Discussion needed to improve education

As most of you have probably noticed, school is already back in
session and the young people are gone from view
– sequestered away in classrooms for the bulk of each day.
(Don’t worry, we let them out for short breaks.)
As most of you have probably noticed, school is already back in session and the young people are gone from view – sequestered away in classrooms for the bulk of each day. (Don’t worry, we let them out for short breaks.)

They are deriving math formulas, learning the scientific method, conversing in foreign languages, examining the decisions of the past, grappling with literature and creating art, and practicing different styles of writing. They are resetting their internal clocks to standard school time, and remembering to follow classroom protocols. 

Despite the debate that goes on in our society regarding education, and the cuts that have been made to staffing, supplies, and programs, teachers are working hard to provide meaningful learning experiences with the resources that remain. I, for one, am enjoying my new crop of students very much. (No offense to prior students; I enjoyed you too!)

Every year, before we are even given time to set up our classrooms, all teachers in the district attend a full day of meetings to take measure of where we are and provide focus and direction for the new year. At Sobrato, we examined data from last year’s standardized testing, renewed our commitment to moving all students along the continuum of academic success, and discussed various strategies to make that happen.

Of course, it is not just teachers who are having these discussions about how best to meet the needs of students and how to improve education. There is an ongoing public discourse about this topic, as there should be since education is such a fundamental public institution. My last column (July 15) generated a fairly heated online discussion, and one reader asked me to weigh in. So here goes …

“One of my biggest concerns in education is the lack of quality principals … Being a school teacher is a very POOR way to train a principal … We need to change the requirements of becoming a principal to allow non-teachers to be leaders of schools … ”

I share the reader’s concern about a lack of quality principals available for hire. A poor principal can be simply ineffective or downright toxic. One of the worst I ever encountered was so uninterested in children that she did her weekly storytime with them over the school’s public address system, so she could get it out of the way all at once. She also returned students to the classroom for the teachers to deal with themselves when they were sent out for swearing and throwing furniture. I am happy to say that this principal no longer works for our district; she departed several years ago. It took persistence on the part of the union to see to it that she was invited to leave. 

But don’t get your hopes up; this is not going to be a gripe-fest. I work for an outstanding principal, and I know she’s not the only one in the district.

A principal is more than a business manager or a supervisor of employees. A principal is an educational leader. She or he needs to understand how students learn, how curriculum is built, how instruction can be designed to overcome differences in learning styles, what factors might influence student success, what cognitive abilities children have at different ages, which brilliant discipline ideas have a chance of being successful and which are likely to backfire, etc. 

I must disagree with the reader that principals do not need to have ever been teachers. I believe that principals need to have experience as teachers. In fact, they need to have been good teachers. They need to be able to draw on their own classroom experience in order to offer suggestions and solve problems. Beyond that, they need to recognize that other people can also be good teachers while doing things differently than they did them. Of course, they also need the other qualities of leadership the reader mentions, but those qualities will be inadequate if they have not mastered teaching. 

There is lots more I would like to respond to, but I am out of space. I invite readers to log onto the Morgan Hill Times website today, and read the rest there. Topics covered will include realigning the school year, high school graduates with low skills, whether those who draw high salaries have more valuable opinions, whether market-based solutions are the answer to education’s woes, what technology skills teachers should have, whether math teachers should be paid more than English teachers, whether unions are needed (they are), and finally, a response to the following: “Good or great public schools result in productive people. Why else should there be education?”

Jeanie Wallace teaches social studies, and math when needed, at Ann Sobrato High School. She has two children who attend schools in the district. You can join the discussion, and even rate this column. And she renews her invitation to members of the community about coming to Sobrato for a day to see what really goes on in school. The best way to reach her to set this up is at je************@********ca.us.