Eductional Reform in our state's K-12

By Tim K. "Timothy" Fitzgerald

A revisitation to a rational approach to state public education, with a radical shift in the education of our youth for the first time since the Pragmatists prepared their generation of industrial semi-skilled labour at the urn of the 19th century.

California has moved from the pride of the nation in 1960 when it adopted the Master Plan on Higher Education, to one of the most endangered state programs in the nation's history where our elementary and middle schools are ranked by the U.S. Department of Education at 46th in the nation (1). As an educator and teacher by temperament and disposition for most of my life, I am appalled at the lack of adequate teaching methods in the K-12 grades.

Having taught in the community colleges here in the Sierra foothills and as a substitute teacher in the high school and middle school elsewhere in Northern California, I am shocked by the low quality of teaching materials made available in the classroom. It completely fails to bring superior instructional processes into the classroom. For example: Civics Standardized Secondary Sources are used in place of Classical materials like John Lock's Two Treatises in Civil Government and de Toquville's Democracy in America. These source materials provide primary principles adopted by our founding fathers as opposed to second hand interpretation and the sometimes biased opinions found in Standardized Secondary Sources.

I believe we need to adopt the Montessori System in the primary grades. This system has been shown to effectively and efficiently teach critical thinking, which is in increasing demand at all levels of the job market and can be expected to be increasingly necessary in our ever more complex world. It is urgent that we start now to reverse the damage done under our current educational methods which were designed over one hundred years ago for another time and place in our history. We must catch up and modernize our methods!

The Montessori Method of education encompasses the philosophy of child development as well as the rationale that guides this growth. The philosophy is based on the two major developmental needs of all our children, which are:

• Their need to feel free within limits.
• Their need for a specially prepared environment that can guarantee exposure to different experiences and materials.

In sharp contrast our current methods rely heavily on rote memorization, boring routines, and the over use of repetitive learning. These methods can not prepare our young people for easily foreseeable competition in our modern world.

Rote memorization has long had a bad name in educational circles. Since it is the easiest type of learning to teach and to measure (test), it is unacceptably overused. Furthermore, we often require our learners to memorize things which don't really need to be memorized, and we fail to teach many of the higher types of learning our learners need because we have devoted so much time on memorization and `banking.' This is in fact recently noted according to a study published in September of last year (2011) (3).

Boring routines actually interfere with learning according to American Psychological Institute as published in the Journal of Educational Psychology, in Aug 2010(4). Creative inquiry and original thinking, are necessary in our increasingly competitive world market where America, and California in particular, are already losing ground due to our failure to adapt to the new realities. The next generation must be prepared, flexible, and creative if our nation - and our state - is to reclaim its place in this changing world community. As frightening as these changes may be for some, we cannot afford to ignore or deny the irreversible reality of the increasing impact of globalization and world competition.

According to the American Journal on Business Education Published in 2010, its CEO forum specifically researched key skill students should have. First in priority was listed effective communication skills, teamwork, the ability to collaborate, as well as personal and social responsibility. Second was, digital age literacy, including basic, scientific, and technical knowledge. Third on the list is inventive thinking, defined as having the ability to adapt quickly and effectively and manage complexity, as well as curiosity, creativity, and intelligent risk taking, and higher order thinking and sound reasoning. Fourth and finally was listed high productivity, the ability to effectively prioritize tasks, planning time and managing resources for optimum results (5).

These are the skills we must start developing in students from a very early age. Even each 6 year old today can learn to "play well with others", begin learning basic computer skills, learn to adapt to change through games, have their natural curiosity encouraged, creativity developed though arts and music, and learn the difference between a smart risk (like crossing the street at an intersection) and a stupid risk (like running across the road without an intersection).

Having studied at one time for a teaching credential, I could not help but notice how inadequate the teaching methods are at present in this state's secondary education system at several locations. I strongly argue we also restructure the educational system in our middle schools. A balanced education for the youth in our classrooms that includes a wide array of liberal arts, the humanities- art, drama, and music + before our students enter senior high school and take on the much more serious material which awaits them there is essential for superior growth in every student in the state.

Our senior high schools must be re-directed to teach basic subjects such as Math, Science, English and History, subjects that can prepare all our students for adult life which they must enter when they turn 18. These basics should always be taught from original documents and classic literature - the foundation of Western Thought - while allowing our students to discover the great conversations between the great minds of Western Society. Quite unlike dumbing down and spoon feeding this generation that results in totally inadequate preparation for entering todays world and meeting the demands of our labour force, here and across the country.

The effort to teach vocational skills and preparation for a professional career are misplaced at the secondary level and should be refocused at the community college level and the post secondary school system now in place+ existing institutions far better prepared to prepare our young adult minds for the serious consideration of careers and occupations + critical decisions that are entered into far to soon in some cases for unprepared minds. Most of these revisions need not increase the cost of education in this state by a great amount, but may admittedly require our teaching community to re-tool itself for the increasing demands and responsibility of post industrial society. In this way they can better prepare themselves to contribute to the serious effort that must be brought to bear while educating the next generation, and the next, in preparation for advanced or specialized skills and ability to stay competitive in this increasingly competitive world of commerce and international trade.