After being prepared to teach high school biology, I ended up as a college prof working with preservice and inservice teachers. There is an expression “when the tool you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail” (my version) and I admit to leaning in this direction when it comes to education. To be fair, I think the public often takes the same position. Educators are expected to solve an ever increasing number of problems. What about the various forms of inequality citizens of this country face? Sure, we sometimes think we can and are expected to fix those issues. We can develop tolerance and cultural sensitivity. Sure we can feed those kids who didn’t have breakfast this morning and provide a safe place to be for a couple of extra hours after instruction is finished. We can take students no matter their background and prepare them to make decent income. etc. If we can’t do it, then specialized charter schools can. By the way, a little extra money for resources, salaries, and specialized personnel would be very helpful.
Government has been reluctant to contribute the extra resources, but some of the rich have been willing to provide assistance especially when they have ideas about how existing educational approaches have been doing it wrong. While these folks might have headed off some of the problems by sharing some of the wealth their corporations generated, there is another expression that may apply here = “better late than never”.
Now, some of these benefactors have started to admit that things are not getting better and perhaps to even conclude that education is not the answer. A recent position taken by Nick Hanauer (my summary of the original post) has brought this realization into the main stream. Hanauer’s conclusion is that income inequality must be attacked directly (pay workers more) rather than assuming education will eventually fix things.
I think educators kind of always knew this. With the exception of parents, educators probably spend more time with kids than anyone else. Educators also spend time with everyone’s kids. At least this is true of educators collectively and in some locations pretty much in any given classroom. This breadth of exposure provides a perspective even parents don’t have.
My conclusion has become that while educators cannot remedy the multiple equity issues that are seriously disrupting the progress of this country, they have a perspective that needs to be heard. Part of their job should be to speak out. Dismissing and even demanding silence of educator voice limits public awareness of the reality of inequity. Many may not want to hear what educators have to say, but like any citizen and more so than most, their perspectives need to be considered.