Taking a new, fresh look at education in the Valley

Public education in the United States has been going down hill for decades. Most people will tell you just that. But ask those same people to grade their local schools, and about 75 percent give those schools an A or B.
Dr. Theodore Hershberg, professor of public policy and history at the University of Pennsylvania, has news for those folks. They're all wrong.
Critical thinking: U.S. schools, he says, aren't as bad or as good as anyone thinks. They haven't gotten worse, they're just still teaching in the 21st century the lessons that they were teaching at the beginning of the 20th century. With varying degrees of success, the schools are teaching students how to remember facts and how to take direction, but they're not teaching them how to think for themselves or how to solve problems.
Hershberg brought his theories of educational function and dysfunction to the Mahoning Valley yesterday as the speaker for the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber of Commerce's Education Summit 2001 at the Avalon Inn.
Hershberg did what any good teacher does. He made his audience of business, labor, government and education leaders think.
They could agree or disagree, but they couldn't ignore his contention that our schools haven't changed much in 20 years; if it seems as if they have it's because of the new ecomony makes new demands on workers. And they couldn't ignore his suggestion that Americans -- without even realizing it -- have been able to mask the effects of this changing economy without upgrading education or downgrading their standard of living. How? By shifting from one-income families to two-income families.
Other points: Children, he said, should be taught that effort leads to ability, which should be its own reward. They shouldn't be given a kindly pat on the head when they don't make the effort and don't gain the ability.
Teachers unions and school administrators have to redefine their interests. The unions have been most concerned with pay and benefits, and as school boards and administrators have given in on those issues, they've taken as their purview everything else. Both should be more concerned with professional development of the staff and with determining what their students should be learning and whether they are learning it.
What's next: While Hershberg set his audience to thinking, the Chamber of Commerce took the next step by asking them to turn their thoughts to action. The chamber is actively trying enlist anyone who is interested in an on-going effort to redefine and redirect education in the Mahoning Valley.
It is no small task, and there will be no quick fixes. There's also no alternative, and the chamber is to be commended for taking the initiative.