Imagine having this Goddess on your side!
The young lady (a student at the University) behind the checkout counter at Dick's Sporting Goods was the spitting image of Athena (on the right, above). I went home, printed the jpg and raced back to Dick's. I said to her--respectfully, you understand--you don't want to take liberties with a Goddess--"Ever seen her?" She said, "You saying I look like a MAN?!"
"Nooooo. This is Athena. She looks NOthing like a man. Besides, look at your nose. Exactly like hers. The eyes, hair, neck, teeth. Athena."
Her co-workers looked closely at the picture and back at their friend...
"You DO look just like her! You're a goddess!"
She smiled.
Having spread a generous helping of sweetness and light, as is my policy, I departed. Who knows, the young lady's ancestral aunt may have been a model for the Greek sculptor so long ago. No less probable than flowers.
The British historian, Arnold Toynbee, spent a good chunk of
his life studying civilizations living and gone. He summarized what he
found with three rules.
First rule. Civilizations sooner or later are in
crisis. Their major institutions don't work very well anymore, and
therefore lose legitimacy.
Second rule. Civilizations fail when leaders don't
notice a crisis; when leaders deny a crisis exists; or when leaders' responses
worsen a crisis.
Third rule. Civilizations that don't adapt to crisis
don't just disappear. They are taken over, and transformed--more
gradually or more suddenly--either by outsiders (barbarians in the hills), by
disaffected insiders, or an by alliance of outsiders and insiders.
The field of education, or Edland, is in or is fast
approaching a crisis. It can't sustain itself with its unsatisfactory
outcomes, its fanciful theories of learning and instruction, its inept teaching
practices, and its programs of teacher indoctrination and ill-preparation.
And it's certain that the leaders of Edland--who are at the root of the
crisis--and who enjoy power and prestige--will not admit their culpability and
will not make needed changes that would lower their social positions.
Therefore, by rule 3, I conclude that Edland is ready to be
transformed--either by outsiders (that is, the political state); by disaffected
insiders (that is, by traditional "instructivists" and our allies--the foundations, consumer groups, and others who advocate elements-first, logically
organized, research-based, focused, teacher-directed instruction), or best yet, transformed by an
alliance of the political state with us and our allies.
Edland Is In a State of Crisis
Edland is an enormous and astonishingly expensive
arrangement of schools of education, publishers, and organizations such as the
National Council of Teachers of English, the National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and
the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Educaton. Edland
provides curricula to public schools--curricula which reveal their creators'
superficial understanding of logical design. New teachers are trained to
deliver these curricula in public schools via "progressive" forms of
instruction--which increasingly resemble group therapy. Edland justifies
its curricula and instruction with a so-called research base on
"best" and "developmentally appropriate practices"--a
research base consisting largely of anecdotes, authors' opinions, and
pre-experimental research designs. And Edland maintains an apparatus of
conferences and publications that disseminate always innovative--but seldom
effective--models of school reform, classroom instruction, and teacher
training--an apparatus whose function is to legitimize Edland's existence and
activities, and to hide the failures in Edland's outcomes and the ineptitude of
its leaders.
The manifest function of public schools for society, the
reason for their existence, and what families and teachers by and large want
public schools to do, is prepare children for adulthood by transmitting
culture--that is, disseminating and inculcating the conceptual knowledge,
practical skills, and moral principles accumulated by a society and needed for
competent participation--or citizenship--in society. Edland's most obvious
malady is failure to serve its manifest functions. With slight
differences from state to state, about forty percent of high school students
are poor readers. Thirty percent of high school students can't solve
everyday math problems or write coherent essays. We find the same figures
on reading and math in elementary schools where the gaps in achievement begin
between minority/disadvantaged and white/advantaged children. These early
gaps in reading and math spread to writing, science, and all subjects that
depend on reading and math.
The early disparities in achievement, and
later, low self-expectations and weak effort as well, solidify very different
life courses for children from different socioeconomic, cultural, and so-called
"racial" backgrounds. We know from 30 years of work with Direct
Instruction and other, traditional methods that aim at mastery using
systematic, focused, teacher-directed instruction, that these inequalities in
learning and in life course are unnecessary. And therefore we feel morally
obligated to deem immoral the malinstruction of new teachers and their public
school students, and (with Thomas Jefferson) we question whether a republic has
long to live when so many of its young citizens are being turned into a
culturally illiterate mass easily indoctrinated into politically correct thinking and feeling that fails even to recognize mortal enemies.
