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Urologist for a Day
This is an excerpt from Mike Rose's new book, Why School? (The New Press, September 2009). This short book (177 pages) is a quick read and would be good to put in the hands of local school board members and other locals who are trying to be education reformers. Mike takes a low-key gently persuasive approach. He is not angry but quietly persuasive in his use of real-life anecdotes about people in school: young people in a high school vocational program, a college student who lacks the necessary writing skills. And he puts all this into the context of what schools are for.
Schools are frequently the site . . . of photo-op for the powerful: a politician reading to kids, a business executive conducting a lesson. What is telling to me is that we don't see this sort of thing with other professions. A presidential candidate tours a hospital but isn't a "urologist for a day." A philanthropist visits a women's shelter, but doesn't lead a counseling session. As a teacher all my adult life, I can't help but be bothered by the familiar implication that anyone can teach. . . .
Though "qualified teachers" are praised in public documents and speeches, teachers are often pegged as the problem. And classroom knowledge is trivialized. Teaching or running a school is characterized as just not being that hard. And the field of education in general is bemoaned as bereft of talent. I have heard these phrases. The sad and astounding fact is that at the state and federal level there is little deep understanding of the intricacies of teaching and learning involved in the formation of education policy.
— Mike Rose
Why School?
2009-09-01
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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