Public Education: Two Contradictions

Forcing kids to learn: nothing could be more inherently inimical and contradictory to the well-being and upbringing of our youth.

Learning is as natural as breathing, so why force someone, anyone to learn. We cannot force people to breathe -- they will do it naturally enough, without any help from us. And there is the strange tenacity of people, especially the younger set, to resist doing anything when they are told what to do. Why obey, but at the threat of being hit and hurt. Education is not fun for those who have no self-respect or self-control. No way to teach, though, if there are no means to discipline others.

Behold the other contradiction: Teaching and Disciplining -- contrary to popular belief, the two elements are becoming more and more exclusive.

Rick Smith wrote a stunning book  Conscious Classroom Management, in which he argued that an attitude adjustment was enough to get teachers from timid to triumphant when taking on discipline issues in the classroom.

Smith advocated that teachers psych themselves with the following self-talk: "This young child is testing me to see whether I really care about him or not."

Granted, this is true. Many youth have parents who do not care about their kids, and this is a sad reality. They really do hope that the teachers standing in front of them will not let them "get away with it."

The problem emerges when a growing number of students enter the classroom year after year who have no direction or discipline at home. The teacher simply cannot stop everything to care about and carry through the upbringing over every kid. Students have a right to learn, definitely, yet the element of student discipline and self-control wars against the curricular and academic demands which weigh on teachers, which will not be filtered away over time. Then the issue of previous training intrudes on the current expectations of students, many of whom have been passed through without earning their credits.

Forcing kids to learn, and using force while dishing out facts and figures -- the contradictions of compulsory education and student  discipline are undermining public education, and no matter how savvy, compelling, or fantastic the lessons that one provides, no matter how motivated a teacher may be in the classroom, these two contradictions will frustrate or subvert his efforts to reach out to even the best of students.

The Two  V's: voluntary enrollment and a voucher program, would eliminate many  of the problems and the conflicts which make teaching one of the most difficult and in a growing sense one of the least rewarding professions.