That's Edu-tainment!

The past several years, I knew that there was something missing from the school where I was teaching, but it was one of those “could be that, could be this” situations where I just could not put my finger on the core issue. I knew that the public’s perception, reinforced by the district’s approach to site management and in-service training, was to lean heavily on the Broken Teacher Syndrome: whatever the problem is, fix it by retraining the teachers.

The definition of insanity is endlessly doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

No one looks at the students in the seats, the students who come and go as they please, not as the school policy dictates; the students who don’t do homework; the students who prefer to amuse themselves with the latest tech gadget, rather than read an assignment; the students who have been promised a college education and a rosy future, but who do not see the correlation between education and goal attainment.

Yesterday, I watched Coach Carter on one of the off-brand TV stations that I still receive (thank you, Time Warner, for replacing all of the major networks with sports, religion, shopping, Spanish language novellas, children’s programs, and local advertisements). When Coach Carter locked the gym because the players signed a contract and didn’t live up to it, the town was up in arms. The parents’ protest was centered on the premise that basketball was all their sons had, and that was exactly the point that Coach Carter was trying to move away from: if students are going to be successful in life, they also need an education.

Of course, the parents won because educators don’t seem to understand that we are the trained professionals and must keep our eyes on the goal: education. Appeasing parents may be the expedient solution to conflict, but it often comes at the expense of what is right for the student’s education.

I had tears in my eyes when Coach Carter went to the gym to remove his personal belongings and found the players sitting at desks. They got it, but their parents didn’t see it. The players knew that they weren’t ready to go back to the court to play basketball because that would be all they had to look forward to, and when their high school athletic career was over, so were their futures.

It’s so simple: kids need an education, and getting an education is hard work. It takes daily effort 180 times between September and June to get up, get dressed, and get to school. It takes completion of homework that has precedence over hanging out at the mall or having fun with friends. It takes a parent who knows how to say “no” to immediate gratification and provide on-going support for long-term goals. It requires a strong educational community to train the parents, along with the students, about the importance of staying in school and acquiring the basic foundation of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking skills that allow today’s child to become tomorrow’s productive citizen.

That’s what was missing in my career, an educational process that focused on strong academic achievement, rather than students “enjoying” school. Replacing solid core curriculum with high-interest/low attention span activities is what kids do when they are at home on the computer, watching TV, or using their IPods. The school system has to be above that level of edu-tainment because our job is education. We cannot compete with an electronics industry that is throwing billions of dollars at development of tekkie toys, but we can educate today’s youth so they can afford to purchase those kinds of products in the future—and know how to use them to enhance their careers, as well as enjoy their leisure time.

Meanwhile, lock the gym.

Be professional and strong about what each and every student needs not today, but five years from now, when it really matters whether we educated kids or entertained them. Students reach for the expectations others have for them, so set them high; when the expectations are too low, it’s not just the students who ignore them, but their parents and even the teachers.

If all we expect from our system is competency at the 8th grade level, why are we keeping kids in school for another 4 years?