Are Public Schools a Reflection of Society?

September 30, 9:34 AMNY Education ExaminerLorri Giovinco-Harte

Previous Next

1 comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the NY Education Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

I was very impressed by the following statement that was posted on the Jamaican website, The Gleaner:

Minister of Education, Andrew Holness says the anger and conflict displayed by society, especially among young people, are affecting the education system and national productivity.

He spoke of the need for a society of fairness and equity, one that would give people a good feeling about themselves…

I was struck by the Minister’s statements for several reasons.  Firstly, they portray a clarity and common sense that are rarely heard in our own public debates about education.  Secondly, Holness actually addresses problems affecting education and places them in a broader context – again, something that we rarely experience in the public arena.

For some reason, Americans do not like to admit that schools are a microcosm of society, when in fact, they are.  Our public schools reflect trends and changes that are occurring in our collective culture.  If our schools are failing then what does this say about our culture?

Gary K. Clabaugh, Ed.D is a professor of education, author, and contributor to Pi Lambda Theta who has written an interesting essay in which he talks about the relationship between education and society. The article was published in educational Horizons and is titled, Public Schools: Our Face in the Mirror.  Clabaugh writes:

The thing about mirrors is they reflect reality with remorseless accuracy. Do we exercise and watch what we eat? There it is in the mirror, flat belly, taut muscles, and all. But if we sit on our duff and gobble Twinkies, the less flattering consequences are also reflected with implacable exactitude. America's public schools provide a similarly accurate mirror image of our nation. Like it or not, what's wrong with them is, for the most part, wrong with us. And what is right about America is generally right about our schools, too.

Public schools didn't used to provide this accurate an image if our nation. In the so-called ' good old days,' most of the kids from the 'wrong side of the tracks' dropped out of school long before graduation. Consequently, public schools provided a relatively flattering reflection of America. Today, however, children from this "other America" tend to stay in school.  As a consequence, public schools now accurately more reflect America's failings as well as its successes.

So why the refusal to look into the mirror? 

There are some very interesting, existing theories about why American Education is viewed through such a narrow lens.  Clabaugh argues that economy is a factor:

The U.S. has the most uneven distribution of wealth of any major industrialized nation. In fact by 1992, the richest 20 percent of Americans controlled a full 80 percent of the nation's wealth. These are the Americans who dominate our economy and, through campaign contributions, special interest lobbying, and participation in policy planning, our government...

Ironically, those who benefit most from economic and social inequities, preposterously overpaid corporate CEO's for example, scapegoat public schooling to dodge responsibility for the social consequences of their own excesses. Encouraged by most of the nation's governors, for example, some big business bosses bash teachers, issue bromides about the need for educators to raise their expectations, caution against "throwing money" at school problems, and emphasize the "need" to "break the public school monopoly.

Another theory about our refusal to place educational problems in a broader context can be found within the work of Dr. Murray Bowen, scholar, researcher, clinician, teacher, writer, and creator of Bowen Theory.   

To be brief, Bowen looked at patterns and interactions within family units and applied them to larger, societal units.  There are several aspects to Bowen Theory. The aspect referred to as Societal Emotional Process looks at how emotional systems govern “ behavior on a societal level, promoting both progressive and regressive periods in a society.”

Bowen found that societies go through cycles, marking periods of both progress and regression:

Human societies undergo periods of regression and progression in their history...The "symptoms" of societal regression include a growth of crime and violence, an increasing divorce rate, a more litigious attitude, a greater polarization between racial groups, less principled decision-making by leaders, the drug abuse epidemic, an increase in bankruptcy, and a focus on rights over responsibilities.

He stated that we are currently living in a regressive period which he attributed to factors such as "the population explosion, a sense of diminishing frontiers, and the depletion of natural resources.”  He discussed the fact that a great deal of concern centers around children during this time period:

 A loosening of standards in society makes it more difficult for less differentiated parents {}to hold a line with their children. The grade inflation in many school systems makes it easier for students to pass grades with less work. In the litigious climate, if schools try to hold the line on what they can realistically do for their students, they often face lawsuits from irate parents. The prevalence of drug and alcohol abuse gives parents more things to worry about with their adolescents.

Bowen further points out that the main difficulty that exists for people living during such a regressive period, is not the problems themselves, but rather our reactions to these problems.  The challenges surrounding  the raising and educating of our children during a regressive period are very real, but Bowen explains that we seem to take the wrong approach towards solving them.

He states that because people become “anxiety-driven” in such a climate, they do not see clearly. This anxiety causes us to act to “relieve the anxiety of the moment rather than act on principle and a long-term view”.  The fear that we experience during such a time period seems to cloud our judgment and keep us spinning our wheels as we look for a short term solution to a long term problem. 

Bowen's explanation certainly seems to be playing out in the public debate about education.  Rather than engage in thoughtful problem solving approaches, we find ourselves engaging in the blame game and looking for quick fixes.

Although Clabaugh and Bowen have very different explanations about why we refuse to see education in a broader context, both seem to agree that until we do, we will continue to experience the problems we are facing.  Our refusal to do so will continue, as Bowen has said, until “the repercussions stemming from taking the easy way out on tough issues exceed{s} the pain associated with acting on a long-term view.” 

Let’s hope we don’t need to experience too much more pain.