The Dichotomy.
The Words of the Over educated Professionals versus Reality.
by Rob Wood
A Parent looks at the mission statement of the local public school system and is not only impressed since people far more educated in academic preparation of children than themselves came up with it but also are confident (trusting) that their child is safe in their hands. Without even pondering why NM has the worst academic performance rating for K-12 in the nation they buy into the lie and drop their child off.
According to an article in this week’s Las Cruces Bulletin, the LCPS Deputy Superintendent of the division of teaching, learning, leadership and research, Dr Wendi Miller-Tomlinson, in a speech given to the Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce, outlined the profile goal of qualities for the students of LCPS to have when they graduate. “The graduate profile is an agreement between us as a school district and us as a community with our students,” she claimed, based on “The community developed nine competencies.”
(Must have been a community of overeducated academic minds finely tuned by the latest strain of cannabis.)
Honest
Confident
Self-aware
Productive
Empathetic
Responsible
Independent critical thinkers
Good Communicators
Problem solvers
Maybe it’s just me but I seem to not be finding anything on academic competency? Giving credit where credit is due, I should at least note that Dr Miller-Tomlinson is being #1 honest by leaving that one off. What really grabs me is that except for maybe, and I mean maybe, #1 & #5 I cannot think of one teacher that is competent in the other 7.
Now let’s take that list and compare it to the reality of the goals of the government run school monopoly, of which LCPS is, as outlined by 30-year veteran teacher John Taylor Gatto. From his personal experience as a career teacher, in both high and low achieving middle schools, he explains the 7 Lesson School Teacher format that all schools adhere to that perform the dance to the government monopoly of standardized compulsory education. I hope one will, at the same time, take an honest reality check of their school experience (outside of focusing on some single teacher that actually noticed them) over those 12 years of their individuality being stripped away in the name of standardization and conformity.
Confusion. Siloed, out of context single subject teaching which teaches the un-relating of everything.
Class Position. Stay in the class where you belong applying not only to the school class but their socioeconomic class. There is no way out of your class (either) except by number magic controlled by the authority figure.
Indifference. The lessons of the bells teaches that no work is worth finishing, so why care too deeply about anything. When the bell rings drop everything and move to the next workstation.
Emotional Dependency. One must surrender to the predestining chain of command who use stars and red checks, smiles and frowns, prizes, honors, and disgraces, along with hall passes if one “must” use the bathroom. Children are hostages to good behavior.
Intellectual Dependency. Good students wait for a teacher to tell them what to do or study. Curiosity is replaced with conformity. Compulsory schooling is predetermining a way of life that depends on people doing what they are told to do because they don’t know how to tell themselves what to do.
Provisional Self Esteem. Kids are constantly evaluated and judged which tells them that their self-respect depends on expert opinion. Compounding this further, a periodic report is sent home so parents can be told how to judge their children. Good schooling depends on the perpetuation of judgmental dissatisfaction both by others and then as taught to do, by oneself. “I am bad at math, library science or art. I am a lousy student because I was told I am by an authority or number or letter on a card.” Never, as in the real world, judged by their peers except as the teacher tells them how to judge. They are told by the supposed experts what their worth is based on the 7 Lesson metrics which then by seeing how the teacher or the school administration treats them is reinforced by their classmates and their parents because isn’t the teacher always right?
One Can’t Hide. There is no private space or private time for students. They are always watched, under constant surveillance by those in charge. I flash on the prison dining hall or recreation yard versus the guard’s lunchroom. This totally undermines any sense of the word trust in children’s minds. They are prisoners forced to serve their time which out of fear is backed up by their parents. Then the surveillance follows them home in the name of homework and the parents ensure its continuation. “Have you done your homework.”
ref: Dumbing Us Down” by John Taylor Gatto, chapter 1.
Returning to Dr Tomlinson’s #1: Isn’t attempting to convince parents that school will prepare their children to be able to confidently navigate the world they will face a total distortion of the truth? I could run down her whole list in the same manner as should any concerned parent to see the hypocrisy in it. With NM having the worst education system in the nation how come I can never find a middle-class parent that believes their child’s school is one of the bad ones? Not my kid’s school, it’s one of the good ones they claim. They never answer when I ask, compared to what.
If your kid is doing great in school congratulation, but that only means that they have gotten good at falling in line with the 7 Lessons, in other words at doing school. All forms of academic proficiency testing are the clarifying agent for establishing how good one was at doing school (conformity and memorization) so one can move to the next level of the standardization process. Nowhere in any of those tests are found the development of the inherent liberties we (including our children) are supposed to have been given in our founding documents because school completely beat those ideas out of their charges. That should bring one to pause and hopefully think long before condemning the youth for their lacking in abilities that we thought they were taught in school.
It is not their fault.
end
