As someone whose parent's sacrified to put my three brothers and I through private schools, and who similarly has sacrificed to pay community and junior college level grade and high school tuitions for my kids, I too like Beerman's style - a lot.

When I first started teaching English composition to freshmen just out of high school, I fretted over why I wasn't able to get through to some of them. That lasted just one semester, and then I got tough. The first thing I tell them each semester is, "I'm not here to teach you how to write -- that was your third grade teacher's job."

I give them their first writing assignment during that first class just to see where they stand in their collective writing ability. That helps me plan the course of action. But it also helps me weed out the never-will-be's. I write notes like this on their papers: "This is not college level writing. Suggest you immediately get a tutor (it's free) and/or drop this class and take a lower-level developmental course. I don't have a lot of confidence in your ability to complete this course."

What happens next varies, depending on the makeup of the student, but in most cases I never see them again. Those who stay with me work their asses off for a passing grade. Cold, hard? Yes. But is it my fault? Hell no -- put the blame where it belongs -- on the earlier teachers who didn't teach.

Will

I will state my bias right up front on this - I grew up in a predominantly union-based city and I have both been a union-member (because I had no choice) and been a manager in a union environment. So I can tell you with utter confidence that the majority of unions protect bad employees and make it next to impossible to weed them out once they are past the initial probationery period (generally three months).

But, I nearly fell off my chair when I read this statement in the Trib article:

"What I'm trying to do is get the public to see that the public school systems are doing a pretty amazing job of educating young people," Weaver said."

Is this guy living on some other planet?! I cannot imagine how anyone who is actually IN the school system could possibly make that statement with a straight face. Is the problem only the teachers? No, of course not.

Underfunding is reaching disgusting levels, many parents seem to have completely downloaded the responsibility to educate their children to the schools who aren't eqipped to do it all, and the social issues infesting many schools (violence, drugs, etc.) are clearly part of the problem as well.

Is there a legitimate place for unions - yes. But they need to move into the current century and recognize that businesses cannot continue to function with incompetent, lazy employees, and that protecting that type of employee is good for nobody - not the business, not the union, and, in the long run, certainly not the employees.

If you actually read any union contract handbook, you will find that it is virtually impossible to remove a union employee from their job for just about anything short of murdering another UNION employee, in the presence of at least five other UNION witnesses.

Given the importance of our children receiving a good eduction so they can compete in a highly competitive global economy, I think that unions protecting sub-standard teachers is more criminal than anything Berman says or does.

Plus, Will, a good deal of blame needs to go to uninvolved parents. There are a number of our friends who have never been to a parent-teacher conference, then wonder why little Johnny or Janie only does so-so in school.

No argument there about the parents, Craig. Still, we have a horrific situation with teachers. Many parents simply aren't equipped.

I had an epiphany the other day, after a long period of not being able to understand why my students are so lacking -- why they talk and write funny, if you will. I thought it was just a generation gap thing on my part. And then it hit me like the Hale-Bopp comet: it's not a ONE generation gap; it's a TWO generation gap. Their young incompetent teachers were taught by an earlier generation of young incompetent teachers. Project this out a couple more generations and we could be headed for a disaster.

And I don't mean to stereotype all young teachers -- I'm sure there are some fine ones out there. But even those with good intent aren't necessarily armed with the right tools.

Will

I live in Will Daniel's world, teaching college English composition and remedial grammar labs at a community college. And yes, it's awful. The kids are sweet and know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING when they get out of public high schools. Here's why.

(1) ABYSMAL PAY. It attracts abysmal teachers. I don't know about your city or state, but where I live most of the funding goes to pay government employees (other than teachers). We make it clear what we think is important.

(2) NONACADEMIC GOVERNMENT REQUIREMENTS. When my son was in school, he and his classmates spent numerous hours each week watching movies and going to the auditorium to hear speakers on topics such as drugs, gangs, smoking, drinking, bullying, and "diversity." I DEFY anyone to show me a study suggesting that these classes in grade, middle, and high school produced kinder, gentler, nonsmoking, nondrinking kids.

(3) DISTRACTIONS. In the Cro-Magnon era when I was growing up, the school day amounted to this: 8 hours of school, a small amount of after-school relaxation, dinner, homework, MAYBE a favorite tv show, and bed. (The jocks also had practices.) I took piano and tennis lessons but they didn't dictate my life. Today's kids are scheduled for sports and cultural lessons, practices, and games every moment of their lives--even on Wednesday nights, traditionally reserved for religious classes at churches, and even on Sunday mornings. My parents made it clear that my "job" was going to school, and anything else that got in the way would have to go. Today's kids and parents don't have that kind of understanding.

