Thoughts on education

What has happened to education in California? In 1977, the California public gave up the right to local school governance via Proposition 13. At the time, it seemed most Californians thought it was a good idea. And politicians still point to Prop 13 as a good thing, for the most part. Since that time, the state has been increasingly fearful of "not being fair" to all segments of society, and has gradually lost touch with what makes education tick: a good, dedicated teacher in a room with kids. Period. Everyone else in the process has to remember their primary function is to facilitate THAT great truth. But the more distant the governing body has become from the process, the less leaders seem to care about that scene - the teacher and the kids.
Local school boards often spend the majority of their time promoting pet projects and advocating personal agendas. They have lost the power of financing, so have little to do with the important functions of education. Change can only come with financial support. So, advocating change when you have no financial leverage doesn't matter. ONLY the state has the power to make a difference, any more. And at the state level, ONLY political expediency and soundbite philosophies matter. Without financial stability, California schools are doomed to a certain mediocrity. And it is not the teachers who are at fault. People who choose to teach are mostly in it because they care and want to make a difference in the lives of children. Hearing politicians complain about teachers is infuriating. Politicians have money. They have TIME. Not one of them would make it through a school year of five hours a day with 200 kids. They haven't worked that hard in years, if ever.
I have heard from many sources over many years that you can't solve education's problems by "throwing money at them." But no one has EVER tried that. How would they know? California's schools are chronically underfunded because the state government refuses to "fully fund education."
In the grand scheme of things, 40 year of teaching may be insignificant. I certainly feel insignificant. But I care deeply about my kids. So, why is it that we repeatedly undervalue what teachers do? Perhaps I see a very limited scope of education. Perhaps I am not aware of teachers who fit the vision some public officials seem to have of us: lazy, uninspired, unethical, drug-using, abusive, unmotivated, under-achieving, unambitious. I don't know those teachers. That doesn't mean there aren't any who fit those descriptors. I just don't know them. My expertise is forthy years in the classroom at virtually every level of education. I have no idea how unmotivated people survive the classroom. I work hard to get the knowledge into the kids' heads and to get them to produce at a high level.
In the business world, I think there is a view that an ambitious educator must want to move from the classroom to administration. I understand that promotion in the business world signifies success. When you are good at what you do, you move up the line and get more money. That is not necessarily so in education. That's business. But in education, we don't produce a "product." We deal with human beings. Many of us got into the education world to work with kids. We have no desire to move away from the kids into administration. Wouldn't it be something if we really prized the experienced teacher enough to pay them commensurate with their commitment to the profession? Wow. What a concept!
Why is it so hard for non-educators to acknowledge they have no expertise in education? You cannot affix a business model to education and make it work. The product is never the same. No two years are the same and no two children are the same. A static business model may work on a car, but it doesn't work on a teenager. You can fix a car. You can't fix a child. And that's not our job, in education. The legislators who are funding education should learn to listen to educator. We are not mechanics, working on a human brain. We respond to the needs and uniqueness of each child and try to impart knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.
And there's the rub! Society is a mess, in some ways. Drugs. Violence. Broken homes. Crime. And entertainment that glorifies the above. So, some believe education must solve all these problems. And frankly, some of us really try. But we do it one child at a time, while legislators saddle us with 35 or 40 children per hour. One child needs help. And we see 200 of them every day. Needless to say, it is a challenge and it is very hard work. And we don't always succeed.