The Problem with Public Education–Part II

Photo Credit: Picsmeme.com

Good morning! Mornings always bring clarity, don’t they? I am feeling like the last installment was a bit too bellicose. This morning I would like to clarify.

When I said “the public is the problem,” I did not mean that I view people negatively or in a hateful manner. To be clear: I LOVE working with people and my vocation of counselor. I believe it is where God has put me. It comes naturally to me and I look forward to my work every day. I am blessed to say such; I know many people cannot make a similar claim.

So here is what I meant: our culture has significant issues, deeper-rooted than the issues we see in our education system. And this may be a leap for some of you, but I am beginning to believe that schools are society’s most convenient “whipping post” for most every problem.

For the purposes of this post, I do not want to identify the supposed problems with education. I simply want to ask some questions. Random questions, based off of my own reading and my own experience with the educational system in the US of A.

Would the failing schools in America look different if their surrounding communities were not poverty-stricken and/or riddled with crime? If you have never read a book by a lady named Ruby Payne, I suggest you go pick it up! The title: A Framework for Understanding Poverty. This book accurately describes my experience with the students in my school district.

Would the quality of a school improve, if said school had more resources? I believe this is rudimentary, simple, basic. Common sense. College athletic programs understand this–it takes money and resources to grow a program. You have to put some time and effort and money into a project before it becomes freestanding, lucrative, productive. Schools, in my opinion, have enough tireless workers and enough people who put maximum effort into seeing their students succeed. Money and resources, however…

If students had attentive parents at home, would their learning increase? You guys, I could read before I went to school! Why? Because my mother taught me! The school I attended asked my parents to let me to skip the second grade, because I was so advanced compared to my peers. Was I a genius? No! But I went to school with a great foundation for learning. My teachers didn’t have to teach me EVERYTHING. I humbly submit to you all that if a child cannot read, it is NOT THE FAULT OF HIS OR HER TEACHERS. It is not a teacher’s fault if a child’s parents rarely speak to them, never read to them, and do not value education. It is not a teacher’s fault that parents allow television, gaming systems, and other technology to be free babysitters for them. I could go on another rant, but I will refrain…

Would the face of education in this country look different if families weren’t broken/fractured/divorced? Think about it for 2 seconds, please. My daughters will grow up in a household where Mom and Dad have 4 degrees between the 2 of them. Where they are spoken to frequently. Where they are well-fed, kept warm, and lack no basic needs. Where we value physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Where reading is not a chore, but a joy and a privilege. I say all this with a prayer…God willing I can give all of this to my daughters! Still, even if my wife and I fall short of this, we will get close.

Can we seriously think about what schools would look like if every child grew up in such a home? I know it’s a dream and it won’t happen. But I’m just asking the question. Is it my daughter’s first grade teacher’s job to make certain she can read? Is it the job of the school system to broaden the scope of my childrens’ thinking? To encourage them to be themselves? To navigate socially? Or is that my job?

I strongly believe that schools should be AUXILIARY to a student’s learning, not central. I see the problem thus: schools have become central–not just to academic learning, but also social, mental, and emotional learning. Not spiritual, though! Now tell me true, people…how are schools supposed to be everything to everybody?

Come on and tell me! I don’t see how it’s possible.

The Problem with Public Education…

First off, welcome to my island! I believe I may be alone (or relatively alone) on this one. Still, without dialogue and some “back-and-forth” we would never get anywhere or solve any crisis. So in the spirit of fostering a conversation, here goes:

Public education is not the problem.

The public is the problem.

There you go! I said it. I don’t know if anybody has said it already–if they have, point me to them so I can tell them “amen” and go buy their book.

So here are a few reasons. I’m going to ‘rapid fire’ here–otherwise I will wax poetic and write 2,000 words on this topic.

I liken public school teachers to LeBron James when he played ball in Cleveland. I can’t think of a better example. I could also use the Garnett/Timberwolves example. Brutal. In both cases, neither team achieved optimal success. In both cases, the star player was not the problem.

Now hold up, Heath. Are you saying teachers are the “star players?”

Why yes, yes I think I am. This profession is asked to do MORE with LESS than any other profession I can think of. They do so under extreme public scrutiny, to boot. The only station I can think of that might get more scrutiny is the office of President of the United States of America. But last I checked, Mr. Obama’s pay grade isn’t going to increase or decrease based off of his approval rating (public opinion). Many states are headed to a “merit-based” pay system for teachers, if they aren’t there already. Even though defining a teacher’s value is extremely difficult. A teacher has no control over the types of students he/she has in class each year!

Somebody needs to tell me how it is a teacher’s fault when a teenage boy elects to spend 5 hours per day playing Call of Duty, instead of doing his homework or reading a book?