When I read what I just wrote, I sound like a cranky old fart, a "Maxine," but I also can't find a word of it that I'd change.

Hey, Maxine, did you ever give your students an amnesty date for turning in late work only to find out that none -- NOT ONE -- of them knew what amnesty means? Man, that really sucks.

Will

No, but my students can't read a workbook sentence AS WRITTEN without getting stuck. Makes me want a bourbon, neat.

Teachers: Yes, get rid of bad teachers. Having them around is bad for the students and can't be good for the morale of the good teachers.

Unions: Unions may be overprotective, but then there is the opposite -- no protection and vulnerability to being canned by a boss on a whim.

Parents: Don't get me started on parents. There are the North Shore parents who whined because their high school children were asked to read one short book over summer. "It will RUIN their summer vacation!" There are the parents who demand nothing less than As for their little inepts, cowing teachers into giving it for fear of angry administrators. There are the parents who just don't give a patootie. And there are the parents who think that by helicoptering they are candidates for mommy of year (vs. psycho of the year), not realizing that little Suzy (age 19) needs to learn independence at some point in life.

And older workers know that, no matter how much better they are educated than their younger colleagues, they are damned stupid compared to them -- at least according to the younger colleagues. Insert smiley.

Will,
Hey, Maxine, did you ever give your students an amnesty date for turning in late work only to find out that none -- NOT ONE -- of them knew what amnesty means? Man, that really sucks.

I think what really sucks is that it appears none of them had the curiosity or desire to look it up. I didn't know everything, so I looked it up.

Not a lot of looking up going on these days, Diane. Sigh.

Oh, I left something out up above: PARENTHOOD. I keep reading that girls are letting themselves get older before they have that first baby, but I seem to have an inordinate number of 19-to-22-year-old women (mostly white, middle-class, Midwestern) with no husband and at least one baby. When the baby gets sick and daycare won't take it, mom isn't in class. When the daycare provider gets sick and won't take kids, mom isn't in class. These moms also work at least one part-time job while attending classes and caring for their babies. How can I scold them? I understand EXACTLY why English composition and grammar aren't high on their priority list. And yet....

This is not an entirely teacher-centered issue. Dare I bring up that nasty elephant in the closet? The teaching-to-the-test-to-get-the federal-funding way of today's schools? My first graders have so much homework that I can't believe it. Forget about the fun stuff after school, or even having much time to get outside and play. There is NO WAY they'd be able to get their homework done without me or my husband helping. And none of you had better yell at me about this. An example: They have a math workbook that mimics the math SOL test. That's not such a big deal, except they just learned how to read, so they can't really read and understand most of the math problems. That's where hubby and I have to come in -- to read them the math problems so they can answer them! Many of the questions are waay beyond what a 6-year-old child should have to understand. You show me a first-grader who answer this question: Name a solid object with one flat surface and one vertex. That was in the first-grade SOL math workbook! (The answer is a cone.) Plus the homework requires us to read to them nightly, which I used to love, but now we have to record on a log the number of pages and number of minutes spent reading with each child. What a way to turn bedtime reading into a tiresome chore. Don't even get me started on the number of reports I get about PALS scores, DRA levels, and timed math tests. In FIRST GRADE! No wonder children don't succeed after school. Neither would you if real learning were replaced by being trained to take a multiple-choice test.

Great comments, all; sorry not to have participated. I was at Cubs game yesterday.

From this commentary, it appears we feel the U.S. education system ranges from dismal to absolutely horrifying. Amy, your story makes me want to home-school Scout--out of laziness!

>>> From this commentary, it appears we feel the U.S. education system ranges from dismal to absolutely horrifying.

Yes, but I'm picking up vibes that there are widely varying opinions as to why, whose fault, what we're currently doing wrong, what's the best way to fix, etc.

No Child Left Behind was supposed to be the fix, and it was strongly publicized as a bipartisan effort at a fix, but I think no one believes it's working. OK, so drop back and punt. What's next?

