Certain oxes are going to be gored, as always happens in a major societal adjustment.
I heard about the "Sylvan" learning system when I was young. In the same breath I heard that professional educators were against it. What? Here's a private model for enhancing kids' learning, which that company brags would "help your child's performance in school." As I'm sure it would. Wouldn't we all like to promote improved student performance?
Problem is, in the eyes of the educational establishment, Sylvan and like systems could threaten the monopolistic base of our public schools. Teachers wanted to keep their mitts on that. There are other stakeholders but they are not as possessive of the whole thing. Teachers are possessive as heck. Though, I think they have moderated their tone over time.
The current awful and cold weather is testing the public monopolistic system for education. Kids can learn very effectively online under guidance of their regular teachers. But, you don't have to scratch your head long to realize there are other systems out there that can facilitate kids' learning online. Those systems are readily tapped into. There goes the monopoly. Local full-time teachers might have their position threatened.
A sobering history
I'm still hung over by the kind of arrogance I saw teachers show through the 1980s. It made me want to upchuck. I'm much more comfortable with the situation today.
I fundamentally like teachers. There was a past time when a certain faction of them could get in your face with their parochial priorities. Morris had to struggle with this more than most communities. Of course we got through it all, albeit with some scars. Some of our local businesses got boycotted. Teachers weren't above making life difficult, legend has it, for kids whose parents might assert themselves in a contrary way. This I learned from a former school board member, now deceased, with whom I'd share counter time at the old Atlantic Avenue Restaurant (DeToy's today). A school retiree confirmed this for me too. Regarding the idea that teachers might be vengeful, Dave Holman said "they say they don't (do that) but they do."
I think it's no stretch at all to suggest as much, as I naturally spent a lot of time around the system.
I knew too much for my own good. I came to think there were certain conclusions about what was going on, conclusions that should have been obvious - a matter for consensus - but oh no it wasn't. Certain P.I.A. (pain in the posterior) teachers, and worse than that their friends around the community, engaged in pushback that became very unfortunate.
I personally gained a reputation I did not want. Mr. J.T. called me "negative." Based on what? How I was sharing observations that I felt should be incontrovertible? Things flared up and I ended up on the defensive for pretty much the rest of my career - highly unfortunate. If you read my blogs today you'll see I'm highly capable of writing purposeful reviews of MACA sports events. My detractors would scoff. I've lived with that for years. I have had my talents all along.
Guarding turf, suspicious of 'net
So, teachers showed their "guild mentality" in turning thumbs-down on Sylvan, and certainly they are watching with trepidation as the option of e-learning is exercised. Yes, its possibilities are "phenomenal" as Mr. Rettke said long ago.
I have suggested based on weather of late that Minnesota cancel public school classes for the whole week. Knock it off. Buildings can have their thermostats turned down drastically. Relieve these cumbersome systems of the burdens imposed. Everyone relax. Our kids don't have to be inconvenienced by the costly process of being transported to and from school each day, like en route to the ungodly Lac qui Parle school out in the middle of the windswept prairie (or "tundra" as the late WCCO personality Steve Cannon would say). Listen for coyotes.
No need for motor vehicles to stream in and out of the Minnewaska school parking lot. Chill out.
Kids can not only learn just as acceptably at home, it can be superior. The school days being lost to the weather do not have to be "made up." Let's just shrug and write them off. Do you think your kids are even going to show any evidence of missing a few school days?
I told a friend the other day I could have skipped my whole senior year of high school and it wouldn't have mattered. I might even be better off. I developed my reading and writing mainly under supervision of my mother. She forced me to read aloud from books that were a year above my normal reading level. It was arduous but "pain equals gain." I developed skill with words that enabled me to today write critical essays about our bloated and often regressive educational establishment.
Some critics of the online model will sniff and say kids just end up indulging in foolishness when using online systems and gadgets. To an extent they do. But this is largely a myth, just like it's a myth that my generation suffered from comic books. Next to my mother, comic books probably did the most building my communication skills.
My high school reading assignments like "Death of a Salesman" could be depressing and puzzling. It seemed there was a political agenda, probably most pronounced in the 1970s. It was highly cynical, yes in an odious sort of way. Gene Mechelke scolded us for quoting from "American Heritage" magazine because, well, this magazine was too clear and positive for how it viewed things. We were supposed to read material that made us skeptical and resigned, especially about the American model.
Mechelke dissed American Heritage as "superficial." The magazine told us how things happened without an undercurrent of suggestion about how this country was f---ed. Yes our country went awry with Vietnam. We should have all been assured that despite that wrong turn, the American model would still be the best. It wasn't going to be shoved aside in favor of communism or socialism.
Public school teachers liked collectivism because they were public employees. Damn them for that. Today I think they have eschewed those urges, or have been forced to temper them. I wonder if they still talk down "Sylvan." As for e-learning, I think a truism about the Internet is being borne out again: the Internet breaks through all barriers. It is inexorable. And it's a blessing. Kids can stay home and coyotes can stay out on the Lac qui Parle prairie.
Addendum: I shared with a friend my idea that the state should cancel school all week, with thermostats turned down and money saved. He responded with an interesting email:
There is something to be said about public schools taking a break from a week before Christmas until the 2nd week of February. That has been bandied about when discussions of year-round schooling come up. We have no need for taking the summers off for agricultural reasons any more, so why not just 6 weeks mid-winter and 6 weeks mid-summer? Of course, the teachers would complain about not getting their 3-1/2 months paid vacation in consecutive order, but European schools and teachers have adjusted. However, that would also mess up the winter sports schedules, and in some peoples’ minds that’s the only reason high schools exist.
(probably some sarcasm with that last thought. - BW)
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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