Part 1 of 2
“Our inner-city public schools constitute an environmental issue.” So said the executive director of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council more than five years ago. I happen to remember the quote, because I was that executive director at the time that I said it.
Even then, people familiar with the pattern and psychology of urban sprawl in West Michigan did not take issue with me. They readily understood how our current urban sprawl reflected two generations of so-called “white flight,” with related disenfranchisement and disinheritance of city institutions – especially the public school system.
They knew that, in order to rescue the city, and see it thrive, we would have to rescue the schools; that in order to protect the environment, we would have to rescue the city.
Indeed, the condition of our schools is a key aspect of the sustainability equation that balances economic, social, and environmental goals. Now more than ever, a good education is essential to achieve prosperity, ecological stewardship, and full human potential.
Yet the inner city public schools remain the default storage facility for the children of the poor, the unprepared, and the ill-socialized. People who can afford to have left for better schools in the suburbs. Others have kept their children home.
And who can blame them? Would you want your child to carry the brunt of our collective failure to advance modern education in our cities if you could avoid it? You would be neglectful if you did not, at least, consider seriously how you might spare your child that fate.
Overcoming the Troubling Trends
The challenge is not exclusive to Grand Rapids. The case is pretty much the same in cities all over the country. The National Assessment of Educational Progress reported last week that 65 percent of our nation’s 12th-graders, fully two out of three, cannot read with proficiency. One out of four high school seniors is proficient in mathematics. Three out of four are not.
These figures do not include the math and reading proficiency of those pupils who dropped out by the 12th grade. If 18 becomes the mandatory school attendance age in Michigan, as Governor Granholm suggests, we should not be surprised to see math and reading proficiencies drop still further.
Meanwhile, rampant behavior and disciplinary problems threaten the educational process, as well as the ability to retain capable teachers and ensure the health and safety of students while they are at school. In Michigan, 4.9 percent of the teachers reported being physically attacked by a student in the past twelve months. 16 percent of our nation’s central city students report attacking a teacher at some time prior to leaving school.
All this reminds me of a Thomas Edison quote: “Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something.” It's an apt reference on a couple of levels.
Among the many things that Edison is known for, one is the irony of being a genius who had only three months of formal education. Aside from that brief interlude, he was taught the three R’s at home by his mother. Not a bad advertisement for home schooling.
The point is, like numerous other American historical heroes, Edison got his education without an air conditioned school building, without a certified teacher, and without classes in the History of the Motion Picture (since he had to invent motion pictures before there could be such classes). He had no classmates, few books, no extra curriculum, no electronic communication, no Ipod, no school jersey.
What he did have was his mother’s determination and confidence, coupled with the fundamental family conviction that education mattered. She believed in her son enough to break some rules, precisely to assure that he received as good an education as she could provide.
Nurturing Human Capital
I am not convinced that our society values education that way it to. That might have been a more shocking statement a few years ago than it is today, when many of us can find legitimate reasons for doubting the national commitment to learning. But it isn’t just a question of providing enough money. I’m not sure that America values educated people the way it claims to.
Oh, I think that we understand that a good education is key to a successful life – that it is the most direct way to the larger incomes and financial opportunity. Anything that puts a classic car collection in the eight-stall garage is a key value, right? Whatever purchases the hottest new models. So, is that all we get educated for? To out compete the less educated?
True education ought to be about much more than the mere acquisition of wealth. It must have something to do with making people whole and equipping them with the skills necessary to benefit themselves and the society that sustains them. It ought to have something to do with cultivating active participants in the relay race of culture. It ought to prepare people to enjoy and improve the world.
All well and good, you might say. But how do we translate all that into better schools here? The answer, in my view, begins with a better understanding of what makes a good education and why we want – if in fact we do want – educated people. Let’s begin by teaching families that education matters.
Photos:
Elementary students at Roosevelt School in Grand Rapids
All Photographs © Brian Kelly