Phi Delta Kappan - Essay Example

Phi Delta Kappan In recent years, the outcry for "basics” was again being heard from a loud and very political minority. The debate of reform or the basics is both important and interesting. Majority of the people who advocate for the school reforms have been documented to occupy different positions in the planet with liberals hailing from mars while the conservatives hailing from Venus. This brings a situation in which the students are left hanging in the cyberspace. The Martians who believe in the high standards of achievement have the opinion that it is the duty of the schools to should the responsibility and accountability on teachers together with their students so that they can achieve higher standards of performance as well as achievement in a dramatic way. The most important topic of discussion with this respect concerns the outcome, the benchmarks, the rubrics as well as the new curriculum. This complicates the understanding of the real vision of the reform in the schools (Kohn, 1999). The most likely intention is for the public schools to operate in a similar manner as the private schools that are more efficient in their education delivery. The quality of education in the private schools is greatly enhanced by making the students to take three active years of tough courses in mathematics together with sciences, learning the ways that they can be in a position to write essays that are critical concerning Shakespeare among others. These folks who are high standard have a tendency of having the opinion that the combination of guidelines of new curriculums together with big bucks associated with professional development is consequential to good public schools of the class of private schools. Their opinions hold that the right curriculum and teachers who are properly trained can lead to improvements in the schools. The school boards together with the district offices tend to be ignored (Kohn, 1999). According to the opinions of the basics, their believe about the new reforms in teaching brings about the problem rather than giving the solution to the problem. Their opinion is that the improvement of the self-esteem of the students and the solution of the problem is the cause of dumbing down of the curriculum. They advocate for the teaching of the 3 R’s while emphasizing on safety, discipline as well as order in the schools. This group has the support of the proponents dealing with character education (Kohn, 1999). This group advocates for reforming of the schools while ignoring the reform of the character of the student. Their intention is to press for the reading and discussions of the books related to morals. This essentially leads to the inculcation of the values related to patriotism, values of honesty and those related to the respect of the authority. There also exists another category called the free market who holds neutral opinions in as far as the reforms in the schools are concerned. They believe that the cause of the problem is the bureaucratic monopolies whose solution can only be obtained through the establishment of schools that are more autonomous accompanied by a market choice that is free. The parents should therefore be given a freedom of choice between reforms and the basics (Kohn, 1999). The assumption that the maximum effort of a teacher and the learning of the student can be stimulated through a threat of public embarrassment in case of poor academic performance is a wrong ideology. This is based on the assumption that both the teacher and the student are uncommitted to success in education. It is therefore seen as being necessary to apply some mechanisms relevant to push the teachers and the students alike towards success. This has been theorized to be effected through intimidation using threats for terrible consequences incase the students attain grades of low level (Kohn, 1999). This increased pressure for high scores for the students accompanied by with deficiency of focus for learning opportunities is consequential to futility and hopelessness. This leads to a situation that the students and their students reduce their efforts and becomes more careless. This then becomes the end of learning. This is the situation of angry teachers who are unsupported who depend on instructional strategies that are potentially counterproductive. Their notion of academic success is taken as being beyond their scope and they are less caring (Kohn, 1999). They are therefore not in a position of significantly improving the schools for the purpose of achieving academic standards of the local as well a state standards. The cost associated with the attainment of the best standard of education is astronomical in terms of the spent dollars as well as the lost opportunities. This is due to the efforts of development of the most sophisticated as well as the tactics of test development to meet the intended high stakes at the expense of the high percentage of assessment that usually takes place during the developmental life of the student (Kohn, 1999). This situation has brought about polarization with a debate associated with anger that becomes common over time in diverse communities. This situation leads to a static state in the schools due to the confusion of the direction that the schools should change to in case they are interested in transformation. The efforts of the motivation of the students are caused by this confusion. This therefore leads to a passive consumption together with instant gratification on the part of the students. The capacity of the students to concentrate in class work therefore diminishes caused by the addiction of multimedia drug of no-effort. This is the cause of the students being lost in the cyberspace. Majority of people have always assumed that it is too easy to teach students in the classroom. The intellectual as well as physical slouching that the teachers experience in classrooms is of considerable magnitude. The problem together with the solution can best be fathomed in the situation that one seeks the feedback of the students since they are better placed to understand being the law materials, the victims as well as the end products (Kohn, 1999). In consideration of the opinions of the students in both of the extremes advocating for reform and basics, the conclusions that have so far been made indicates that both are partially right as well as partially wrong. On the side of reform students complain of boredom. This is based on the repetitive nature of class work making it dull. The students therefore fail to understand the reason as to why they should learn majority of the testable stuff. The teachers on the other hand advice them that the stuff is helpful at their high schools. Majority of the students have a feeling that this is just a waste of their preliminary time. Except in mathematics, all the other subjects are usually memorized and therefore they are forgone in the future (Kohn, 1999). Reference Kohn, A. (1999). Articles by Subject. Retrieved on June 9, 2009 from, http://www.alfiekohn.org/articles_subject.htm#null Read More