One thing you left out is that upper and upper middle-class parents fight tooth and nail to get their kids into a “name” school, e.g. Harvard, in order for them to establish business contacts for life.

“Public education promotes only those values the greater society voluntarily subscribes to.”

Well, perhaps; perhaps not. I doubt the “greater society voluntarily subscribes to” gay issues which are “promoted” in our schools. Because there is a sufficient amount of social pressure to make people want to feel “enlightened”, most won’t actively resist what they perceive as an inevitable fait accompli, even if it conflicts with their own personal beliefs. If, however, they are asked to go into a secret ballot booth and choose “Yes” or “No”, say, to gay “marriage”, the vast majority would vote “No”. Does this situation constitute “subscribing to”?

“You complain to the town council – and they say: “we all agreed to use only the Numbskools – you have no other option.” You say: “What if I just do it myself?” ‘Fine,’ says the council, ‘but you still have to pay for the Numbskool’s services, you can’t expect the rest of us to pick up the slack in supporting the Numbskools.’”

This is the point where you should revolt. There is no reason to agree to pay for something you don’t want. If you do agree, you make it very difficult to change things later. In fact, the situation you describe further in this post is exactly how I feel things are generally with the tax system as a whole. People have forgotten that it is coercive, and cede the ground to the system as a first step.

No matter what the item being paid for by the tax system, if it costs those who want it a little bit more or a lot more because I am not contributing, so be it. If in reality nobody really wants the particular services, those employed in such fields will have to find another way to earn a living. WHOEVER they are. That’s how the market works. Why should a useless institution be kept in existence?

Appreciate you patching up my analogy, there is a difference between “lazy” and “inept” as you explained quite well. What I was attempting to illustrate (perhaps poorly) were a couple of points about public education. First, bureaucracies grow and flourish when they have a monopoly and access to taxes – they don’t contract, although they can go through periods of apparent dormancy. In America, in particular, the public education establishment has learned how to flourish using divide and conquer tactics. The bureaucrats have learned to listen to their benefactors but in a way that promotes their own agenda and welfare. The lone “voice of reason” will never prevail with school authorities unless the “reason” coincides with promoting the power and financial welfare of those in charge; the same is true in the business world.

Second, Americans seldom understand why our culture actively works against accomplishing those very goals we claim to support. From the suburbs of Philadelphia, to the suburbs of Atlanta and moving west to the suburbs of San Francisco, the same cultural pattern is evident. Wealthy, upper middle and middle class American parents actively work to pass their legacy of wealth and societal power to their children through education. And, that’s why local control over education, while extremely inefficient and costly, is so prevalent. Parents will move to upscale suburbs with better schools to provide an environment conducive to obtaining wealth and social power for their children through more and better educational opportunities. Expensive homes are purchased because school districts in upscale suburbs are better funded, have better teachers and offer a learning environment vastly different from the ghetto schools of Oakland or Richmond, California.

Parents also spend much energy on providing their children with learning opportunities that are socially approved and valued. The reason is that colleges and universities reciprocate at admissions time when they discover a “well-rounded” student and grant admission to a name school. Ballet classes, musical training, computer camps – an endless array of “soccer moms” and dads ferrying their kids to an endless variety of after school activities, summer camps, amateur competitions, etc. The cost of these activities is far from negligible and working parents gladly give up their limited free time to support such activities. The payoff is admission to a prestige or, at the least, a “name” university. The child is launched into his or her adult life with a degree from a “good” school in the hopes their child will succeed to financial security and social prestige.

In my geographic area, the ultimate goal for your kid, complete with immense bragging rights, is admission to Harvard, Stanford or Princeton. And, failing that, the University of California Berkeley is the next rung down. Moms and dads carefully study the admissions point system and know to the second decimal place how many admission points accrue for academics, sports, extracurricular activities like debate club, band or student government, etc. The competition among the soccer moms is fierce and jealousy over what appears to be preferential treatment for one kid over another stops just short of physical violence at times.

The education establishment understands this cultural pattern very well and manipulates the public shamelessly. When parents complain about the “values” or lack of values the schools teach, what they really mean is that the schools aren’t teaching the values they believe in and support. But, the schools actually teach exactly those values our greater society hypocritically claims to support. For example, some parents complain that their children learn how to put condoms on cucumbers, but not what values lead to a successful marriage. Very true, but in our widely approved multi-cultural and diverse society, no one agrees on what “values” actually lead to successful long-term marriages. Christian values, Muslim values, Chinese values, secular values – which values should be taught without alienating some or a greater portion of those taxpayers who fund the welfare of the education establishment?

