; or worse, you save some of your tax dollars at the expense of the kids you do not choose to educate. In other words, shoot straight and tell us what you want, what you really, really want.

There is no logic I can fathom that begins by saying this sacred institution, this noble experiment, this dream of providing the very basis of equality in our nation, must be dismantled via competition, the funneling of precious resources to private opportunities, and the measure of entire groups of children and dedicated staff by a standardized test. If you believe that you really, really want to educate all kids and that the great American experiment lies not in democracy, but in providing future generations the knowledge, mental acuity and skills to preserve that democracy, and simultaneously believe that the way to accomplish this noble feat is to attack the institution seeking to achieve that holy grail, then I ask, not so humbly, what other sacred institutions should we dismantle?

How about our military? Let's simply collect data on the performance of each platoon and fire all the officers if they cannot pass a test. Better yet, if a soldier dies in the line of duty, let's find someone to blame and fire them. Or, how about, I do not like my tax dollars going to the military, so I should be able to have a charter military that is designed to just protect me and mine and not all our citizens.

How about police and fire departments? Let's call police departments in high crime areas, "Departments at Risk." If crime goes up, we should spend less money on police and fire those who are currently fighting the crime. Same with fire departments. If there is a fire in their area, let's fire the firemen and cut their funding!

How about churches? We should be able to come up with a standardized measure for sin. (Developing such a measure may be way too much fun, so I shall not go there, though I suspect in the back rooms of Pearson they already have such an instrument.) So let's say that if a community's sin index rises, we fire the preachers and churches lose their tax exempt status.

Do those examples sound bizarre to you? They should. In fact, what we do if we think our military is slipping is pour more money into it. We do the same for police departments if the crime rate goes up. We do the same for fire departments if they are stretched too thin. And, if sin increases, then the church supporters become more fervent. Why then do we assume that if our children are not learning all that they could or should, do we cut spending, increase accountability, and start firing people? The only rational explanation I can find is that we really, really do not want to educate all kids.

What public ed. experiences is a superficial, theoretical argument proposed by rich people who really do not want to educate all kids and do want to reduce their tax burden. In Texas, under our current governor, I think of this cognitive dissonance as a Perrywinkle, but he is not alone. Those who sip tea, those who are billionaires, those who are just mad that taxes are collected and debts are incurred, are planting Perrywinkles of their own. We have seen them bloom in Wisconsin, in Florida and perhaps soon in Washington.

Perrywinkles grow best with a lot of manure. Sunshine doesn't help. Enlightened, rational thought serves as an herbicide. Of course, if no one is truly educated, Perrywinkles will bloom everywhere.

That's not what I want. Really.