There Is No Superman

In an earlier posting, I said that I’d seen “Waiting for Superman” on a plane and that it was a transformative experience. It was, but perhaps not in the way the producers might have hoped.

For those of you who’ve not seen this movie, it’s a documentary that purports to expose some of the big problems with our system of public education.  I believe it’s fair to say that the producers’ message is that many, perhaps most, of the problems with education in American come back one way or another to the fact that teachers’ unions too frequently prevent school districts from promoting excellence and shedding mediocrity.

Of course, I’ve also heard in other venues the argument that teachers are limited in what they can do with a kid who’s not encouraged to learn in the home environment. And that the lack of effective discipline in school too often makes the job of teaching an exercise in self-defense.

The only thing I can say for sure is that a lot of the arguments surrounding this issue seem to shed more heat than light. My own daughters have had a stellar experience, with mostly dedicated, gifted educators who clearly cared deeply about outcomes for their students. Of course, they were in a ‘gifted’ program and once you’re identified as a ‘smart kid’ and placed in one of these special programs (segregated, not pull-out or enrichment), the skids are sort of greased for you.

Make no mistake – our girls worked their patoots off for twelve years. And we are SO proud of their accomplishments. But to be fair, they also had access to learning resources that few other public school students enjoy, even in this, the top public school district in the country if Newsweek is to be believed.

Our public schools – ALL of our public schools – should be temples of learning. Our teachers should be highly honored members of an esteemed profession. And parents should be involved in their children’s lives, including or even especially their intellectual lives. I may have to write a separate post on that one, but for now I’ll just leave it at that.

We are at a crossroads in America. We are just now being forced to face the fact that we’re slipping in terms of our educational outcomes as compared to the other ‘developed’ countries. At the same time, we’re facing budget crises nationally and in almost every state and municipality.

Politicians of all stripes are drawing lines in the sand. It seems we’ve become more about blaming than accepting responsibility. And in my state, I keep seeing ever-deeper cuts to education funding.

One might say that with my own daughters exiting the system, I don’t have a stake in future education funding because my children are done with the system. But I would suggest that we all have a vital stake in every kid’s education. Not because of what a left-behind kid might do. Because of what we might otherwise never know they could have done.

I don’t know the answer to questions of nature vs. nurture or union vs. non-union. I’m not certain I even care about those questions. I do care about all our kids having the same opportunities my kids have had. Because I’ve seen what excellent teaching and caring encouragement at home can do.

I teach adults for a living. I’m not part of any school district and I don’t have the degrees my siblings have earned. But I have a wealth of business experience and my experience tells me that if you don’t provide the needed resources, no amount of managerial expertise or inspiration or caring will get you to the worthiest goals.

I will never be asked to sit on a blue ribbon panel on education. My sole vote is as a taxpayer. And my vote is that education should be first-funded and last cut. Put the resources in place and then let’s talk about how to deploy them. Surely, we can do better and the first step down that road is sending the clear, affirmative signal that education matters.

Of course, we can’t fix our system of education merely by throwing money at it. But without funding, we can’t fix it at all.