There have been great
changes in education since I began teaching many years ago. We
now have marvelous technology like computers and CDs that bring
excellent educational materials into the classroom. We can individualize
our educational programs as never before. Children come to us
knowing much more of the world than they did in my day, thanks
to the hours they have spent watching television and films and
video tapes. A few of them enter kindergarten already reading.
Most of them can count. They have a surface sophistication that
my generation lacked.
Oddly enough, many
of the ones who can read can't tie their own shoes or button their
own coats or draw a simple human figure. Perhaps they have spent
their waking hours watching educational programs, with their hands
in their laps. They seem to have become passive learners, who
need encouragement to engage in active play. They wait for knowledge
to be presented to them, neatly wrapped. They no longer wade in
actively (and messily) to search it out. At the same time, their
attention spans seem to me to have grown much shorter. (Television,
after all, presents a changing image every few seconds). They
can tell you where to buy the latest "hot" toys, and they can
sing all the words to advertising jingles, but many don't know
how to play make-believe or recite even the simplest of nursery
rhymes.
It is tempting to blame
television and a rampant consumer-driven culture for all the negatives
I have mentioned, but that seems to me to be a serious mistake.
As noted, television
is a highly effective teaching tool. The question we need to consider
is: What is it teaching? The dumbed-down and tasteless
levels of most programming and advertising surely deserve our
censure. But let's not forget that several generations of children
have learned to read and count and sing and do science projects
thanks to programs like "Sesame Street" and "The Electric Company"
and "Mr. Wizard." How many of today's performing musicians were
first hooked by those wonderful "Young People's Concerts"
hosted by Leonard Bernstein?
There is a distinction
to be made between tools and content. Books, pencils, and even
television and computers are just tools. They are effective ways
to deliver content. In and of themselves, they are neither the
downfall nor the ultimate answer for education. Used wisely, they
can make a student's educational process much more enjoyable.
But even so, they are still only tools. Education can happen without
them. Instruction can be given by words or gestures alone, or
with the most basic of tools like a stick used to scratch in the
dirt, or a piece of chalk on a smooth surface.
It is when good tools
are used to convey poor content that they can hamper or warp education,
or possibly even stop it cold. Think, for instance, of the misinformation
propagated in textbooks published by governments in Nazi Germany
or Communist Russia. For that matter, think of some of our own
"new math" texts, or the dreariest of our basal readers. Consider
some history texts that are so dry and boring as to push even
an enthusiastic learner to engage in passive resistance. Think
of trashy TV shows. Think of violent video games.
How do we evaluate
content? How can we be sure that our schools will survive the
great debates currently raging over matters like "teaching the
canon" or following a "relevant curriculum" or "learning in ethnocentric
schools?" Can we leave the question of content to the educators?
To the government? To the general public? Must all schools teach
the same content?
And what can we do
about our mass media, which are teaching just as surely as are
our schools. How can we influence the purveyors of sit-coms and
quiz shows and cartoons and talk shows, so that what our children
see reflects the best and truest values? Who is to decide what
those values are?
These are questions
of immense importance, and they will not have simple answers.
An ongoing dialogue must be opened, a dialogue in which all people
have a chance to be heard.
It seems to me that
the voices of Senior Women are especially important to this dialogue.
Many of us have grandchildren, and care about their schooling.
But even if you've never had children, let alone grandchildren,
surely any concerned older citizen should be involved with the
public school system, whether as board member, volunteer, or merely
intelligent observer and/or critic. We have wisdom earned by experience,
and possibly our insights will help today's young parents (who
used to be our children). We should make time to become involved.
What kinds of things
can we all support, no matter what our political or religious
stripe?
We can insist on schools
that will not tolerate cruelty, exclusion, or betrayal of those
values common to all religions. We can insist on schools that
are safe havens for children from all backgrounds.
We can support schools
that offer a challenging curriculum and strive to educate the
heart and body as well as the mind. We can speak up for restoration
of the arts in our school curricula, and for physical education
and good nutrition.
We can insist on attempts
to redress old wrongs, like the exclusion of women and people
of color from lessons in American history. Many schools are reexamining
their curricula and reevaluating things we've taken for granted
and taught as fact for years, like the European view of Native
American culture both before and after Columbus.
We can encourage young
parents to take control of their children's reading, viewing,
and buying habits. Anyone who has ever had children knows that
taste is an acquired thing. It is not innate. One develops it
as one matures, and maturing in an atmosphere of flamboyant emotional
excess is not likely to encourage self-discipline or thoughtful
restraint.
More than ever, young
parents need support for their right to say no to their children,
whether over the amount of television viewing, or the kinds of
food they allow their children to eat, or the hour of bedtime.
When I was teaching, I was horrified to observe the growing laxity
among parents. Among other things, they seemed to think nothing
of allowing children under the age of ten to stay up late on a
school night. They sent children to school with lunches consisting
entirely of cleverly prepackaged foods that have shocking percentages
of fats and sugars. They seemed helpless in the face of sibling
rivalry, or for that matter, sibling agreement when the kids banded
together to lobby for something. In short, the children are being
allowed to run the household.
How much of this is
the result of over-tired parents? With both parents working outside
the home, it is inevitable that shortcuts (like the pre-packed
lunches) will be taken. I was a working parent myself, and I am
sympathetic to the levels of fatigue, and to the need to look
for ways to make time for important things at the expense of unimportant
ones. Someone, however, needs to address the question of what
those important things are. This is where grandparents or older
friends and relatives can help. Having been around for a while,
we may be able to offer the kind of perspective and support that
young parents need.
There is no way to
overemphasize how important it is to take time for play and direct
interaction with children. There is no way to overemphasize the
need for good nutrition and an appropriate amount of sleep. If
you opt to champion just those three things, you will be doing
an incalculable amount of good for the children in your world.
All the best teaching
tools available cannot take the place of the experience and wisdom
that older people have to offer. If enough parents and grandparents
can find ways and a voice to say "NO!" to the trash and flash
with which society assaults our children, there will be a huge
change in this country, on down the road. We may not be here to
see it, but perhaps they'll remember us kindly.