How is it a teacher’s fault that kids are not taught manners and can’t behave at school?

Is it the teacher’s fault that today’s children are addicted to Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/texting/texting/texting? Is it the teacher’s fault that today’s youth are OVERSTIMULATED by all this technology, and therefore can’t sit still in class?

I suppose it IS my fault that I chose to work in a poverty-stricken district, where I serve low-income students that do not have the same teaching/reading/talking access that higher-income students do. Because in low-income homes, kids just plain are not spoken to nearly as much as kids in non-poverty situations. Is it my fault that these students are rarely ever affirmed in a positive manner? That they sometimes (against all logic) respond better to adults who yell and scream at them? Because that is what they are accustomed to?

What an idiot I must be, for choosing to work in such a district! Where kids actually need help! And now I am told that my pay may eventually take a hit based off of my school’s standardized testing scores. What?

How is it a teacher’s fault that the United States of America spends more on defense and on wars than on educating the minds of the future?

Is the breakdown of the American family my fault? Sons that don’t have fathers and grow up angry…daughters that don’t have fathers and grow up promiscuous. Girls who embrace “girl drama” and grab as much attention as they can on a daily basis–guys who embrace as many girls as they can on a daily basis. Selfish, selfish, selfish world we live in. And a society hellbent on achievement, achievement, achievement.

Seriously, where are the real problems? I feel like a lot of hardworking, altruistic people who chose to teach and to counsel are sitting back quietly and taking the fall for problems they didn’t cause. Are there crappy teachers? SURE. Are there phenomenal teachers? SURE. Just like in any other profession! But truly, if you send your child to school and hold the teacher 100% responsible for that child’s learning, then it’s YOU that messed up, not the teacher! When did public education take up the mantle of having to be everything to everybody, and to make everybody happy and nobody mad all at the same time? It truly is ridiculous. And most folks in education, they just keep on plugging away. Because bureaucrats and politicians and the general public have never understood…and likely never will. So many of us accept this treatment.

Well not me, Readers. I’m not going to sit back and listen to it anymore.

Not certain what that means, but this rant of a post can be a start.

HC

On Losing

0-15. Long season.

This was by far the worst athletic team (statistically speaking) that I have ever been a part of–be that as a player or as a coach.

Still, anything taken out of context can look far better or far worse than it truly is.

In this case, my school district is predominantly a football/basketball district. And while I do have a solid foundation of male footballers, there is an extreme lack of game experience with our girls team. There simply are not any girls in our district who have played organized soccer before. We had ONE gal who had played on a competitive team before–and she was a transfer from another school! Everyone else’s soccer experience was limited to kicking the ball with a sibling in the front yard. Seriously, my best defender (a 7th grader) had only ever kicked the ball with her younger sister. That was all the experience she had.

Still, early signs were encouraging. We scrimmaged a team from another conference, and lost by a score of 2-1. Breaking in a new goalkeeper (a basketball player by trade) and having 10 of 11 girls starting their first match ever…I called that scrimmage a victory. All of our girls left with a sense of confidence and were eager to begin the new year.

Then, the long dark set in. Some early season numbers:

0-6, 0-7, 0-7, 0-4, 0-5, 0-9, 1-6. First 7 matches, average goals allowed: 6.29 per game.

Some 2nd half numbers:

0-3, 0-5, 0-5, 0-5, 0-8, 0-1, 0-5. Next 7 matches, average goals allowed: 4.57 per game.

Playoff match: Lost 0-6.

Okay, so what do you see? What you should see first is an inability to score! The reason? Very little technical skill on my team. Not really much dribbling and passing in the early going. Lots of charging in (stabbing) and wildly kicking the ball towards the other team’s goal. There was one match where we did not even take a shot on goal. Brutal way to begin.

Still…those hidden truths. The 0-9 loss? To the best team in the league. They mercy-ruled us in that match. A 9-0 score results in the game being called. They were able to do this with about 6.5 minutes left in the match. The 0-8 loss? Same team. But we finished the match and were not mercy-ruled. Progress, right? The 0-6 playoff loss? Same team! They scored 4 goals on us by halftime–3 off of corner kicks, where my defense did not clear the ball quickly enough. The 4th goal was a slow-roller that went between my backup goalkeeper’s legs. All in all–a much more competitive match than the first 2 tilts. Even though we didn’t muster a goal.

So what did I learn from this experience?

