Dual crises
The unspeakable tragedy of Hurricane Katrina seems hardly related to education, yet when I gaze at the images beaming back from New Orleans, all I can think about is education, education, education.
The refugees are mostly poor. And, for the first time, the media appears to have woken up and realized that poverty can be crippling. I can't help but be reminded of Barbara Ehrenreich's monograph Nickel and Dimed, which demonstrates the incredible challenges facing the impoverished.
Having never been poor myself, it's hard for me to speak with any authority. But to me, the most striking thing about poverty is the litany of subtle hurdles. Not having a car, not having the social knowledge to work through the bureaucracy, not being able to eat heathily and as a result incurring medical costs you can't pay which in turn cause you to miss work so you have less money with which to buy any food at all, much less healthy food... the little things that we in the middle class don't even think about.
There's a reason only 7% of kids born into low-income families get a Bachelor's degree by age 26, and it's not because the other 93% are stupid and/or lazy. Breaking news: Education level and quality is directly related to income.
I'm often asked how I can have such an unyielding faith in public education. My answer is that education is the great equalizer. School is the one chance we have as a society to level the playing field. The one institution which every student must attend for 9 or if we're lucky 12 or if we're very lucky 16 years. An entire system devoted to the singular idea that no matter where you enter, you should leave with every skill necessary to achieve your highest potential. I don't know much that's better to have unyielding faith in.
What distresses me about the current state of education is that the institution seems broken to its very core. The sheer amount of progress that remains to be made and the torturous, slogging growth that is being made -- in other words, what I've been posting about for the past two weeks -- leads to an inescapable conclusion: We have to look deeper for both the causes and the solutions. No Child Left Behind doesn't eradicate 100,000 poor black New Orleaners, nor does the repeal of NCLB.
Our schools aren't teaching our children how to think. There it is, plain and simple as I can put it. Our schools aren't teaching our children how to think. And ultimately, thinking is the capital of opportunity. I believe that we are slowly laying the groundwork but misinterpreting it as tiling the roof. Too slowly. What we need is a punctuated evolution, an ascension to a style of education that takes every child and says not only are we not going leave you behind, we're going to give you the tools to get ahead.
Untold hundreds of people are dead in New Orleans because they didn't have the money to get out.
Education is everything.
The refugees are mostly poor. And, for the first time, the media appears to have woken up and realized that poverty can be crippling. I can't help but be reminded of Barbara Ehrenreich's monograph Nickel and Dimed, which demonstrates the incredible challenges facing the impoverished.
Having never been poor myself, it's hard for me to speak with any authority. But to me, the most striking thing about poverty is the litany of subtle hurdles. Not having a car, not having the social knowledge to work through the bureaucracy, not being able to eat heathily and as a result incurring medical costs you can't pay which in turn cause you to miss work so you have less money with which to buy any food at all, much less healthy food... the little things that we in the middle class don't even think about.
There's a reason only 7% of kids born into low-income families get a Bachelor's degree by age 26, and it's not because the other 93% are stupid and/or lazy. Breaking news: Education level and quality is directly related to income.
I'm often asked how I can have such an unyielding faith in public education. My answer is that education is the great equalizer. School is the one chance we have as a society to level the playing field. The one institution which every student must attend for 9 or if we're lucky 12 or if we're very lucky 16 years. An entire system devoted to the singular idea that no matter where you enter, you should leave with every skill necessary to achieve your highest potential. I don't know much that's better to have unyielding faith in.
What distresses me about the current state of education is that the institution seems broken to its very core. The sheer amount of progress that remains to be made and the torturous, slogging growth that is being made -- in other words, what I've been posting about for the past two weeks -- leads to an inescapable conclusion: We have to look deeper for both the causes and the solutions. No Child Left Behind doesn't eradicate 100,000 poor black New Orleaners, nor does the repeal of NCLB.
Our schools aren't teaching our children how to think. There it is, plain and simple as I can put it. Our schools aren't teaching our children how to think. And ultimately, thinking is the capital of opportunity. I believe that we are slowly laying the groundwork but misinterpreting it as tiling the roof. Too slowly. What we need is a punctuated evolution, an ascension to a style of education that takes every child and says not only are we not going leave you behind, we're going to give you the tools to get ahead.
Untold hundreds of people are dead in New Orleans because they didn't have the money to get out.
Education is everything.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, September 04, 2005 at 10:29 PM.
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