How we fool ourselves so often...because its just the way it's "spozed to be" | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Back when we were in our teacher training program in college one of the assigned readings was a book entitled "The way it spozed to be." A variation was made into a movie called "Up the down staircase." The thesis of both was that schools often do things that don't make much sense but they do they because that's the way it's "always" been done.

    We've said it before, but it warrants repeating here as an introduction to this article. We are absolutely confident that the day will come that in college courses on the History of American Education we will one of these days see students astounded by the professor recounting how in the twentieth century we operated schools on the premise that school boards should decide where students attended school rather than the parents or the students themselves deciding. Not all of us may live to see the day, but we have no doubt it will come.

    We also suspect some bright young mind will then ask: "why did they restrict this choice for K-12 but they did not do it for higher education?" If the professor answers the question correctly he/she will say: "well, it was not a conscious decision based on solid research or evidence of what produced the best results, it was rather a pattern that just evolved from the idea that school boards made some decisions that had no real reason but just kind of drifted into becoming a tradition. But many parents simply bought their house where they wanted their children to go to school.

    Then another student will observe: "well, it really does not make any sense that they would have assumed they could control were children went to school if they did not also control where people lived." And that young mind should get a "A" on class participation for that day.

    Hopefully the professor will explain that dictated school assignment was but another of the failures of the Progressive Movement in American public education. Just like the idea that Progressives believed they could appoint a "committee" such as the Committee on the Seven Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education" that could determine one size that would fit all students, schools and communities in terms of what students should know and be able to do. These were the brilliant minds that developed schools based on the factory model in which the dominant function was to count, sort, herd and classify students. Compulsory school assignment is just one relict of those foolish days that we still hang onto.

    But those days are changing. The charter school movement, and its broader cousin "school choice" is but a tentative chip at this relic of the past and we would posit that it is bound to grow simply because of the massive failure of American public schools for so many students, particularly the best and brightest of our young people.

    With that said we want to share with you an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal by Donald Boudreaux. We think his parody both insightful and entertaining. Enjoy.

    Editor's note: A hat-tip to Warren Smith, a local educator, who sent us the link to this article.

    Delma Blinson writes the "Teacher's Desk" column for our friend in the local publishing business: The Beaufort Observer. His concentration is in the area of his expertise - the education of our youth. He is a former teacher, principal, superintendent and university professor.