And how to avoid pesky lawsuits and interference form disgruntled parents who believe the values currently taught represent those promoted by another segment of our diverse cultural population. Teaching the mechanics of safe sex rather than the techniques of successful relationships is easier and less subject to legal challenge by a majority of the population. All parents agree that teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases are abhorrent and not something their child need experience.

Another area is religious observance. Better to ban all appearance of favoring one religion or, even religion itself, rather than risk censure by the courts. And parents actually favor this approach. Jewish parents are suspicious that Christians are out to convert their kids. Mainstream denomination Christian parents look askance at fundamentalist, Pentecostal or those religions they view as cults, such as Mormonism. Secular and atheistic parents think the religious parents are all slightly wacky and parents holding to other than a Judeo-Christian religious tradition are prone to feeling marginalized. Divide and conquer, conquer through division – the education establishment thrives by being strictly non-partisan.

Educators have thoroughly learned the lessons of multiculturalism and diversity. Better to be inclusive than exclusive – less trouble accrues when you support that concept. So, heterosexual, homosexual, non-traditional marriages, traditional marriages, having children without marriage, blended families, nuclear families, etc. are all equally valid according to our societal values. Don’t take sides in the culture wars – there’s nothing but trouble when you take a moral stand that will alienate some taxpaying parents.

Helping those less fortunate toward receiving a good education and living up to their potential is another highly touted social value. But, you’re not bussing my kids to some ghetto school – a little compassion is fine but let’s not go overboard. Give scholarships and free tuition to brilliant and deserving kids from the ghetto, but don’t get carried away and raise taxes or tuition so my kid can’t attend the better schools – a little but not a lot of “fairness” is appropriate. Parents like feeling good about themselves when they promote opportunity for those less fortunate, but not at the expense of their children’s legacy. Don’t be selfish, but don’t be stupid either.

For public education, the struggle is to find a safe harbor in our multi-cultural society. And, public education very accurately reflects those values we claim to value. Some say that public education goes too far in promoting the wrong values, but this opinion is essentially nonsense. Public education promotes only those values the greater society voluntarily subscribes to. Yes, it conveniently works out that the education bureaucracy prospers by doing so, but feathering your own nest isn’t something our diverse society with its fractured values can eliminate.

I truly sympathize with the general frustration you have. It doesn’t seem just, does it?

My approach is simply the way I feel I would be most effective. I don’t think I alone can change the public school system, and if I per chance was able to, most likely this would take so much time that my own children wouldn’t benefit from the improvements.

I think the most important concept to instill in my own children is a passion for learning. In the end, you must teach yourself, no matter how good or bad the teacher is. In other words, the student should have the mentality of “I’m here to learn,” not “I’m here, now teach me.”

Some other things I would try is to also get my child’s friends involved and curious. I was very lucky to have a friend who’s dad did this with me. He simply would start a conversation about something and ask us our opinions. It got us to think and we always ended up talking about it long after he left the room.

I also would invite my child’s teacher(s) over for dinner (or something similar) occasionally. I would try to engage the teacher in good conversations about the subject matter they teach. I think it is very important that these conversations involve my child, with my child also providing input – not just listening to a conversation between me and the teacher. This might have the benefit of the teacher possibly paying a little more attention to my child during school, and would help to deter my child from acting poorly in class (if they view their teacher as a friend of his/her parents). It could also instill a feeling in the teacher of accountability (to me). And… it is just a nice thing to do to show appreciation to the teacher for what they do.

Now imagine if every parent were to do this….

I agree with your Numbskool analogy except they are not so much lazy as inept and it is our grandparents who bought into this contract with the additional and ridiculous proviso their grand- and great-grandkids would be saddled with it. I have known a lot of teachers and the one thing you can’t accuse them of is sloth. They are probably some of the busiest people I know.

But, hardworking does not automatically translate into efficient or even valued. The most successful and effective people I know put out the least effort necessary to get any given job done. They aren’t lazy because, when they finish one thing, they move right on to the next. When they are done with all that needs doing, they take a break and recharge. They don’t waste energy doing things that neither need doing nor profit us. Teachers, on the other hand, are taught to keep their students always busy and adopt the same attitude regarding themselves – sometimes obsessively. It is so obsessive they think that if all they are teaching are the basics, it is not enough. If all they are teaching are the basics plus a few life-skills, it’s still not enough. If basics plus life-skills plus college prep – not enough; if all that plus moral values – not enough; all that plus an ideology – not enough; all that plus activism – not enough; all that plus useless yet charming filler – not enough; all that plus correctness masquerading as virtue – not enough … and so on. Teachers almost never take breaks, never get that chance to recharge, never take moments in which to reflect if there’s an easier way or what they teach has value, and, so, are convinced theirs is the toughest job on earth.

