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posted by:
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Brian Drayton
on May 20, 2003
at 8:25AM
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subject:
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Footnotes and perspectives
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This exchange between George and Elaine is interesting to me, because
I have found it important to look back over the past century of science
ed as an antidote to the negative vibes that dominate the news and
policy chatter.
One thing that is hard to get perspective on is the extent to which
it is wise to let a few vocal business leaders determine the right
direction for education. Rothstein's and Cuban's books make it clear
that in every decade back into the late 1800s there have been loud
complaints about the quality of education, the meaningfulness of high
school diplomas, the quality of the workforce. The content of
schooling has changed, but no one has ever been happy with it, no
matter which direction it went in; and the nature of teaching has not
really changed much, for the vast majority of classsrooms. It makes
me think that there are quite other things going on.
I once did a historical study of the educational system of the Maine
island town I grew up in, and it was impressive to see the depth and
range of science and math taught to these kids, most of them
fishermen's or boat-builders' children, up into the 1920s, when the
schools were regularized more, adn the "normal schools" took over
certification of teachers. No doubt the teachers were better prepared
than theirpredecessors, but even though the population of students did
not change, the content of the curriculum shrank both in quantity and
quality, as far as I can judge. Policy documents at the time
explained all these changes in terms of improving the quality of
graduates, and their fitness for life; but they now could get out of
high school without botany and zoology, trigonometry with applications
to navigation, physics, surveying, a wide range of poetry, and so on.
Now, perhaps the burgeoning of knowledge was starting to take its toll,
but I am fascinated that the same rationale has been used for decade
after decade to justify all kinds of changes.
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