In large part, a societal crisis is a crisis because it is
seen as such by folks who matter. Political coercion, for example,
doesn't put a society in crisis unless sufficient numbers of the population
find coercion intolerable, and believe a different form of politics is
possible. Therefore, the question is, Do important groups find the
outcomes and the operation of Edland intolerable? And do they see a
better way? The answer is a loud Yes.
It's becoming clear to school superintendents and school
boards; to academics in fields with serious knowledge bases (such as
mathematics, history, and business); to wealthy think tanks and foundations; to
consumer groups of families who give their children to the care of public
schools; and to folks who receive direct consequences for rational vs.
irrational thinking (namely, farmers and business persons in state legislatures),
that Edland isn't working.
Observers of the education scene, such as J. Martin Rochester (Class Warfare) E.D. Hirsch, Jr.
(in The schools we need and why we don't have them), Sandra Stotsky (in Losing
our language), Rita Kramer (in Ed school follies), Richard Mitchell (in The
graves of academe), Diane Ravitch (in Left back: A century of failed school
reform), Jean Chall (in The academic achievement challenge), Charles Sykes (in Dumbing
down our kids), and Arthur Bestor (in Education wasteland)--all point to the
intellectual frivolity, the doctrinal theologicality, and almost compulsive
attention to everything but what is important to instruction, that characterize
ed school thinking and curricula. Here are a few lines from H.L. Mencken,
written in 1928.
...(T)he great majority of American colleges (of education)
are so incompetent and vicious that, in any really civilized country, they
would be closed by the police... In the typical American State they are staffed by quacks
and hag-ridden by fanatics. Everywhere they tend to become, not centers
of enlightenment, but simply reservoirs of idiocy. Not one professional
pedagogue out of twenty is a man of any genuine intelligence. The
profession mainly attracts...flabby, feeble fellows who yearn for easy
jobs. The childish mumbo-jumbo that passes for technique among them
scarcely goes beyond the capacities of a moron. To take a Ph.D. in
education, at most American seminaries, is an enterprise that requires no more
real acumen or information than taking a degree in window dressing...The schools
reek with this puerile nonsense. Their programs of study sound like the
fantastic inventions of comedians gone insane. The teaching of the
elements is abandoned for a dreadful mass of fol-de-rols, by quack psychology
out of the uplift...They are perfectly willing, on the one hand, to teach the
nonsense prescribed for them by frauds, and they are immensely fertile, on the
other hand, in inventing nonsense of their own. Anything that will make
their jobs secure seems good enough to inflict upon their pupils... (E)xamine a
dozen or two of the dissertations, chosen at random, turned out by candidates
for the doctorate at any penitentiary for pedagogues... What you will find is a
state of mind that will shock you. It is so feeble that it is scarcely a
state of mind at all. (H.L. Mencken. "The war upon
intelligence." Baltimore Evening Sun, December 31, 1928.)
Here's a more recent contribution, by Richard Mitchell, from
The Underground Grammarian.
Fortunately for American educationists, there is never any dearth
of trashy and popular fads, the raw material of curricular novelty.
The half-life of most bold innovative thrusts is less than that of the pet rock
or the nude encounter group, and pedagogical gimmicks have to be cooked up more
often than situation comedies. But, thanks to the fertile inventiveness
always inspired by exuberant greed, the master schlockmongers will always
provide the educationists with full measures of readily adaptable inanities. It’s
not surprising, therefore, that educationists respond to public discontent not
by trying to improve what they do, but by trying to "educate" the
public into some other "perception" of what they do. In
education, as in the fast-food business, it’s called "image enhancement,"
and, like all flackery, it’s done with slogans and buzz words. When the
public finally noticed, for instance, that fewer and fewer children were
learning to read, the educationists quickly discovered that "learning
disabilities" were far more common than anyone had ever suspected.
Therefore, we ought in fact to praise the schools for doing such a great job
with swarms of undernourished, disaffected imbeciles, many of whom were also
myopic, hard of hearing, hyperactive (if not lethargic), or even lacking in
self-esteem. There will never be good, universal, public education in America until we learn, from their own words, that the people in charge of it are badly
in need of an education. Educated people will not be deceived by such
nonsense. Some knowledge of the history of thought and some skill in
logical language can be expected of the educated, but they are not required for
a degree in "education."
In addition to criticism on college campuses, there is
stingent accountablity legislation in at least a score of states. Legislation
with regulations, with financing, with enormous data bases on student
achievement, and with teeth. Legislation that mandates higher
achievement; that mandates closing the gap between minority and white students;
that demands research-based curricula; that rewards schools that do the right
thing and punishes schools that won't.
