The American education system has long
been in crisis. It seems every administration seeks to reform the system, but
it usually ends up making matters worse. The book, Can
America’s Schools Be Saved? How the Ideology of American Education Is
Destroying It helps explain what has gone wrong.
Author Edwin Benson is a teacher and shares the fate of his
students by being a victim of programs, testing standards, and newfangled crazy
ideas. He vents his frustration at dealing with ivory tower reformers and
theorists who will not let students be students and teachers be teachers.
The book’s style is accessible, engaging, and genuine. It is full
of refreshing anecdotes that reflect a lifetime of teaching experience. It even
has a classroom feel by its logic and clarity. One senses the author’s passion
for education that remains unshaken despite everything that conspires against
him.
Tracing the Process of Education’s Decline
What makes the book so valuable is that it pinpoints the problem
in its origins. The culprit is not a specific bad program but an ideology that
generates bad programs. Until the ideology is rejected, the march of new
programs will continue indefinitely as reformers never tire in recycling their
bad ideas.
The main proponent of this ideology is reformer John Dewey who
distorted the American system in the early twentieth century. His ideas put a
collectivist stamp on education that diminished the full intellectual
development of the individual. His emphasis on teaching skills rather than
knowledge has eroded the very reason for education. His utilitarianism has
discouraged the teaching of any absolute standards of truth, morals and beauty. Dewey taught relativism regarding
morals, and accepted anything that might work for the occasion.
It is from this focus of process not program that the author
denounces the errors of the American public school system. His is truly an
insider’s perspective since he has heard every slogan and seen every fix-it
kit. Like a detective, he traces the processes that have brought education down
to where it is today.
Some programs like Outward Based Education did not last long and
now lie in what he calls educational “cemeteries.” Others have lingered on for
decades inside “intensive care units” waiting for someone to pull the plug.
Readers of any age can find how they fit into the process by locating the “Common
Core” equivalent of their youth.
Proposals for Reform
Needless to say, Benson has presented a compelling case for reform.
He has taken the first step toward this goal by helping the normal reader
better understand the crisis. However, given the entrenched present state of
affairs, a drastic change, while proven to be logical and necessary may seem
improbable in the near future.
The temptation of most reformers is to attack a big problem with a
bigger solution.
Proposing a Philosophy of Education
This is not the case with this book. The second part deals with
proposals on a human scale. This is where the author’s experience as a teacher
shines forth. His proposals are not ethereal and inaccessible. They are doable
if adopted with common sense.
The author does not fall into the trap of so many educational
reformers. These activists reason that if the problem is caused by the
imposition of an ideology, then the solution must consist of imposing a
counterideology. Thus, they devise a rigid set of principles that they force
upon the concrete circumstances in the form of an equally rigid program.
What Benson presents is not an ideology but a philosophy of
education that draws upon his own experience. He presents a few universal
principles of education, recognized by teachers since the time of Socrates. He
then gives teachers the freedom and flexibility to apply these principles
according to their talents, abilities, and circumstances.
Applying Principles, Discipline and
Transcendentals
Thus, he presents, for example, the principle of
subsidiarity which he calls “authentic and organic bottoms-up decision
making.” This operating principle of the Catholic Church holds that “any
problem is best solved by someone who is intimately connected to it.” Acting in
this manner would cut through the burdensome bureaucracy that so stifles
initiative and progress.
The author encourages teachers to resort to the simple telling of
marvelous stories as a tool for better education. He recommends common sense in
applying much needed discipline that would involve “simplicity, consistency,
immediacy and cessation.”
In reply to the naturalistic perspective of modern
education, Benson calls for restoring what are called the
“transcendentals,” which consist of the good,
the true and the beautiful. These have always informed classical education
and are a logical stepping stone to the consideration of God.
A Limited Scope
It is important to note that the author does not extend himself
beyond his focus of the American school system of which he is familiar. He does
not address more classical and religious models that deal with the complete
education of the body and soul of the student. He merely suggests guidelines
that would combat the ideology that is destroying American education.
However, if his suggestions were applied to the present system,
they would inevitably lead to a more ideal manner of teaching the truth. That
is why modern educators will not like this book. They will see where it leads.
It will lead to an educational model that is in harmony with human
nature and turned to God and an eternal destiny.
The Art of Education
Such a model is impossible when the model is like a machine.
Benson insists that education is not a science that automatically churns out
informed students.
If that were the case, he argues, simple application of its
methods and principles would yield consistent and predictable results. That is
not what has happened. In fact, the only thing consistent about educational
programs, designed in laboratories, is their failure.
That is why he insists that there must be a return to “the concept
of teaching as an art.” Education is an art that involves organic human
relationships that are not found on spreadsheets. Teachers by their nature
should be role
models that communicate character and virtue. The
teacher’s role, like that of an artist, is to inspire and motivate the
student to aspire to the
truth.
When that happens, teachers will once again be passionate for
their art. And students will more easily return to the innocent love of the
truth.
John Horvat II is a
scholar, researcher, educator, international speaker, and author of the
book Return to Order, as well as
the author of hundreds of published articles. He lives in Spring Grove,
Pennsylvania where he is the vice president of the American Society for the
Defense of Tradition, Family and Property.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/12/can_americas_schools_be_saved_an_insider_weighs_in.html
