“The system of public education is broken and we need to
tear it down and rebuild it from the ground up.”
I feel like I keep hearing this statement or some version
of it from all angles. For a while I bought into this idea and felt the
frustration and quickly got wrapped up in the negativity. It is very easy to
look around and think the system is broken beyond repair. Some people are even
going so far as to say we don’t need an evolution of the system but in fact a
revolution. As a history teacher, I think the word revolution may be a bit
harsh.
Now, I may be completely off but are we complaining too
much about the boxes we have been put in instead of actually looking at how
restrictive the box actually is? Are educators really that handcuffed and
unable to change the systems within their own classrooms and schools? I think
in many cases we have far more control to change our own piece of this so
called system than we want to readily admit.
I keep coming back to this idea that the system is broken
and we need to tear it all down and rebuild. If the system is so broken then
why do millions of kids come to school every day and become better prepared for
life? Why do I have kids that love learning in my classroom every day if the
system is that broken? If the system is so broken why are there so many
selfless people teaching in classrooms around this country? How is it that in this broken system there
are kids whose lives are literally saved by attending school? Broken systems
don’t produce the mind blowing and inspirational things that are happening in
public school every day. Yet we have
evidence of these things happening all around us in public schools across this
country.
The public education system in America has its issues…no
doubting that. Yet the issues are primarily with the politicians and
corporations that are trying to ruin it not the people that are actually doing
the work. Too many people are claiming the entire system needs to be rebuilt
because they are not looking at what is working and building on that. It is
much easier to tear down an entire house rather than doing the hard work of
fixing it up. Politicians love to talk a good game but when it comes down to
it, their actions do not match the candor. Corporations claim to have an
interest in education but truly it is about their bottom line. I know the
system is not perfect. However, I see so much good within it that I will focus
on doing my part to make learning the best it can be in my classroom. If we all
just focused on that rather than trying to “fix the system”, we might be in a
much better place.