Do the leaders of the ed establishment (e.g., ed schools) see
state accountability legislation and mandated forms of research-based
instruction as signs of crisis in their effectiveness, their legitimacy, and
their social position--as public schools now clearly do? No, this
legislation is seen as an unwarranted intrusion. They say, "We don't
need the state to mandate how or what we teach. We can decide for
ourselves. We're professionals." Legislatures are more than a little
tired of this defensive posturing. They know that the electorate wants
its kids to read better, to do math better, and to know something of American
history.
There is also the voucher and charter school movements--which
clearly say that large numbers of the public no longer judge the ed
establishment as having much legitimacy, much credibility, or much hope of
improving in their children's school lifetimes. Do the leaders of Edland
read the signs this way? No, again. Instead, they try to invalidate
the message by branding it a right wing effort to gain political control.
There are alternative routes to teacher certification--lateral
entry for folks who have degrees in other fields, and even crash programs only
six weeks long in some states. The research says that these teachers do just as well or better than four year school of ed teachers. And these
alternative forms of certification are funded and certified by state
legislatures. This clear hand-writing on the wall is lost on the
education professoriat, who can't imagine that anyone can teach new teachers
better, for less money, and in one fourth the time.
And schools of education are beginning to be evaluated (e.g., in Louisiana) along
the same lines and by the same legislative groups holding public schools
accountable. Ed schools that don't stack up may be decommissioned.
For decades, they hid weird curricula and lack of effectiveness behind
well-crafted end-of-year reports, and by providing frequent feasts for friendly
politicians. But when kids' scores still don't rise, politicians under
pressure from publics will want to know what evidence justifies the existence
of expensive ed schools. And it's no problem finding out where teachers
whose students can't read were ill-trained, or to determine if ed schools are
complying with laws mandating systematic phonics instruction. But again, just
as Balshezzar wouldn't believe Daniel's reading of the handwriting on the wall
of the banquet hall--a message which said, Your kingdom has been weighed; it
has been found wanting; and is being taken from you--so the leaders of Edland
don't believe what the signs are saying.
Niccolo Machiavelli read a lot of history to learn how
humans can achieve and sustain a just and viable republic. He wrote in The
Prince and in The Discourses, that you must wait in readiness for the Goddess Fortune to align the right circumstances. And then you must move
with rapidity, with audacity, and when necessary with ferocity--because the Goddess has no respect for the timid. The circumstances are aligned and
the signs are favorable. Edland has little legitimacy to major groups
that fund it and depend on it. And the pedagogic elite of Edland cannot
and will not make things better for teachers and children. Nor can the
job be left to politicians alone, who after all may not act wisely or in
concert for long.
Lessons From Ancient Greece
So, the job is ours. But who exactly is the we
that can and must do the job? And what battle plan is likely to be effective?
The Greek historian, Herodotus, gives clear rules on this when we juxtapose his
account of two battles--the battle at Marathon fought in
491 BC and the battle at Thermopylae fought in 480
BC.
1. There were the same adversaries--the Greeks vs. the Persians.
2. There were the same weapons. The Greeks used
long spears, iron swords, and bronze shields. The Persians used spears,
archers, swords, and cavalry.
3. There were the same overwhelming odds. At Marathon,
there were 200,000 Persians and 20,000 Greeks. At Thermopylae,
there were 310,000 Persians and allies, and 4000 Greeks.
4. But there were different outcomes. The Greeks won
at Marathon. 6,400 Persians were killed and 192
Greeks were killed. The Persians fled. At Thermopylae,
20,000 Persians were killed and all the Greeks were killed.
What differences made the difference? Here, according
to Herodotus, is how the Greeks organized for battle and fought at Marathon,
where they won.
...The Athenians formed their ranks for battle. The
right wing was commanded by the polemarch, Callimachus...Under his leadership
the tribes followed in succession. Finally, the last in order were the
Plataeans, holding the left wing... (T)he middle of the Greek side was only a few
ranks deep...but each of the two wings was very strong. [The formation is
called a phalanx. Eight or so rows of soldiers are lined up behind the
man in front. Shield on the left arm; spear held by the right. And
they move together in a running, screaming square with tremendous mass.]
