My Turn
Degrees in Thinkology

Is education about developing brains or bestowing parchments?

President Bush's educational plan, which had overwhelming support in Congress, is a disappointment to this teacher. And in light of its popularity, it seems that many people have lost sight of the true purpose and essence of education.

Many parents believe that high test scores will turn into a college acceptance, which will then turn into employment opportunities. To many, this is the purpose of education--knowledge for money. Our school administrators and politicians respond to this attitude and are now turning our public schools into test preparation centers instead of places of genuine learning.

This is not to say that an education isn't to be used to prepare for a career, but to think of it only in those terms is damaging to society. It trivializes knowledge and eliminates the concepts of understanding and perspective. By associating knowledge only with material gain, we create a society where we only study to pass a test, or to appear on a game show where questions concerning the works of Michelangelo are of equal importance as those about "Gilligan's Island."

Worse than that, we have institutionalized this attitude. Our schools and the family itself have willingly used the "knowledge for materialism" concept to motivate our young to do their homework.

This philosophy diminishes the meaning of education and the significance of our diplomas and degrees. I am reminded of the scene in The Wizard of Oz in which the Scarecrow asks for a brain and is told by the Wizard that the world is run by people who have even less brains than he has, but they have one thing that he hasn't got. At this point the Wizard pulls a piece of parchment out of his bag and presents it to the Scarecrow as a degree in "Thinkology." As I observe the educational policies of our leaders, I suspect they have sorely missed the point.

The responsibility of a public school is not to mass-produce worker bees, nor to be a farm system for colleges. A public school is meant to construct the foundation upon which a person may build a meaningful life. For an education is not achieved by the age of 17 or 18 as test scores and diplomas might insinuate; it is a lifetime endeavor. This is why we call graduation ceremonies "commencements." They are beginnings, not ends.

The purpose of education is to empower and enrich the individual. It is to give people understanding, perspective, and dignity so that they may better deal with whatever the fates throw their way. Education makes each of us better able to appreciate the life we've been given. It allows us to listen to the people of the past and gives us the ability to speak to the future. It grants us wisdom that can be used in so many ways: to explain the difference between love and sex to our children, to see what real wealth is, to have insight into "the road less traveled" as well as the one most traveled. It helps us understand such things as courage, integrity, friendship, ethics, human nature, and truth. It will even allow us to see ourselves... if we dare.

Unfortunately, this definition of education is dismissed as na?ve, idealistic, and therefore, foolish. That is why public education seems to be failing. Without the attitude toward education that I have described, everything we teach is without its proper context, and is therefore labeled as irrelevant unless it leads to material success. We will create a society in which we rear our children to believe that success is the ability to satisfy all of their appetites, a society where "greed is good."

In his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman reminds us that we have been warned about such a society. Postman tells us that in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, the people came to love their oppression, and adored the technologies that crippled their capacities to think. He wrote that "Huxley feared that there would be no reason to ban a book for there would be no one who wanted to read one" and "the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance." If you are familiar with the offerings of modern television and films, then I ask you, how close are we to such a world?

It is my belief that the new program of education reform through standardized testing contributes to the Huxleyan vision. It will narrow the scope of our curriculums to only those things that are tested. It will kill the creativity of those great teachers who understand what education is all about but who are pressured to teach to the test. It will destroy the curiosity of the students by making the process of learning repetitive and tedious.

If this is what education is reduced to, then our diplomas will be nothing more than degrees in "Thinkology."

John Desmond teaches history at Billerica Memorial High School in Billerica, Massachusetts.

Editor's Note

Every so often we hear about NEA members years after their original stories have run in NEA Today.

Fifteen years ago, we told Lois Wren's story on the "You and the Law" page. Wren was fired illegally, reinstated twice, and then, because of all the stress, she resigned and sued her school district. With the help of the Wyoming Education Association and the NEA she prevailed.

Though she felt compelled to quit her position and move to California, she was grateful that the Association had come to her rescue. "The NEA helped save my teaching career, but now that I am close to retirement, I wanted to share in my continued success." She went on to describe her work teaching high school science in Sacramento.

Twenty years ago, I interviewed Michigan teacher Lynn Larson for a story about why it's important to join the Association. At the time, Larson was just beginning what turned out to be more than 20 years of Association activism. A few months ago, NEA's retired magazine, This Active Life, ran a story about Larson, now retired. After all these years, Larson had decided she still wanted the challenge of the classroom...in China. So off she went to teach there.

Seven years ago we wrote about Charlene Dindo, an elementary science teacher, from Fairhope, Alabama. She'd developed a program for science teachers to help students learn the mysteries of the Gulf's marine life. A month ago, I received a press release announcing the recipients of this year's Albert Einstein Distinguished Educators Awards. Charlene Dindo is one of the 12 Einstein fellows. She'll be in Washington, D.C., for 10 months working in a federal agency with an opportunity to share her teacher's insights at the national level.

Have you been featured in NEA Today? We'd love to hear what you're up to.

--Bill Fischer