Kafkaesque Public Schools: Public Schools That Aren't

Kafkaesque: complicated, confusing, and threatening

Word story:

From the name of the Czech-German writer Franz Kafka. For the characters in Kafka’s novels, the world seems mysterious and unfriendly, and it becomes very difficult to achieve things.

--- Macmillan Online Dictionary http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/Kafkaesque

Schools are supposed to be about educating youth, yet I cannot say that a lot educating is really taking place.

The conflicting goals of schools: what they tell the parents and the public vs. what they tell the students vs. what they tell themselves vs what they tell the state. There are a number of conflicting narratives which thwart the public-minded model of public schooling.

Just the name "public school" is enough to inspire derision. Public schools are hardly "public", aside from having to serve students from the local zipcode and spending taxpayer money. Otherwise, no community could be more sequestered from public oversight than a "public school".

Just look at the outrageous allegations pouring out from Miramonte Elementary School in Florence, where two teachers are accused of committing lewd acts on children. Even though these teachers were investigated for misconduct, and in other schools teachers actually went to trial, parents were never informed. Parents have a hard time getting a conference with one teacher, let alone all the teachers that their child meets with every day. If a parent wants an audience with the principal, he may have to take a number.
Schools receive public money, yet they spend the money without public oversight. If the money is not being poured into empty projects or seminar strategies to boost test scores, then the money is invested into the growing number of public pensions and benefits, expenditures which have nothing to do with educating students. In more troubled schools, where full time teachers go one stress level as often as possible, substitute teachers eat away at the dwindling reserve of school budgets.

What goes on in a child's classroom remains off limits to many parents. Students relate one set of stories, followed by the input of math and English coaches which stress the importance of different learning strategies. The confusing mix of what exactly is going remains elusive, to say the least.

Public schools are not public even to the local press. When the Daily Breeze requested data on teachers who had been written up, disciplined, or dismissed, some districts stalled, some districts argued that they could not risk the privacy of the teacher. The truth is hard to pinpoint with any accuracy.