The lines were drawn up, and the sacrifices were favorable;
so the Athenians were permitted to charge, and they advanced on the Persians at
a run. [I might add that when they began their forward advance, the
Greeks would sing , "Zeus the Deliverer and Victory" and scream their
cry to the War God.]... The Persians, seeing them coming at a run,, made ready
to receive them, but they believed that the Athenians were possessed by some
very desperate madness, seeing their small numbers and their running to meet
their enemy without the support of cavalry or archers... but the Athenians,
when it came to hand to hand fighting, fought right worthily. They were
the first Greeks we know of to charge their enemy at a run... The fight at Marathon went on for a long time, and in the center the barbarians won...and broke the
Greeks, and pursued them inland. But on each wing the Athenians and the
Plataeans were victorious... As the Persians fled, the Greeks followed them,
hacking at them, until they came to the sea. Then the Greeks called for
fire and laid hold of the ships.
In contrast, Thermopylae, Hot Gates,
was a mountain pass in northern Greece.
The Persian King, Xerxes, was bringing an enormous army south to take the
Greek city states along the east coast of mainland Greece.
The Greeks sent contingents from these city states to Thermopylae.
However, many cities sent no troops. And here's what happened.
But on the fifth day...he (Xerxes) sent against them the
Medes and Cissians... The Medes charged the Greeks full tilt and had many of
their own men killed. Others replaced them, and their attack did not
cease, although they were sorely mauled; but they made it quite clear to
everyone, and especially to the King himself, that though they [the Persians]
had many men, there were few men.
After more days of repelling wave after wave of Persians,
the Greek contingents from most of the remaining city states, realizing the
desperately bad odds, left Thermopylae to return to
their cities and defend them for when the Persians came through the pass.
This left the Greek commander Leonidas and 300 Spartans to defend all of
mainland Greece against 310,000 Persians and their allies.
At sunrise, Xerxes made his libations and..made his attack....
(T)he Greeks, knowing that their own death was coming to them from the men who
had circled the mountain, put forth their utmost strength against the
barbarians; they fought in a frenzy, with no regard to their lives...Most of
them had already lost their spears by now, and they were butchering Persians
with their swords... (T)he Greeks retreated into the narrow part of the road,
and...defended themselves with daggers--those who had any of them left--yes,
and with their hands and teeth, and the barbarians buried them in missles, some
attacking them in front...while those who had come round the mountain completed
the circle of their attackers.
The inscription over their graves read, "Go, stranger,
and tell the Spartans that we lie here in obedience to their laws." 
Of course, the Spartan sacrifice gave the rest of Greece time to organize for battle with the Persians as they moved south. The Persians were pounded at Salamis and Plataea, and went home for good.
Perhaps we can extract a few generalizations from Marathon and Thermopylae.
First. The Greeks won when they fought in a
highly aggressive and well-armed formation, not when they fought in a cornered
band with hands and teeth.
Second. The Greeks won when they attacked, and
lost when they defended. Rule: By attacking, you control the
battle sequence and make the enemy react to you.
Third. The Greeks won when they advanced at speed (their chosen speed), rather than at a slow pace set by or matching the
enemy's pace. Rule: A rapid pace overwhelms the enemy--preventing a
proficient enemy attack or defense.
Fourth. The Greeks won when they assembled an
army from all parts of
Greece,
and fought together as one. They were slaughtered when the battle was
left to a small group of veterans from one city state, who could not win
against such heavy odds even though their enemies feared them.
Rule: By fighting as one large army you can sustain a battle until you
win.
Here's the conclusion as I see it. We will make the crisis in
education a
Marathon or a Thermopylae.
If we leave the fight to the few and most vocal opponents of Edland, the
massive army of the education establishment will bury us with another wave of
fad pedagogies that will sustain their position as instructional leaders of the
nation. By staying home to make the fight local, rather than also
coordinating and focusing force where it matters most--namely, the state
departments of public instruction and state legislatures--where accountability
laws and phonics laws and math laws are passed, and where textbooks are
approved--we eventually may lose battles at the local level as well.
Educationists don't care about data on what works--unless they are forced by
higher powers.
Therefore, we must provide the politicians, the think
tanks, the foundations, and the consumer groups with well-designed packets of
research data on what works and on what is bunk.
We must deliver to
legislatures, newspapers, and PTAs rational critiques of Edland and its
folly--critiques that stress the irresponsibility and therefore immorality of
unresearched faddish pedagogies and curricula. We must provide
principals, PTA's, boards of education, departments of public instruction, and even churches clear
descriptions of effective instruction--with videotapes, model classrooms, and
data on achievement "Can your children read like this,
Preacher?" And we must become speakers with the guts to go against the ed
establishment at school board meetings, at state conferences, and at department
of public instruction and legislative panels. These are our weapons.
ITHAKA
As you set out for
Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that one on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfumes of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
[Cavafy]
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