School Wars: Progressivists Vs. Traditionalists By: Anthony Pellegrino

Since the educational level of many of our students is unsatisfactory, who is responsible for this sad state of affairs? There are many causes but basically there are four principal culprits who have each contributed their share to the educational mess we’re in: politicians, professors, profits, and professional organizations. The general public must understand the complicity between the educational establishment, government interference, and a variety of groups professing children’s best interest at heart. Let’s examine what impact each has had on the system.

Elected politicians such as Legislators and the Governor have tremendous influence on the quality and direction that education takes. Yearly the money needed to operate the school system must be appropriated by the Legislators with approval by the Governor. With the granting of money, strings are almost always attached which hinder the schools from functioning as they see best. Many times they are required to submit to partisan pressures advantageous to a few at the expense of the majority.

The Legislators also have the power to change the system as they see fit regardless of the needs and wishes of the school system and the students. A good example is Public law No. 6-10 called the Education Act of 1988. This law details much of what the PSS can and cannot do. Though it is eleven years old it has not been modified to adapt to changes in the community and school system that have occurred over the past eleven years. One has only to read it to quickly notice that it micro-manages the system. It is extremely difficult to have any changes made to that law which seems to have become petrified in time.

Of course, the greatest impact is the Federal government with its huge grants of money that all school systems chase after. Too often the Feds use this money as carrots and sticks in the battle to accomplish their agenda. The rule is: Do as I say and you get the money.

Professors have caused and are still causing much of the mayhem in teaching methodologies which go under the banner of progressive education. While many of them are sincere and truthful about education, far too many are protecting their own self-interests such as tenure, opportunities to publish, and the golden carrots of government-funded research- Unfortunately much of this research is unfounded and misleading.

The tragedy is that these professors influence many new teachers with their unfounded ideas resulting in bad teaching techniques which affect student achievement. Today’s professors of education value the “process” of learning over content and are more concerned with self-esteem than with systematic instruction.

In a recent Public Agenda poll only one in five professors think that teachers should stress correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Over 90% of them say that “teachers should see themselves as facilitators of learning who enable the students to learn on their own.” Only 37% of the professors of teacher education surveyed consider maintaining order and discipline as important while 12% expect students to be polite and on time.

Dr. McEwan nicely sums up their philosophy: “The young people who go through teacher training institutions today are led to believe that what the public desires in an educational experience for their children is old-fashioned and ineffective, even detrimental to the intellectual development of children. Phonics and math facts are known as ‘drill and kill.’ Direct instruction by the teacher is referred to as ‘ the factory model of learning.” Talk about professors in ivory towers far aloft from reality and breathing rarefied air. Wow!

Yet teachers, bless their souls, daily continue to work arduously at educating our children believing that they have been taught the best teaching methodology correctly.