Are Our Schools “Failing”?
April 14, 2009
Arne Duncan has come up with some dramatic assertions in his brief tenure as the U.S. Secretary of Education. His latest assertion — that we should switch to 6 days of school per week, 11 months of school per year, and longer school days — raised some eyebrows.
But there’s one assertion that permeates his thinking that virtually no one is challenging: that our schools are failing.
But are they really? If so, what does “failing” mean? Conversely, what would it mean to be a successful school?
Is it really more accurate to say that some of our schools are failing some of our students? Or is it really a societal failure? Or a parental failure? Or even a prenatal failure, in some cases?
In addition to carefully pondering each policy idea coming from Mr. Duncan, I urge teachers everywhere to reconsider their tacit acceptance of the notion that our schools are a complete failure.
Entry Filed under: Arne Duncan, Education, Elementary Education, Learning, Secondary Education, Students, Teaching, school. .
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Jen | April 14, 2009 at 4:41 pm
What I really don’t get is how more time in those “failing” schools is going to be better. Let’s do what [we say] isn’t working harder! Let’s be even less developmentally appropriate, because surely that’s the answer to all our problems.