The Educated Child

Dear Ann,

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How can school systems get and keep excellent teachers? Good question! I do think that a good curriculum is part of the answer. And I think the Core Curriculum is a good start. From what I've read, Hirsch has sane ideas about reading, which is no small thing. I like his emphasis on biographies and mythology in the younger grades. He gives an important place to music and art, a good idea from my point of view. His curriculum is fairly new and is currently used in less than a thousand schools, and I suspect that in time, and as more schools adopt the program, the curriculum will evolve. If Hirsch and his followers are open-minded, and they seem to be, they will want to experiment with variations.

To Bennett's credit, he has chosen to promote a pretty solid curriculum. He could have picked one of the "teacher-proof" regimens that have teachers reciting scripted lessons all day long. I understand that many teachers are relieved to have such a script, but I am sure that with guidance, most of them would be happier using a more open-ended approach. The question is, how to give such guidance? Good principals can certainly help. I agree with you that Bennett does not draw a satisfactory picture of what a principal's role should be.

By the way, the unions play an important role in attracting good teachers. Decent wages and working conditions are not a side issue. I suppose it's not surprising that Bennett would be hostile to the unions, considering that the unions usually support the Democrats and he is a Republican. But I wish he had recognized how many helpful things the unions do, not just in regard to wages and working conditions. In New York, the teachers' union runs a program called Dial-A-Teacher that answers homework questions in English, Spanish, Haitian-Creole, French, Greek, Italian, and Chinese, which is really quite useful. (Give it a try: 212-777-3380.) This sort of program is much more than a PR gimmick. Not that unions are perfect.

I have to make a confession about school choice. I became a teacher in the 1970s because I was deeply affected by the books of Herbert Kohl, Jonathan Kozol, and George Dennison. At that time, I believed that the public schools were hopeless. The conditions were too dreadful. The teachers and administrators were too racist. The system was intractable. What to do? For a lot of young educators like me, the answer was to start our own schools--alternative schools--which at the time meant private schools. Now the sides have changed. Liberals, like me, understand that our society had better make the public schools work. People like Bennett have given up. I was wrong--mea culpa--in the 1970s, and Bennett is wrong today. Farsighted educators have shown that you can make superior public schools even in poor neighborhoods. There is room in the public-school system, more than there used to be, for people with ambition and ideas. True, there is a risk that in promoting public-school alternatives, neighborhood schools will be left with the most difficult-to-educate children and not enough resources to meet the task. As for charter schools, I don't think we have enough information yet. Charter schools are public schools that operate outside of the bureaucratic system, and in some places that might be good, in other places not so good. Concerning vouchers, my fear is that they will undermine a sense of the public good in education.

I agree with you that Bennett is promoting a get-it-for-your-kid attitude. So what if some other kids are left in the lurch, is the implication. It is not a very attractive idea of what American society should be like. Still Bennett's book has some good ideas, too (as you and I agree) and it has given us the opportunity to bat around our own ideas, which has been fun.
Peggy

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This week, a discussion of The Educated Child: A Parent's Guide From Preschool Through Eighth Grade, by William Bennett, Chester Finn, and John Cribb (click hereto read the introduction and buy the book). Ann Hulbert is working on a book about 20^th-century American child-rearing experts. Peggy Kaye has been a teacher for more than 25 years, first in the classroom and then as a private tutor. She is the author of the "Games For" series (click here to buy Games for Math).

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