Will

Some years before my daughter was born, there was a little Irish bar in Juneau where I liked to hang out. One of the regulars was a kindergarten teacher. One night, because she really didn't want to go home quite yet and was already well vodkaed, she brought in construction paper and scissors and asked all of us sitting around the bar to help her get her project ready for the next day's class. This teacher had a known (at least in our circle) problem with cocaine as well. I knew even then that I didn't want to take a chance on any future child of mine with a school system that tolerated that sort of behavior.

When my daughter was old enough, we enrolled her in a private Montessori school that offered grades 1-6 as well as the traditional preschool. But just as my girlie was completing the kindergarten-equivalent year, the private school decided to drop the elementary program.

A small group of us who were committed to some other option banded together and convinced the school district to start a public Montessori program. Caveat: Because true Montessori relies on a lot of specialized teaching tools, this was only going to work if we, the little group of parents, raised something like $26,000 and donated that to the district for the purchase of the materials. Oh, and we were strongly opposed by many of the existing educators, who felt that our support of an optional program was a direct criticism of what was already in place.

We persevered, and the public Montessori program still exists in the Juneau schools--at least, as far as I know; I moved away nearly a decade ago. But it was a huge commitment of time, resources we really couldn't afford (we were a single income family--mine--and I was working for a non-profit and not making much of a salary). But I'm proud of what we did.

But the story isn't over. Although my daughter could have gone her sixth grade year to the Montessori program, she wanted to try our local middle school. All those years we'd been driving her to the magnet program, which was not in our neighborhood, and she hadn't been at the same school as any of her friends in the neighborhood. So we agreed. Her experience there devastated her. After a semester in that middle school, my happy, confident, eager-to-learn child was withdrawn, failing, and trying hard to avoid school altogether. My experience trying to work with that school was that there was a fundamental lack of respect for the children, very nearly an assumption that all these pre-teens were budding criminals and should be treated with contempt. It was horrifying. We spent the next year and a half home schooling her to try and help her regain her balance and her enthusiasm for education.

In the end she came out fine, excelling in high school at academics, art, and gymnastics, and now has a four year scholarship to the University of Alaska. But it wasn't an easy path, and it took a lot of work on the part of her father and me to try and undo the damage done to her.

For myself, I'd toss off everything but the structures, and blast down a few of those, and start again. We need to take a fresh look at education. Amy's experience is a perfect example of how enthusiasm for learning and making that a natural part of daily family life is turned into drudgery that would put off a saint. Educating a child is an ongoing process, a partnership of parents, teachers, faith leaders, coaches, neighbors. It's not amassing a compendium of facts, but preparation for a full, rich life. We all need each other, but we can't abuse each other and expect it to work. And what you described, Amy, sounds like abuse to me.

Joan, what a post--so much wisdom there.

"For myself, I'd toss off everything but the structures, and blast down a few of those, and start again."

As for your question Will, I'm not sure which politician we could trust to start over with education, but I do think we have to start over.

I edited an education magazine almost 15 years ago and became so frustrated with the rearrange-the-deck-chairs national conversation on education that I try to avoid the subject, even though it is central, obviously.

I didn't have homework in first grade that I remember, except perhaps a handful of addition problems and the like. Overwork is counterproductive when you're talking about education (vs. test scores). Or perhaps both . . .

And, yes, learning should be fun, not drudgery.

But if we're going to start over, here's the fundamental question:

What is the purpose of education?

Seriously.

Is it to create a literate, knowledgeable democracy informed enough to make good decisions and to understand the complicated ethical, technological, etc., questions of modern times?

Is it to churn out corporate worker bees who buzz around trying to make the most money for the least possible effort?

Is it to get our precious child that incredibly cushy, high-paying job that we can brag to all of our friends about, even if it's not making him or her very happy?

Is it to encourage great minds to be great (doing research, philosophizing, governing, curing, etc.), and adequate minds to contribute what they can to society?

What is it? Who decides?

(My impression from a lot of what I see is it's to get Suzy into a GREAT college so she can get a GREAT corporate job and make GREAT money. Am I too cynical?)

No, Diane, those are great, great questions and among the first we should be asking after we blow the old system to smithereens.

I second what David said about Diane's questions. Let's forward her name to whoever is our next president as a nominee for Secretary of Blasting Education to Smithereens and Reforming It.

Will

I second Will's nomination. But I think Diane should take Joan with her as Co-Secretary to Washington. The "Smithereens Education Program" will call for multiple hands I think?

And then there are stories like these . . .

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g84E-NqKavdkNfL6nv-ixkYQFiSgD8VPP0JG0