Baggage

During the great westward migration of the nineteenth century thousands of Americans left the East and Midwest to settle the West. A very common problem was that they overloaded their wagons with all sorts of “baggage” that they “knew they couldn’t do without.” A story that is told over and over in accounts from the time is that the trail became littered with all of the items that had been considered necessary but were threatening their very survival if they continued carrying them. They had dragged all of that baggage in back-breaking labor until they realized they were faced with a life-or-death decision. Some refused to face the reality of their misguided decision and perished leaving all of that “valuable stuff” along the trail anyway. To them the inability to face reality made the status quo of their current possessions more important than their future. Because they wanted it all they lost it all. This inability to face short term pain for long term gain is even more common today.

Educators don’t realize it but they face the same “life-or-death” decision. The life that is at risk is their future lifestyle and the future of the American way of life. Their failure to educate all kids to their potential is resulting in America being less and less competitive in the world marketplace. Unless urgent action is taken now it will be too late. Continuing delay will put America into an unrecoverable hole of much lower standards of living. Educators need to realize they can’t separate themselves from the rest of America. Continuing to support the current mediocrity will take down the country and the educators along with it.

For educators the baggage that is threatening our nation’s very survival is an amalgam of false beliefs and false pride. Like the pioneers they are on the trail with a heavy load of fantasy beliefs that prevent them from making progress toward the goals they “say” they are trying to achieve. The goal that seems to get mentioned most frequently is the elimination of the achievement GAP between demographically challenged kids and the rest. The “baggage” preventing achievement of this goal includes:

• A belief that is virtually universal within the education fiefdom that “those kids” can’t really learn to a high standard. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that prevents them from learning to the high levels educators “say” they want. While I can guarantee that all educators will deny this for their own school(s), if you press them on achievement performance the first excuse you will hear is the demographic one. This excuse is reinforced by things like The Blueberry Story, Vollmer (2006) which is supported by the unions and tacitly supported by most administrators and school boards who like excuses as well as anyone.
• They use biased, mediocre, scientifically unsound curricula and teaching methods that enrich the education schools that “research” and teach them, the publishers, the consultants who help implement them, etc. The true dark side of these efforts is that they harm the students’ ability to learn at a time when it is vital that our students learn to a higher level if the nation is to compete effectively in the new global paradigm. Refer to Hirsch (2006) comments in The Reality Primer section to understand the problem more fully.
• A common belief, especially among K-5 educators, is that competition is a terrible thing and kids need to be protected from that at all cost. We can’t protect our country and citizens from competition. Competing well is what made us great. The inability of kids to compete because they have been taught they don’t need to is a huge problem!
• Educators also believe that when things get tough the thing to do is to ask your political allies to “protect” you from that nasty foreign (or domestic) competition. That is a waste of time, only making things worse. The global economy is far too integrated for that. Past attempts (ex. Smoot-Hawley tariffs exacerbated the Great Depression in the 1930s) have failed, doing far more harm than good.
• Educators believe they are well educated but they have been the willing victims of education school inadequacy. See Hirsch, Kramer and Levine quotes in the Reality Primer section. This is especially a problem in the area of subject knowledge, from reading to math to science to social studies. Most educators know this subconsciously and that is what leads to their excessive fear of change because significant effort will be required to address this shortfall.
• Educators have a belief that change is anathema and to be avoided at all cost. That is a totally delusional attitude. The only constant in the world is change. This “rut robot” mentality is extremely counterproductive.

Many more points could be made but you see the picture. It is time to face the truth and get rid of the pseudo-intellectual baggage being carried by the vast majority of educators.

Excerpt from Advice for Educators When Performance Improvement is Vital, Paul Richardson, © 2008