Balancing Act

Below is my first guest post. It is by my Grandfather Jack Silas and the topic is school reform.  

Jack H Silas – began 1^st grade at the age of 4; graduated high school at 15; graduated East Los Angeles Community College (AA); California State University, Los Angeles (BA); graduated University of Southern California (MS, Admin. Credential); additional studies at University of California, Los Angeles (Urban Education Policy & Planning); Pepperdine University (Secondary Teaching and Administrative Credentials); Teacher, Elementary School, Los Angeles Unified School District; Community Relations Specialist, Assistant Principal, Principal, District Administrator in LAUSD; Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University; Adjunct Professor at Occidental College; Retired in 1990; Consultant, Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, 1991 – present.

The cry for school reform has been constant ever since the beginning of the implementation of universal public education in the United States. The formulation the concept of public education was to remove children from the work force and substitute something else for them to do, and when they would be eligible to do it. This was established by the use of compulsory school attendance for specific age groups.

The battle began when there were competing viewpoints on what to do with the children while they were in school. What should be the outcomes of schooling? The central thesis centered on HOW to do it. One group wanted to train them for the workplace after graduation. Another group wanted to trained them to be good citizens. There was not much attention given to the potential each child had to offer until later.

We have come a long way since those early beginnings of universal public education. The focus is now on numbers. The NUMBERS tell us everything we need to know about the status of schools, principals, teachers, students, districts, cities, states, and the country as a whole. The numbers are used as the unit of comparison among all those entities. The members rank all those entities with all the countries of the known world on a chart so we can see where we stand, relatively speaking. Whereas most countries of the world are governed by national education systems and have a “sorting out process” to select only those “qualified” to receive schooling (not universal public education), while in the United States relies on local control of education (e.g., 72 school districts in Los Angeles, CA County).

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