opinions are like... yeah.

We should let professionals do their
jobs, or else what we're trying to fix
could get even more broken.
[photo credit] 

I'm trying to figure out why everyone feels that their opinions about how to "fix" education are correct. In my daily dealings, I find soooo many people who haven't set foot in a K-12 institution for more than a graduation since their own yet think that they know best on how to solve a problem that has existed for as long as a public education system has existed in America. (Because, let's keep it real, the system has never been equitable, it's just that now people actually care.) It's so weird.

I have been lectured countless times by people who think they know what they're talking about, and it's getting rather ridiculous/hilarious. I mean, do these people tell doctors how best to practice medicine? Or tell lawyers the best argument for a case? I doubt it. But when it comes to education, everyone has an opinion. The most ridiculous/hilarious part, however, is that everyone seems to have the same opinion. It's to the point where was out recently with someone who tried to debate me on education stuff, and I found myself saying "I know what you're about to say, and here's why you're wrong."

Now, I don't want to speculate on why random people are all regurgitating Milton Friedman's free market talking points on vouchers, public sector unions, or charter schools. I'll save that for another post. Rather, I really want to go back to the point of why... Why does this happen?? What is it about education that makes everyone think that they know better than the people who actually work in the field? Is it because everyone went through some sort of K-12 system that they think their first hand experience counts for something?

Eh, maybe.

But I think it's deeper than that. I think it has a lot to do with the degraded status of the field of education in the public eye. People don't question doctors or lawyers because they see them as expert professionals who were trained well and know what they are doing. People don't see educators like that, especially not teachers. I have written previously about the lack of professionalization in teaching, and I think that argument is applicable here.

I think the larger part, however, is that the general public doesn't understand how hard it is to teach. Here is a brief thought experiment that will [hopefully] help them understand. Try explaining one concept to 20+ different people who think, learn, and behave in 20+ different ways... at the same time. It's not easy. Then factor in all of the other things that contribute to these 20+ different lives. Then factor in that you have 5+ sets of 20+ people with 20+ circumstances, but they all must learn this one concept because the concept is on a test that is not normed on your 100+ students and is not written at the actual grade level of your 100+ students, and is known to be an inaccurate representation of the ability of our 100+ students... But if they fail, you fail, your school fails, and it could possibly be shut down. Welcome to urban education.

This is not a stretch.

People with opinions about education are allowed to have them, but they also need to understand that they don't know everything, and that it's wrong (and harmful) to point fingers when they don't know the facts. Is the education system perfect? Absolutely not. Will these uninformed opinions solve it? Absolutely not. If you truly care about fixing the system, educate yourself. Ask questions of those in the know instead of just stating opinions as realities and running with one set of 'reforms' that have questionable origins and have been proven not to work.

Or just leave it to the professionals. You know, like you would if we were doctors...

optimism isn't optional.

Nothing bothers me more than being in a classroom full of disaffected education people. It is beyond frustrating to listen to folks who are responsible for educating children bitch and moan about the field that they are in, as if they aren't in the position to do something about it. Umm, you chose to be an educator! If you don't like it, please leave. Kids don't need negative adults in their lives. Sometimes I want to tell these people to change jobs... And sometimes I do.

I get it though. It is really easy to become pessimistic about changing the education system for the better when so much research shows just how difficult that is. Study after study shows how so-called "reform" efforts don't work, and serve only to highlight all of the roadblocks that make real systemic improvement so difficult to achieve instead of showing how change can be possible. Couple this with the fact that many of the people in the classroom are former (or current) educators who have been beat down by the whole 'educators are worthless and should all be fired' line of thought that figures prominently in the media and mainstream "reform" efforts.

Speaking from experience, it is truly demoralizing to work hard for your students and their families all day, only to turn on the news and have some politician or pundit who has never worked in a school saying that you're the problem with the education system. It is even harder to hear and read the comments from community members who don't think that your students deserve a quality education in the first place because they are poor, not white, and, in their opinions, won't amount to anything anyway. In my last year in Philadelphia (a district that probably won't be a district for much longer), it became very clear that many members of the public, even those who worked for the public schools, were not supporters of public education. After spending hours helping kids do things like pick colleges, get over divorces and breakups, cope with the deaths of loved ones, come out safely to parents and friends, learn to study better, etc., hearing that I was a waste of taxpayer money was, to say the very least, tough.

So yes, I get where the negativity comes from. Really. But really, education folks, get over it. It's not about us, it's about the kids. We know they deserve better, and unless we keep our chins up and hearts open, we know they won't get it.

Everything looks bleak when all you know is bleakness. But we know that things can be better. We wouldn't be pursuing this line of work if we didn't think that. Optimism comes from the ability to both imagine better options and believe that these options are attainable. If you know that something is possible and work with that goal in mind, then it will happen. Pessimism, on the other hand, comes from helplessness. When you don't believe that things can change, you don't imagine things changing, and guess what? They don't change. Pessimism is easy because it requires nothing. Optimism, on the other hand, requires agency. Optimism requires blind (or at least naive), awareness. It requires an 'I don't give a [crap]' attitude about what you're up against, and the tenacity to see it through.

Optimism is hard, but it isn't optional. Without a belief that the education system can get better, it won't.