Let’s go back to your analogy, but instead of your Numbskools being lazy they are driving you crazy doing stuff to your yard you never bargained on, and instead of a lifetime contract it is for the first 10 years of ownership (including inherited property). They’ve ripped out your tomatoes, lettuce and strawberries and planted asparagus, broccoli, and rhubarbs. Once your property is deemed ‘mature’, you will no longer be subject to their ‘assistance’. Their job is to see to it everybody’s yard starts out on an even footing, that no yard stands out as esthetically ‘conflicting’, that we conform through long habit, and no one yard steals a market advantage over the others. They’ve cut down your venerable 200-year old oak complaining it sheds too many leaves and blocks your view of urban blight. They’ve also torn out your bonsai/rock garden and installed a tennis court. All in the name of progress. Only problem is you despise asparagus, broccoli, and rhubarbs, loved that old oak since you were a kid, the rock garden provided you much needed serenity, and you can’t play tennis since you ripped a tendon. The Numbskools come to you expecting praise for all their hard effort and genius. Instead, you fume at them calling them idiots. They take revenge by insisting they’re the “professionals” and you’re the fool for rejecting all the ‘wonderful’ things they’ve done. Worse they threaten to have you locked up because all the fuss you’re making over a few rhubarbs is upsetting their other ‘highly satisfied’ clients (more likely inciting a revolt). Some of your neighbors actually agree with these cretins because they were jealous of your yard, and demand for their property has gone up as yours came down.

Now, in the real world, you’d fire these incompetents and hire someone better to fix the mess. But, in this alternate universe, we not only can’t fire them, we can’t get them out of our yard, and they keep right on making messes. If we move to another place, they just follow informing us there is no escape. Given they’re going to make a mess anyway and there is nothing we can do to stop it, we capitulate in passive defeat. It’s just a few more years of this, we reason, and so endure.

Oh, did I forget to mention … because the Numbskools have more control over your property than you do they’ve decided you don’t really own it – the state do. ;-)

Where you say: “Sometimes simply asking questions gets them thinking and shows you care.” Are you talking about your kids or their teachers? ;-)

As for bypassing school boards and insular educators, what you say is true enough, but isn’t that also what they complain of – that we parents are the main culprits because we aren’t “involved enough” with our kid’s education. Believe me, the complaint isn’t that you aren’t teaching at home with or without reference to them; it is that you are teaching things they disapprove and over which they have no control. This is not all teachers, but the cranks in any group do tend to dominate. Parents lack the voice of teacher-unions and governmental agencies with which to respond and are easily marginalized, so we wind up taking most of the flack.

Let’s take this one step at a time and you will see what I mean. National SAT scores are published and the press (always hungry for dirt) report scores for your state have fallen for a third year in a row. The school board or superintendent immediately issues a statement that, although SATs have fallen, public school self-test scores have risen steadily for a quarter-century. A journalist or (more likely) some letter writer to the newspaper questions: how can both be true? The suspicion grows our schools manipulate their metrics to always indicate success, no matter the contrary evidence. Caught in a lie, the schools look for ways to shift blame (e.g., under-funded programs, low pay, teacher burnout, too much television, broken homes, poverty and abuse, indifferent parents, not enough before/after school programs, diet, classroom air quality, antiquated teaching materials, school violence and chaos, drugs and sex, gangs, student apathy, culture, not enough qualified candidates, classroom crowding, insufficient resources, &c). Anything except schools held to account for their product. Teachers are browbeaten to remain silent and maintain solidarity, so they wind up part of the problem. So too the parent who goes along fearing to rock the boat or believing it is for the best. The media is an equal-opportunity shark, so it reports the failures of parents and culture with the same unverified aplomb it reports those of schools. The media will even dish its own, but only if it makes money.

So, where you say I am wasting my time arguing with school boards, you are probably right. Yet, we have to find some means to hold schools and government to the same or greater account than they hold us, or our kids wind up the losers. Teachers allege the problem with our kids is us, and, in some cases that is true. However, that has always been true and no truer today than yesterday. So, that doesn’t work to explain why our kids are passing in school yet flunking in college and in life in increasing numbers. We are bled dry to have schools educate our children, only to find they’ve learned more that needs erasing than preserving. This creates a double burden on us. First we labor to pay a school tax, then labor again to re-educate against the stress that creates for both us and our kids; telling them 3/5ths of what they’ve learned is hogwash (some of it positively vile) without somehow implying their teachers are contemptibly stupid. And, supposing you send your kid to a private school, perhaps a triple-burden. Any wonder, then, we have little time to devote to our kids? We’re too busy making enough money to satisfy an insatiable beast.

