Finding a “cure” in the public
school House!
I am a big fan of the recently-ended
TV series House. With a masterful
touch, actor Hugh Laurie played the brilliant, irascible, arrogant, prank-playing
doctor who is known for sweeping in at the last minute with his diagnostic team
to save a dying patient with a miracle cure to a complex condition. There is
one thing for certain though ― the last thing you wanted to be on
that show was the patient.
Why? Because it usually meant that
at some point during your 60-minute hospital stay you had to convincingly and realistically
pass prodigious quantities of blood through various orifices of your body. Hundreds
of emerging young actors can now proudly add to their professional resumes “expert
at hemorrhagic vomiting.”
The mystery ailment often was so
arcane, elusive, or disguised that they had to treat symptoms without directly attacking
the cause. Patients went through every type of test or procedure imaginable;
sometimes with life threatening consequences. More than once ―
after infusing an exotic pharmaceutical cocktail, conducting intricate open
heart/brain surgery, or inducing a claustrophobic incident in the CT scanner ― the
medical team found they had misdiagnosed the problem and had to bring out the
paddles to revive the patient. Treating a moving target of symptoms had led
them down a series of recurring blind alleys. It was a guessing game and the
clock was ticking as the patient’s life hung in the balance. They threw
solutions at problems hoping one would stick and voila a patient would be cured
for another week.
The scripts from House transport readily to the modern
era of school reform in the Public School House. Our patient (the public
schools) shows dramatic and alarming signs of illness. Our financial temperature
has dropped sharply, we’re amputating appendages to save essential core
services, and using a plethora of triage techniques to keep public education
from flat lining. The prognosis is dire and the condition is deteriorating
rapidly. Is there a doctor in the house?
The harsh critics in our House say it’s
too late; we’re riding a dead horse on life support. Privateers, born-again
educationists, voucheristas, home schoolers, charter advocates, and politicians
have started making our funeral arrangements while educational theorists,
academics, think tanks, sage retired superintendents, private industry turn-around
specialists, and canned reform-in-a-box software/ hardware/ human-ware marketers
have gone Code Red in treating our symptoms.
These Public School EMTs (education
management theorists) use tell-tale signs like dropout rates, Achievement Gaps,
multilingualism, no common core, not enough electives, outdated teaching
styles, lack of parental engagement in the learning process, too much or not
enough technology, and a litany of other problems to pitch their solution for
creating and maintaining a 21st Century learning environment for a demanding
and complex student population. They diagnose a symptom with an absolute
conviction that by treating it we can create overall health in the patient.
These reforms may work for a while.
Personally, I think we can’t really produce a healthy, life sustaining public
education system unless we cure the real cause for our malaise . . .
Malnutrition. Each year Americans seem more willing to spend money on Starbuck’s
than schoolhouses. The percent of personal income devoted to education has
steadily decreased each year over the past few decades. As a society we’re
starving our students to death. In some societies that would be considered child
abuse. On a national scale it’s educational genocide.
In California, we have been systematically
de-funding public education by billions of dollars. I’m all for ending obesity and
maintaining a reasonably healthy diet, but in this case we’re forcing our
schools into anorexia. California is trying to run 2013 schools with 2000
income levels. If the lifespan of a PreK-12 student is only 14 years, in effect,
we have abandoned an entire generation on operating table. Schools can now only
offer life support and keep the little patients as comfortable as possible.
Watch any TV ad for new miracle
drugs designed to cure a host of Baby Boomer maladies and they all end the same
way: a thirty second speed-talked disclaimer that warns if you take this drug
it might cure the one symptom you have, but could cause dangerous side-effects
(anything from fainting, convulsions and dry mouth to four-hour erections,
heart attacks and strokes). Maybe we need to mandate that we cannot impose an
educational reform or funding bill on our public schools without a similar
disclaimer about their unintended consequences, dangers from overdose, and adverse
side effects. On the label of the regulatory prescription bottle we should also
caution that resisting tax increases for education can become an addiction that
is hard shake.
As communicators we need to be
truth tellers. Today, the Health of Public Education sucks. We need people to
see that there will be deep and fatal consequences if we keep treating symptoms
instead of getting to the root cause that will cure this patient. We have to
stop expecting miracle cures and start investing our resources in systemic
educational wellness. It will take a long-term commitment and a lot of patience
if our patient is going to pull through. But time is of the essence or the
patient may die. We need a Dr. House and his team in the Public School House STAT
to accurately diagnose our condition and prescribed a cure that doesn’t kill us!
© Copyright 2012 by Thomas K. DeLapp, Communication Resources for Schools
