Fixing Education

“Either fix our schools or get used to failure”

News stands across the country will feature that statement top and center on the November 14 edition of Time magazine this week. To accompany the piece, its author, Fareed Zakaria, hosted a CNN GPS special “Fixing Education” on Sunday evening. In a sick economy, I suppose that another attack on education sells magazines and draws ratings at least, and lessens the economic downturn for someone. Of course in this case, that might be just fine. It turns out that the author has found the magic bullet for building an excellent system of education and turning the American economy around. Quite profound actually, here is the solution:

“work harder and get better teachers”

Why didn’t anyone think of that already? Well, according to the author the answer is very clear. Half of American teachers graduated in the bottom third of their college class. I guess there aren’t enough smart people in education to figure out the “work hard and get better teachers” formula. Mr. Zakaria arrived at this articulate solution to the education problem by looking overseas toward nations that seem to get education right.

He first points to South Korea. American school children spend less time in school than in South Korea (and many other Asian nations.) He uses the 10,000 hour rule described by Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliers” as proof-- 10,000 hours engaged in a task for one's skill set to reach 'expert' status. In a stroke of genius, he suggests that if American students just spent more time in school, we would see dramatic improvements in the system.

The second “global lesson” comes from Finland. These sneaky Scandinavians managed to stay under our radar while they built an education empire by selectively hiring the best and brightest as teachers. On top of that, they pay them well and treat them with the same professional respect as doctors and lawyers. They emphasize creative work and shun tests for most of the year according to Zakaria. That’s the second variable in our formula for excellent schools—find better teachers.

This article is so ground-breaking, its impact could spark a revolution. Why stop at education. Imagine the possibilities if this model were applied to other professions. The NFL- if we just find the best coaches and make them practice longer with the team we’ll win the super bowl every year. Investments- if we just find the best and smartest portfolio managers and make them work long hours we’ll get the best returns. Retail- if we just hire the best salespeople and have them put in lots of hours, our profits will skyrocket. Or what about industry- if we just hire the most productive workers and increase their hours, our profits will hit the roof. Maybe our government could even function better if we would just elect the best officials and make them spend more time in session.

I doubt I’ve been too successful in my attempt at humor, but honestly, this article had quite the opposite effect of making me laugh.

Further Reading on the burden
of schooling many children face.



Let’s look first at time. Most American school children spend thirteen years in school, one-hundred eighty days a year, at least six hours a day. Over 14,000 hours in class (not counting homework). This far surpasses the 10,000 hour rule. Personally, my children are involved in athletics that probably account for between 3-5 hours per week averaged over the year. My middle school son just began a weekly commitment to Destination Imagination and I’m sure that as he and my elementary aged daughter get older, their athletic and extra-curricular involvement will increase. They also have church related commitments that equal 3-5 hours a week. My family values each of these commitments as much as education and I don’t expect my children’s “earning potential” to suffer because they don’t spend enough time in school. I would actually think that my children would suffer from requirements that they spend additional time in school beyond what is currently required.

Then what about these “exceptional teachers.” In other contexts, just take sports for example, an exceptional athlete may never reach their potential until placed in the proper situation. Teaching doesn’t take place in a bubble. Current systems for measuring teacher quality focus almost entirely on how well they affect student achievement on standardized tests. Looking to Finland without addressing the fact that children in Finland are taken care of in a near socialist fashion fails to recognize that the highly qualified teachers of the nation are dealing with students who are highly prepared for school by a government system that fully addresses issues of poverty, health care, and safety that are left to the schools to deal with in the United States. In the United States, we’re labeling effective teachers by student test scores. In Finland, they are labeling effective teachers by their training and efforts.

Putting the two together, Zakaria interviewed Bill Gates for the article and news special. Gates and others assert that experience doesn’t have an impact on teacher quality. It would seem that if Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule was so strict, a teacher would have to practice for ten years before making it to “expert” status.

Mr. Zakaria, I appreciate that you are concerned about the public education system in the United States, but I worry that articles and news broadcasts such as yours do more damage than good. You have limited exposure to the reality of day-to-day education in the United States and your simplistic view of what we can do to fix it reveals the danger of the “arm-chair” administrator to our system.

