Dear NBC:
As a person who has been invested in education in one form or another for several years (either in my own or my children’s or other people’s children), I am happy to see that you are dedicating a week to the status of the American education system: Education Nation. Although I have not watched “Waiting for Superman” (I don’t live in New York or LA, after all), I have heard of the documentary, and the issues it addresses.
Have you ever heard of John Dewey? My bet is no. I wish I could say that everyone who is in the field of education, no matter the form, had heard of John Dewey. He was talking about the state of our education system 100 years ago.
He was also our national philosopher for many years in the early 20th century. In other words, he was a pretty smart guy with some pretty radical ideas. Although he wrote in a horribly obtuse manner, if you were to read him today, you could actually, point by point, see him discussing problems that we all face today. It wasn’t that he was just that good; we just happen to still be stuck on the same problems we had 100 years ago.
So, back to education: John Dewey, he talked a lot of about it, and how it wasn’t meeting our students’ needs. He was also a pragmatist, so he wanted to offer solutions. He made mention of several things he thought could point us in the right direction, and an open, public discussion was his first step.
You can read all about it his book, The School and Society.
Again, it’s great that you are focusing on the subject this week. I desperately hope that this inspires millions of our nation’s citizens to jump in and start talking about the problems.
I only have two issues with your coverage thus far (and I am fairly certain that your coverage will lack focus on these two issues throughout the remainder of the week). One of them I am going to write about today.
Everything I have seen thus far (today) has focused on schools in dilapidated urban cores. Granted, I understand the plight of public school in urban cores. I’ve seen it firsthand, and frankly, it sucks. There’s no other way to describe it. That being said, a large chunk of our children in this nation are educated in rural schools. They receive little to no attention in the national media, and I have not yet seen you mention the troubles rural school systems tackle all over the face of our nation.
Did you know that rural schools deal with all of the same problems that our urban schools do? Low graduation rates, high teenage pregnancy rates, high suicide and accidental death rates? Did you know that the physical conditions of rural school buildings are virtually the same as urban schools? Did you know that both types of districts face the very same issues in decreasing tax revenues and ravaged budgets? Did you know that teachers in both rural and urban schools tend to respond to students in the same way? Students get categorized in one of two ways: the students who are not going to ‘make it out’ and the students who ‘have a shot’.
Why is it that urban and rural schools districts, while facing the same problems, are treating so radically different? Why is it that the complex solutions for urban schools do not match the complex solutions in rural schools?
Why is it that urban schools get the attention of documentaries, philanthropists, and the national media, and rural schools do not?
I went to school in a rural school district. I wish the founder of Facebook – or anyone, for the matter--was interested in donating 100 million dollars to the school districts in the county where I grew up.
Can you imagine what the ripple effects of that would be?
Stayed tuned for part two of my open letter, where I address my second concern…
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