It is a bad mechanic who blames his tools for his own shortcomings; and, a bad mechanic who continually gets away with it leaves a broad trail of mistakes.

Imagine a town where the residents all agree and the town charter is duly amended so that every homeowner must hire the Numbskool brothers landscaping service – every 2 weeks the Numbskools will groom your lawn, trim your bushes, weed – do what any landscaping service would do to make your property look good. The one drawback is only the Numbskools can do landscaping on your place, or any other property within the town limits for that matter.

Why the Numbskools? Well, most of the older residents knew and loved their deceased parents, the Numbskools senior – very fine people who did a great many good works for the town. The Numbskool brothers are wild, prone to troublemaking and haven’t yet found a trade or business where they can succeed. And, after a couple months with the Numbskools, you begin to notice a disturbing trend. The Numbskools are basically lazy – they spend their time listening to the game, eating pizza, whistling at girls driving by – but they don’t work hard on your place. They miss spots when cutting the grass, they’ll start to trim a bush then wander off to talk with a brother, they thoroughly weed one spot of ground but then completely ignore another spot loaded with weeds.

You complain to the town council – and they say: “we all agreed to use only the Numbskools – you have no other option.” You say: “What if I just do it myself?” “Fine”, says the council, “but you still have to pay for the Numbskool’s services, you can’t expect the rest of us to pick up the slack in supporting the Numbskools”.

So, each time the Numbskools perform their landscaping, you trudge out to the garage, grab your garden tools and go over your lawn, fixing each grassy place they missed, addressing each bush that was ignored or poorly trimmed – you don’t like doing this but you also understand the town council’s viewpoint – and besides the charter requires it and that’s the law. Now, each and every time you make out a check to the Numbskools, you seethe with anger but eventually you calm down because you’ve found a way to rationalize the situation.

You reason to yourself: It isn’t just my place, the Numbskools do a poor job on all the other homes as well. So, my place looks terrible, but so does everyone else’s. Of course, some of my neighbors are also out fixing their lawns after the Numbskools drive off, so I’m in exactly the same boat as my neighbors and have no basis to complain about being treated unfairly.

And, you also think, if those of us who don’t like it refuse to pay, then the burden would fall on the other residents. The Numbskools would still want every cent of their money and it would be just that much harder on my neighbors. Besides, you think to yourself, I can make my lawn look very nice, I’m out in the fresh air, getting exercise – this is good in a weird way. So, you’ve found a rationalization that works – your lawn looks pretty good also, between what the Numbskools do and then you fix afterward. And, you’re out in the fresh air. Eventually, you write the monthly check to the Numbskools without a second thought – if you think about it at all, you console yourself with the thought that maybe some day the Numbskools will move away.

This parable is transparent to you, I’m sure. But, ask yourself, would the Numbskools ever move away? More than likely, they would marry, have kids, bring in their in-laws, and raise their monthly landscaping rates to cover their increased costs. Rather then seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, wouldn’t it be more likely the tunnel would just get longer and darker? And, the current education tunnel, hasn’t it gotten longer and darker?

Imagine if we organized military recruiting and training like we organize education. There would be a major bureaucracy in Washington charged with recruiting and training soldiers. But, there would also be bureaucracies at the state and local level as well. Citizens would be privileged to pay for these bureaucrats – but, in return, they would have local control.

Kids in your town would have to sign up with the local recruiter, but they wouldn’t leave town for boot camp. They would be trained locally, using local soldiers and veterans who supervise the training. Each local recruiting district would have a shooting range, an obstacle course, a few tanks, some bombers and maybe even a submarine for their artificial lake.

Wouldn’t this be hellishly expensive? Of course it would, but you have local control – after all, it’s your kids going into the military – wouldn’t you want local control over their training and have them near by so you can frequently check on their welfare? And, you wouldn’t hear complaints from the bureaucrats or the drill sergeants. They get paid to supervise and train your children. Wouldn’t it be worth the much higher cost to have this system?

If we understand why we don’t do this nonsense for our military training needs, then we will all understand what we need to do to improve our schools. And, speaking out never helps when it’s a master and servant relationship. The servant (parent) requests a favor, enters a plea – the master (education system) has the final word – always. Unless the servant revolts, the relationship will never change. We should ask ourselves why doesn’t the servant revolt? Maybe, both the servant and master are comfortable with the relationship as it stands.

Yes, and there is a term for it: stonewalling. Here is a recent case in which parents tried to get a gay porn book out of the classroom and got stonewalled:
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200803/CUL20080310a.html

I alone cannot overhaul the system for the betterment of every student. But I alone can improve my own child’s education.

Believe me, you will benefit much more with this approach than wasting your time arguing with school boards….