OPINION:
A school bus stops at the corner in front of our home every school morning at 6:05 a.m. Two adolescent boys get on an already full bus and head for school. Between 3:30 and 3:45 in the afternoon, those boys are dropped off at the same corner in time to go do their homework for the next day.
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Even speaking as an early-morning person, I can’t imagine having to wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and walk to the corner before 6 a.m. every morning.
But that’s how our public schools work. In fact, that’s been the routine longer than most people can remember. Technology and innovation have revolutionized our lives, sometimes at lightning speed. But public education operates nearly the same as it did more than 175 years ago in the model created by Horace Mann.
Known as the father of public education, Mr. Mann developed the American education model based on the Prussian system during the industrial age. The approach is a one-size-fits-all model based on the faulty notion that all students of the same age will learn the same amount in the same length of time, and in the same way. Therefore, students are grouped by age, not understanding level. Subjects are taught one hour a day in isolation from each other, and the focus is on teaching toward the test. The curriculum is fixed and not responsive to what students need or want to learn.
Considering that Mr. Mann died decades before the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, the lack of innovation in K–12 education is astonishing.
Despite more money being pumped into the $800 billion K–12 public education industry each year, learning results continue to slip. U.S. students place 26th among other developed nations, and 77% of students exit 13 years of K–12 public schooling failing to reach proficiency levels in foundational subjects (according to Discovery Institute).
Who gets to decide what’s normal?
Most people believe kids go to school to learn, but children don’t automatically know how to do that. There isn’t usually any instruction on how to learn — most of the focus is on what to learn. From the beginning, they’re told what to do (such as sit still, be quiet, do what you’re told). The ones who question — those who resist, who don’t fit in — are at risk of being shifted into a particular category or given a special label.
“She has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).”
“He has processing problems.”
“She has several behavioral issues.”
“He needs to be tested for special learning needs.”
According to the National Center for Education Statistics: “In 2021–22, the number of students ages 3–21 who received special education and/or related services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was 7.3 million, or the equivalent of 15% of all public school students. Among students receiving special education and/ or related services, the most common category of disability was specific learning disabilities (32%).”
Sometimes a child’s lack of cooperation or conformity even results in strongly recommended therapy or medication. Of course, there are legitimate cases for intervening on behalf of children who truly need help. But what about those who simply struggle with the instructional methods that are being used?
Many parents and educators don’t realize that the ever-popular label of ADHD is not simply a convenient way of categorizing what appears to be a learning problem. It’s not a harmless label you put on a child who seems to need an extra boost just to focus on academic studies. It’s a formally defined term that describes a psychiatric disorder. This can have lifelong implications by determining failure or success in careers, and it can cause long-term mental, physical, and social alterations. It could potentially attach a stigma that could change your child’s self-esteem forever.
There’s no definitive, objective set of criteria to determine whether a child has ADHD. It’s commonly judged by a set of behaviors, largely caused by what a child is being asked to do and what context he or she has to work within. For example, I’m a restless, just-get-to-the-point person, so in a situation where I have to sit still for an extended length of time while listening to a rambling lecture, I’ll be fidgeting, maybe rolling my eyes, sighing, and generally being a bit obnoxious. But if I spend the same amount of time listening to one of my favorite Christian comedians (Tim Hawkins comes to mind), I’m fully engaged and attentive. So before you become convinced that your child has attention deficit disorder, ask yourself what you were requiring them to pay attention to.
Change the foot or change the shoe?
We already know that each child has individual gifts and bents, so shouldn’t we be paying attention to how those affect the way he or she learns? If we simply follow the standard, regimented methods of grouping and teaching and evaluating students, we leave little room for understanding or helping them develop as successful adults.
When you take your children to the shoe store, you have to find shoes that fit. If the shoes don’t fit, you can’t change the feet — you need to keep shopping until you find the right shoes. When it comes to school, however, we offer few styles of “shoes.” If children’s feet don’t fit, we force them into the shoes and insist that they wear them anyway.
Many students are forced to wear shoes that don’t fit. And as soon as they can, they take them off and never want to learn again. Some people tell me that even in corporate settings they avoid taking classes or doing extra training. They remember too well how that shoe felt in school. How can we justify making children suffer a boring and sometimes painful educational experience if it makes them never want to learn again?
We can keep accountability and maintain standards of achievement while still finding shoes that fit each pair of educational feet. But if we keep making learning a dreaded chore to be done or a prison sentence to be served, we shouldn’t be surprised if each successive generation becomes less and less interested in doing it. However, if our goal is to help every child succeed, then we must help each child discover his or her own natural learning strengths and use those strengths to overcome limitations and achieve success, even if those strengths are at odds with traditional classroom demands.
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Adapted from “Reclaiming Education: Teach Your Child to Be a Confident Learner” by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias and Mary Jo Dean. Copyright © 2024. Used by permission of Focus on the Family. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries.
Best-selling author Cynthia Tobias has a successful background that includes over 30 years as an author and speaker, 8 years of teaching public high school, and 6 years in law enforcement. Her education includes a B.A. from Northwest Nazarene University, an M.Ed. from Seattle Pacific University, and an honorary doctorate (D.H.L.) from NNU. She has written 13 books and is a featured guest on radio and television, a popular presenter for business, government agencies, churches and schools throughout the U.S. and the world. She is the mother of twin sons, now young adults, and she and her husband Jack live in the Seattle area. Her newest book, “Reclaiming Education,” will release on March 19, 2024 from NavPress.
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