September 14, 2010--Telling It (Partly) Like It (Sadly) Is

I generally pass right by Tom Friedman's columns in the New York Times. Whereas in the past to me they were often informative and provoked further thought, in recent years they have become predictable and it feels as if he is frequently imitating himself. Which goes to prove that no one can keep his intellectual edges sharp forever.

But then this past Sunday he surprised me. Drawing primarily on a column by the Washington Post's Robert Samuelson, Friedman wrote insightfully, and even a little courageously, about why, though we Americans continue to proclaim ourselves Number One in every field from basketball to the annual number of patents issued, in fact, in some important areas we're more Number 11 than predominant. None more distressing than in public education where we have slipped to 11th in the world in the number of our young people completing college degrees. (Full Friedman column linked below.)

Samuelson and Friedman speculate as to the causes.

Class sizes are too large, teachers get paid too little, not enough kids have the benefit of pre-school programs, and there aren't enough charter schools to close the persistent gap in student achievement. But they cite evidence that none of these, troubling as they might be, are at the heart of the problem. What then is holding our youth back from competing successfully with others around the world with whom we are locked in economic competition?

Radically, at the considerable risk of being accused of blaming the victims, they contend that there is something about the children themselves that is holding them back.

Samuelson writes:

The larger cause of failure is almost unmentionable: shrunken student motivation. Students, after all, have to do the work. If they aren't motivated, even capable teachers may fail.

Motivation comes from many sources: curiosity and ambition; parental expectations; the desire to get into a "good" college; inspiring or intimidating teachers; peer pressure. The unstated assumption of much school "reform" is that if students aren't motivated, it's mainly the fault of schools and teachers. The reality is that, as high schools have become more inclusive (in 1950, 40 percent of 17-year-olds had dropped out, compared with about 25 percent today) and adolescent culture has strengthened, the authority of teachers and schools has eroded. That applies more to high schools than to elementary schools, helping explain why early achievement gains evaporate.

Motivation is weak because more students (of all races and economic classes, let it be added) don't like school, don't work hard and don't do well. In a 2008 survey of public high school teachers, 21 percent judged student absenteeism a serious problem; 29 percent cited "student apathy." [My italics.]

Friedman picks up on the student-motivation and the don't-work-hard charges. He sees these claims to be valid and looks for the reasons. He writes:

There is a lot to Samuelson’s point — and it is a microcosm of a larger problem we have not faced honestly as we have dug out of this recession: We had a values breakdown — a national epidemic of get-rich-quickism and something-for-nothingism. Wall Street may have been dealing the dope, but our lawmakers encouraged it. And far too many of us were happy to buy the dot-com and subprime crack for quick prosperity highs.

Ask yourself: What made our Greatest Generation great? First, the problems they faced were huge, merciless and inescapable: the Depression, Nazism and Soviet Communism. Second, the Greatest Generation’s leaders were never afraid to ask Americans to sacrifice. Third, that generation was ready to sacrifice, and pull together, for the good of the country. And fourth, because they were ready to do hard things, they earned global leadership the only way you can, by saying: “Follow me.” [Again, my italics.]

As controversial as it may be to acknowledge that students themselves must share some of the responsibility for the failures of our schools and themselves, much of what both Samuelson and Friedman write rings true to me.

For more than three decades I spent much of my professional life in public schools in every corner of America--from inner-city schools to one-room classrooms in rural Alabama. And over the years I did see increasing percentages of under-motivated youngsters even in classes taught be talented teachers.

One significant caveat that requires further study and thought--

Listless and bored students were much more common in the higher grades. I never visited a first or second or third grade class in which the kids were not easy to motivate. Even when their teachers were mediocre. But by the fourth grade it was obvious that school was no longer important to too many students

So one edit for Samuelson and Friedman--

Yes, the cultural shifts they cite which affect young people's motivation are problems not easy to overcome. But then there is also something systemically wrong with the schools themselves that contributes to dampening the eagerness with which children begin their schooling. That too urgently needs addressing because the failures of our schools is not nearly so much, as they claim, about the children themselves.