I will never run up the score on you…unless you do it to me first. Prior to this season, I confess that I adhered to the Bill Belicheck school of thought. It’s a competition! If your team can’t compete, then that sucks for you! However, after experiencing that 0-9 loss, I felt differently. For me, knowing how much my girls had grown (knowing where they started) and knowing how hard they were competing, JUST to lose 0-9…it was painful. I hurt for them. It’s not their fault that they have never played soccer before! But it’s okay. We didn’t ask for mercy. I would never do that. But I did come away with a different view of said team and said coach. And knowing how “loaded for bear” my boys squad is for the fall–let’s just say it will be nice to wield that power, walking into that match…

I will continue seeking out and developing players who work well together and respond to teaching–instead of those who are athletically-gifted but lack coachability. It’s amazing how much better a team looks when players genuinely like each other and work well together…even if they lack some physical skills. It never fails every season–there is always a player who thinks he/she is God’s gift to the sport, and therefore doesn’t have to listen or work with the rest of the team. After 2 full seasons of coaching, I’m past the point of expending extra energy on these sorts of players.

Finally, I learned:

It truly is NOT about the “journey.” You guys know that silly saying? In this case, it IS about the destination. And that destination is to be competitive, year-in and year-out. Does that mean this season was a total loss? Of course not! The mentoring and the influence that I was able to have on these students is invaluable, and considerably more important than winning. Still, in the words of the beloved Herm Edwards:

“You play to win the game! Hello! You play to win the game! You don’t play it just to play it! That’s the great thing about sports…you play to win! And I don’t care if you don’t have any wins, you go play to win. If you start telling me it doesn’t matter, then retire! Get out! Cause it matters.”

“Hermisms” are the best “isms”

No words, no time

I want you folks to know I am keeping up with your writing, though I am not contributing any of my own

So keep the good words coming. Maybe sometime soon I will carve out more time for this pursuit.

God’s peace,

Heath

You can’t truly appreciate something until you see it up close…

You can’t truly appreciate something until you see it up close.

This has been my recurring thought for the last week or so. Not going to expound on it much for now, except to ask:

How different could the world be, if we were each able to see our neighbors up close? If we knew each person’s story? Each person’s pain? Their fears? Their hopes? Their dreams?

It is much too easy to sit back in our own selfishness (and fear) and let these stories pass us by. I pray that I have the patience and the courage to learn more…and more…and more. I pray that I love well.

HC

Broken

Driving home. The rain on my car is a baptism.

Blindsided. This moment was a culmination; 20 years of grandma’s prayers and the tireless efforts of many workers. In my case, they were not “few.”

You see, I spent my young adult life chasing the golden-haired woman. Not blondes, but the myth of the perfect girl (as I was a boy).

The perfect relationship, the perfect love. My parents never had it. I searched, but never found it.

I won’t say I found it that night. Not fully. That would not be authentic. But I began to learn. How deep the Father’s love for us…

I did break, that night. In retrospect, God had been softening my heart for weeks, months, years. But the call was still a shock. What I felt was not guilt, but an immense chasm between me and that loving God. I still remember being amazed at how wide the rift. And the reason? All my sin and shame.

I was humbled by the prayers of so many–people who freely came to me afterwards, telling me of all the years. And humbled that God would find me and come to me, even as I sought everything but Him. He found me in my brokenness–He allowed that brokenness, by the way. I was free to run completely down the path I chose, in the opposite direction. But this way I would know: all other roads end in emptiness.

So I got home, hit my knees. That’s what you’re supposed to do, right?

I prayed a broken prayer. And the rest…the rest is still broken old me…just walking down a different path.

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2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..

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Same-sex marriage

First things first. I am a Christian. Therefore, my worldview is a Biblical worldview. If you are not a Christian, then odds are this post will be different for you. But I truly hope there is a good word here for all who read further.

On the topic of homosexuality: when I meet a person–any person in general–I do not view that person as being a “straight” person or a “gay” person. That is not the lens with which I view people. Homosexuality does not “scare” me. Do I believe it is wrong? Yes. Does it scare me personally? No. Am I concerned about the fabric of our society and where we are headed as a culture? Absolutely. But homosexuality is only one symptom and not the root cause of why I feel that way.

I want to be as concise as possible here, so that I don’t lose those of you who are already on the fence about reading further. I view homosexuality as a sin–just as I view drug addiction, pornography, dishonoring one’s parents, murder, stealing, and lying as sins. Sin is sin is sin. Anything that comes between you and God, that separates you from God–is sin.

Last I checked, none of us were blameless or perfect. I believe we are all born with tendencies and proclivities to sin. We each have our own struggles. I personally do not struggle with homosexual tendencies, but I am quick to anger and susceptible to lust. These are struggles for me. But just because I am born with a tendency or a bent towards something, that does not make giving in to that urge okay. Thus, I do not believe people are born “gay.” I believe people may be born with more of a tendency to choose such a lifestyle. Just as some people choose to be drunk, or choose to cheat on their spouses. I believe that we all make choices that shape us–for good or for ill. Can people be born with more of a tendency to be homosexual, to be a drunk, or to fall prey to lust? I believe so. I also believe that we each make choices that can increase the likelihood that we fall prey to a specific sin.

