RANT: THE REAL NEED FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION

I have to hurry a bit today. I have to set out mousetraps again. There is a mouse in my house and during the day! Oh! The horror!

"Hey! Devos! Stop poping my balloon!"

I watched an interesting interview on The View the other day with American PhD student Irami Osei-Frimpong, host of The Funky Academic YouTube channel. He discussed the state of American education and the potential for public education to be further degraded post-Covid-19.

Because America has a more centralized federation than Canada, its education system is run by a federal department located in Washington D.C., with its current head Nancy Devos. Devos is a billionaire Republican whose programmes have come under much criticism since she took office as Secretary of Education in the Trump administration in 2017. Her policies emphasize defunding of public schools in favour of charter schools and “vouchers” so parents can have more ‘choice’ where to send their children to be educated. As an example, her reorienting of Detroit’s schools following that city’s financial collapse and bankruptcy some years ago resulted in a fragmented and dysfunctional system that fails to serve the needs of students and their communities. Detroit is listed near the bottom of the nation in terms of test-scores and graduation numbers. “Motor City” has had a long ride down and Devos has done little to slow its slide.

Irami is concerned that schools be opened as soon as possible and one ‘work-around’ he suggests in this era of Covid-19 is to use other public spaces, buildings, offices etc. that currently are vacant as temporary classrooms—keeping children safe by having smaller classes using social-distancing practices. That’s one idea that’s helpful.

He then discusses why “public” education is so important. He says that the focus of education shouldn’t be what your child--as an individual--learns, so much as what those “around” your child learn. Irami uses the game of pick-up basketball as an example. Basketball is a game played by a set of rules that everyone knows. The rules are there to guide all the players and to make the game fair—everybody abides by the rules and it’s game-on! There are, of course, penalties for rule-breakers.

But what if a privileged child is coached privately and learns all the rules (say, like a private-school/charter-school child learns the rules of their society), while the rest are not taught the rules (say, like defunded, demoralized public-school children)? Then the privileged player can call a foul any time he or she wants for anything and have an advantage over the rest of the players, who are clueless about the rules. That’s not fair!

Irami suggests that an educated public*, who know the rules and how the game is played, are a threat to elites who do not want people to understand history and politics, economics and so on. To them, ignorance (for the masses) is bliss.  When people are educated and learn about their rights and responsibilities as citizens, then they are free to criticize and demand equality and fair play in how their society functions. And that’s not something billionaires like Devos would like to see happen.

PhDuh candidate.

Hence, Irami suggests that in order for there to be a safer, fairer and more open society for you to live in—as an individual citizen—it is necessary for those around you to be equally educated in the ‘rules of the game’. Devos and her ilk would have only their team in the know.

Food for thought.

Cheers, Jake

P.S. There is no need for complacency around Canadian education, which is a provincial responsibility. What happens south of the border is mirrored up here, just not to the same extent. Yet.

"Oh! I most certainly, certainly agree!"

 

*Why does the movie Idiocracy come to mind?