REAL EDUCATION
Report Card Becky

A Florida high school freshman confronts the President's brother on the issue of class sizes:

''I voted against the class size amendment because I think it restricts strategies for learning, and to me the more important thing is our children learning -- not how many kids are in a class,'' he said.

Wait a minute, when students are crammed into a classroom, learning can become much more difficult.

And

Gov. Bush did not buy my argument.

Class size isn't the only factor in learning how to read, he said.

''There are a lot of other elements to reading that are important,'' he said, noting that teacher qualifications and the use of reading specialists play a big role.

The governor also likes the idea of filling in the gaps with teachers' aides.

At this point, all I could think of was my fifth-grade class, which was packed with 37 kids.

You go, girl!

Click here.

I am so sick of people who don't know the damndest thing about education pontificating as though they were experts. I'll get right to the point: lowering class sizes to around ten students per classroom is probably the best way to greatly increase learning in all schools. That class size is somehow irrelevant is an argument who's sole purpose is to save money, not to enhance learning. Education is wealth's favorite sacrificial lamb.

Comedian, Bill Maher, a self-described reluctant conservative, who I nonetheless like a lot, better articulates the argument than does the election-rigging Florida governor, Jeb Bush: "I went to Catholic boys school and I had a good education in large classes." Maher's statement also shows why so many who are so ignorant of how education actually functions see themselves as educational experts--they all went to school, therefore they know all about it; their experience as students makes them believe that they fully understand teaching.

Obviously, being a teacher and being a student are two entirely different things--sadly, this is only one issue out of many on which conservative logic is decidedly screwy. Of course, because the logic is screwy, the conclusion is just straight up wrong. Maher managed to get a good education because he was highly motivated to do so. You don't go to private school unless your family wants you to succeed. That the school was religious is a fact that shows how his learning was also part of a familial world view, a family sense of cultural identity. Maher had his parents pushing from one side, the church from another, and, most likely, his own sense of self-worth from within. In other words, Maher educated himself, while his teachers helped out.

That's pretty much how it was with me at public school. Learning was my responsibility and I took it seriously. In retrospect, very few teachers had any profound effects on me--most were taskmasters and managers, assigning worksheets and such, all routine and order. I learned because my family impressed on me that it was important that I do so.

But what do you do with students from homes where learning is not so prized? Students from broken homes? Students with drug problems? Students who can't read? Students with mental health issues? Students with ADD (a very real, if overdiagnosed, problem)? African-American students who might see excelling in school as "acting white?" Girls with eating disorders? As if being a teenager wasn't difficult enough...

Given a heterogeneous student population, large class sizes mean two things to me as a high school teacher: first, discipline and classroom management issues take up the lion's share of my instructional energies; second, many students are able to fall through the cracks--that is, pass the course, but not really understand the subject. It's really quite simple to see how this works. If I had a class size of, say, ten students, the four or five discipline prone students that I might have in a class of thirty decrease to one or two. More importantly, with smaller classes I would be able to have a great deal more individual interaction with students, to see if my students really get it, to keep trying until they do. Tests are a monkey show: the only real way to assess learning is to know the students well, to create a real student-teacher relationship in the Socratic sense. In short, a small class is a true learning experience. A large class is ultimately warehousing kids, sink or swim.

It's funny. Contrary to popular views, I personally believe that I am paid quite well for what I do. Compared to my previous job, waiting tables, the steady paycheck, benefits, and vacation time can't be beat. I mean, $35k for babysitting! An idiot could do it!

In fact, come to think of it, many of my colleagues are idiots.

Thanks to Eschaton for the link.

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