Thinking Citizen Blog — Prof. Reville — “Sputnik-like Moment”

Thinking Citizen Blog — Friday is Education and Education Policy Day

Today’s Topic: Professor Paul Reville — “a Sputnik like moment”

The Russian launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957 caused a terrible panic in the United States. The idea that the Russians could beat us in the space race was unthinkable. We had to catch up and fast. The passage of the National Defense Education Act (1958) followed. Could the coronavirus pandemic, exposing the terrible inequalities in the educational system be a comparable wake-up call? So hopes Paul Reville, former Massachusetts Secretary of Education, and currently a Professor at Harvard’s School of Education. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.

FOCUSING ON SCHOOLS ALONE IS A HUGE MISTAKE (Reville, Boston Globe, 3/9/20)

1. “The coronavirus crisis with its attendant school closings have now exposed the underlying flaw in our over-reliance on the institution of schooling to create the equal opportunity society that we aspire to.”

2. “Schools alone, consuming a mere 20 percent of children’s waking hours between kindergarten and high school graduation, are, on average, too weak an intervention to realize our audaciously ambitious education policy goals like “no child left behind.”

3. “Schools, supposedly focused on academic achievement, don’t have magical powers to triumph over hunger, untreated medical problems, lack of technology, and totally unequal access to enrichment in the 80 percent of waking hours children spend outside of school.”

NB: “This moment of crisis could be a Sputnik-like opportunity to renew America’s commitment to children and equity by capitalizing on the current sense of urgency to take bold action to eradicate childhood poverty and construct a 21st-century system of child development that adapts to each child and gives them what they need to be successful inside and outside of school.”

YES, BUT, GIVING THE HOME THE ATTENTION IT DESERVES IS NOT SO EASY

1. Family structure matters. And even talking about it is still taboo.

2. Values matter. But even talking about them raises hackles.

3. Nobody likes being told what to do or how to raise their kids.

THREE LIBERTIES ARE THE GREATEST BARRIERS TO EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY

1. Parental liberty — to have as many children as you want whenever you want however unready you are.

2. Local control of schools — aka federalism — aka the smaller and nearer the government the better.

3. Religious/cultural liberty — historically given priority relative to the rights of the child (eg. Wisconsin v Yoder)

NB: A fourth obstacle is teacher liberty — the idea that “my classroom is my castle,” that all curricula and teaching methods are created equal. That unlike, say the law or surgery, teaching is not something that requires years of rigorous training.

Coronavirus gives us an opportunity to rethink K-12 education — The Boston Globe

Federal involvement in US education

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/3/24/muresianu-daily-katrina/

YOUR TURN

Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to education or education policy. Or the coolest thought however half-baked you had.

Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to education or education policy that the rest of us may have missed. Or just some random education-related fact that blew you away.

This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something that is dear to your heart.