As I am not a theologian, any of you who are more “versed” than I can feel free to chime in. But my understanding of homosexuality as a sin is that it is a sin like any other. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 states:

⁹ Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men ¹⁰ nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Wrongdoers: Sexually immoral. Idolaters. Adulterers. Homosexuals. Thieves. Greedy. Drunkards. Slanderers. Swindlers.

How many people would that encompass? I go down this road only to illustrate that there are many, many ways in which we as a humanity sin and separate ourselves from the love of God. Homosexuality is not “bigger” or “badder” (in my mind) than pornography or anger or covetousness. It is, however, at the forefront of our current political landscape. And that intensifies the issue.

Attempting to summarize: Just because a large group of people believe that something is right–in this case, homosexuality and same-sex marriage–that does not mean that I, as a Christian, should give in and concede to that belief. I believe that I will face a judgement at the end of my time. I am going to have to answer for my life and for the choices I have made. For that reason, it is important that I not only stand by what I believe, but that I also point people towards Christ and towards the love of God. To me, pointing a person towards the love of God is infinitely more important than condemning a person for their sin. I am not called to judge people. I am called to point people towards the truth, and obligated to tell them when I believe their actions will cause them harm.

Jesus didn’t walk around talking about homosexuality. Homosexuality is not a sin that will automatically throw a person out of the kingdom of God (all sin separates you from God). God’s forgiveness is just as available to a homosexual as it is to a thief and to a liar and to an adulterer. The only way I view homosexuality as different from any other sin, is that it is under the larger umbrella of “fornication.” That is, any unlawful sexual union or act (sex outside of marriage, for example) that is a sin against your own body–because your body is supposed to be a holy temple. Stealing is wrong, but it is not an attack on one’s self or a direct attack upon the sanctity of one’s own body. Does this make sexual sin worse? I don’t think so…just different. Again, all sin separates you from God. But the Bible does make a distinction when it comes to sexual sin–and that includes all sexual sin, not just homosexuality.

I know it will be a monumental challenge for many, but the focus–my focus as a Christian–should not be on condemning homosexuality. At least, that’s not any more important than condemning drunkenness or greed or any other sort of wrongdoing. And when I say “condemn,” I acknowledge that it is a poor word. What I mean is that it is a sin and that sin separates you from God.

Again–I’m no theologian–but I believe my focus should be on pointing people towards Christ, and on loving people well. It is the love of God that ultimately changes people–from the inside out. It is not my personal ability to argue that changes people. Ezekiel 36:26 states:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

God’s love is what changes people. Not oral (or written) arguments. Pointing people towards that love and sharing what God has done for me is infinitely more important than condemning or judging a person for their sin.

Note: On the whole, I feel like I share God’s love and what God has done for me pretty terribly at times. It is my fervent prayer that I grow in this regard.

Thank you all for reading. I welcome comments, disagreements, encouragements, and whatever else you may have below. I also welcome you to simply read and let it simmer. I don’t need your comment–I only pray for your own quiet reflection on this matter.

God’s peace,

Heath

Remember

Remember…

me as time of day. Friday Night Lights. Picnics and candlelight. Courting.

Remember learning that I do not cry? Not a choice I made, just something I learned honest.

Remember time flying and proposing and our first night in our home together? What do we do now?

Remember the years flying and trying and then BOOM. Not one, but two?!? God knows.

And here we are today, sleep-deprived but double-blessed…somehow making it without rest.

Remember, so we don’t forget.

Time is flying.

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..

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Fatherhood!

So on March 11, 2013 (at 2:52pm and 2:53pm) my wife and I became parents to identical twin daughters! Their names are Elin and Piper. They are both healthy and happy (best I can tell). I know they are well-fed, at least!

The breakdown for the blog is that I won’t be on it as much here in the next few weeks. We are currently on an “every 3 hours” feeding schedule, so it’s quite the challenge. Of course it is fun and joyful and exciting as well! But the sleep deprivation doesn’t lend itself well to extracurricular pursuits. All extra time is devoted to me catching some sleep or taking care of my wife. Or eating. Or bathing. All those things become secondary after you are given this holy (crazy) task of raising TWO kids at once! It’s awesome! We are thankful. But “baby busy,” as we call it.

Still, I hope to share about the experience soon enough; I am already learning more about fatherhood and what that means for me. It is a sobering responsibility.

I appreciate all the comments and likes and views on my little page. Thanks all for adding to my life. See you soon!

Best,

Heath

Elin Virginia and Piper Amelia