The hand-wringing continues as the parents, teachers, politicians and educrats try to reach a conclusion, and chart a course, for public schools returning from the COVID “shutdowns”. As with any complex problem, this situation will require some complex solutions. And since the three absolutes of government are, 1) Government doesn’t do anything well, 2) What government does best it does very poorly, and 3) The higher level of government involved, the worse it will screw up, AND since EVERY level of government is now involved in education today, looking for government to “solve” this is a fools folly. First, there are a couple of things that can contribute positively to this situation.
-
There has been a relatively large increase in the number of households that have gone to full “home-schooling” of their children. This will result in some reduction of the number of students moving back in to the public schools whenever they decide to get back to full operation. I suggest that there be a tax incentive offered to home school parents to induce them to continue homeschooling their children.
-
There has been an increase in the number of households that have moved their children in to private schools during this past year. This should result in another reduction in the number of students going back to public schools if they continue in private school. And again, these parents should be offered some level of tax incentive to keep their children in private school.
Now, how to deal with the lost year and the majority of students, that attend the public school? This is going to take some real innovation, which the public “education” industry has a 50+ year record of being very poor at achieving. I think that the rest of this school year, as students return to schools in staggered numbers, the rest of the year should be used to allow the teachers to assess and grade their children. Standardized testing will have to be a part of this, but only a minor part. The real work must be done by the teachers. Since this train wreck has happened to supposedly protect the teachers, then the teachers need to accept their part in this, and the teacher will provide these assessments to their school administrators. The administrators then need to make the decision on the placement of each student, wherever the student’s evaluation places them. Since we pay these educrats/administrators like we do, this is an opportunity for them to earn it. And then we move forward.
As an individual, who has witnessed through my professional life, the general failure of our “one size fits all dependent on grade-level” public schools, I believe this could be the opportunity to change this course to disaster we have been on for decades. So, rather than looking at this as a problem, should we be seeing it as that one golden opportunity to be innovative, and correct this course to societal destruction, on which our public “education” industry has been driving U.S. for decades? Just a thought.
God Bless America! And America, Bless God Again!