I teach in a school district with average SAT scores of 556/554/544 (Reading/Math/Verbal). Eighty-Three percent of our graduates pursue higher education. Ninety-three percent of our students graduate on time. The College Board recently recognized us for efforts at increasing access to the AP curriculum while increasing the percentage of students scoring a three or higher on the exams. (81%) Of those, I taught AP to nearly 150 students last year with 90% scoring a three or higher. As an individual teacher and a district, we're doing pretty well.  We also recognize that status quo is not an option and consistently work to improve our effort on behalf of students.

The constant fixation on aggregate numbers paired with stories of great success and great failure at the expense of the commonplace paints an entirely unrealistic picture of what goes on in our nation’s schools every day. It also creates an unnecessary urgency for uniform dramatic change that will kill the success of systems such as mine while attempting to fix the problem of underperforming urban districts. The tagline on the cover of Time—fix our schools or get used to failure—unfairly labels a school such as mine, already demonstrating success and consistently moving toward improvement, as a problem. Instead of recognizing our efforts, we’re scapegoated as the primary obstacle to our nation’s recovery from an economic crisis.

Thanks for the quick fix, we’ll get started on it tomorrow and tell you how it goes. Unless of course you’d like to open real dialogue and acknowledge the diversity of the education systems in the United States and figure out how we target the areas that are failing, develop innovative solutions to consistent problems, and sustain and nurture the systems and teachers who continue to effectively prepare the next generation for a productive life in a global society.

Time Well Spent

She started by asking students to "name an animal that reminds you of the Great Depression."

I didn't know where she was going with this, but she was in ed school, and I liked exposing myself to some of the new and fresh methods they were employing, so I let it go to see where it would end up.

"Sperm Whale!" one student responded after the teacher had written six or seven responses on the board already.  The students were as confused as I was, and simply named animals to avoid the discomfort of silence.  As she turned her back to write this most recent comment on the board the student turned to a classmate, "dude! She actually wrote it, she wrote Sperm Whale on the board."

I was ready to pull the plug, when thankfully she switched things up.  She stepped up to the overhead projector, this was ten years ago, started placing transparency on it, and retreated into an invisible bubble as she slid the cover sheet down, line by line, revealing the text of the notes that students were to copy.  She read them too.  As if my sophomores couldn't yet.

All teachers have those days where there just is not enough time in the class to get it all in.  But especially early in our careers we have those days when the minutes can't go by fast enough; we find ourselves struggling to fill the block and keep the students engaged in something.

Somewhere around my third or fourth year of teaching, I took on a University student in her practicum course; she needed to teach five consecutive classes under my supervision. I wasn't prepared to prepare a new teacher. I could tell that she was struggling to prepare for the first lesson, and despite my suggestions and assistance in planning the lesson I just wasn't sure that she was going to handle it.

I could go into more detail about the lesson, but from what I've recounted above you've probably figured out it was a disaster. So much of a disaster that she was in tears before we even began to debrief. I eventually had to call in her University supervisors to assist, and after a few more attempts she opted out of the education program.

My biggest lesson from the experience came out of the mouth of a student. Near the end of this teacher's first class, a particularly sarcastic student sitting next to my desk turned to me and said "Mr. Turner you owe me an hour and a half of my life back." Even though his comment was bitter and quite rude, I knew he was right. Time is precious for all of us. Time can be spent, but never saved. This means it is vital to get the best value from every minute we're given. None of us have the right to waste anyone's time. I may not always succeed, but on that day I vowed to never waste someone else's time... especially my students.

This doesn't mean that academic instruction must always take place from bell to bell. Often I even build in "down-time" to intentionally engage with students in conversation, or to give them a mental break when anxiety seems to be high. But I do this with intention in hopes of making the most of every minute my students and the public trusts me with.

Now, having children of my own, every afternoon when they get straight to work, or every evening we stay up together a little later than we should to finish all of their homework, I find myself hoping that their teachers are using every minute of their day in a productive way.

I hope that every minute of the day that my children are at school and every minute of the day that my students are in my class that the value of time is respected- whether it's learning a new skill, meeting a new friend, strengthening relationships with teachers and peers, or taking a break to recharge.

When we're given the responsibility of taking someone's time are we careful to make sure that it is time well spent?