You Can't Improve Schools by Scapegoating Teachers

Dear Extra Credit:

Your Jan. 26 column unintentionally reveals much of what is wrong with debate over the quality of American education. In your response to Lyda Astrove, who describes her son as a serious (non-AP) student, you write that "there are ways to turn slackers and mischief-makers into focused students, but those methods are not taught in education schools." Regardless of the truth of your remark, it reveals the deep-seated prejudice that if something in education is broken, teachers are responsible and have to fix it. I suspect that if you had thought before you wrote, you would have placed the burden first on the parents and then on the school (both administrators and teachers).

My wife has taught in Montgomery County Public Schools for over 15 years and has watched this assumption of teacher responsibility gradually corrupt the entire system, especially in dealing with parents. At one time, it was routine for teachers to confront parents directly over student behavior, with the implicit assumption of support from school administrators.

Most schools now have formal or informal procedures that involve layers of counselors and administrators, each more anxious than the next to avoid confrontation. In far too many cases, parents are handled with kid gloves, students do as they please, and teachers are told to deal with the problem. At the same time, the assumption that bad or poorly trained teachers are responsible for all the ills of education allows those who bear far greater responsibility to avoid blame.

Michael I. Bell

Rockville

I can understand how you would interpret my words the way you did, but I thought I was blaming the education schools, not the teachers. My apologies for not making myself clear.

You have, I think, put your finger on an essential problem. We do blame teachers too much for the inadequacy of many of our schools, and do not place enough of the responsibility on administrators, including the administrators of education schools. I was also going to say we don't place enough responsibility on students, but that would sound like I was blaming students, when the power to change the situation is almost entirely in adults' hands.

The most important reason the Montgomery County schools produce such impressive results, on average, is that the district has an unusually high percentage of parents who have seen what hard work and advanced education have done for their lives, and they want the same for their children. They set high standards in their homes. Children are given adequate time and space to do their homework, and are expected to do it. In fact, I suspect that in most Montgomery County households, like mine, preparation for the next day of school takes precedence over any family activity.

Schools get into trouble when they have to educate large numbers of students who do not have parents who place such emphasis on their studies. In most cases, the problem is poverty. Low-income parents rarely went to college themselves, and often do not understand what it takes to get there, or how much an advanced education can change their children's lives. They often were not good students in school, and do not know how to help their children do better. And they have lots of other things going on in their lives that distract from parenting.

I believe -- and I think I am still in the minority on this -- that well-run schools can make up for that lack of parental support and help those students develop values and work habits that will significantly raise their achievement levels. I have seen this happen in programs that add more hours to the school day, give teachers more time to cooperate with one another in handling each student, and set high and inflexible achievement standards.

Such success requires, as you and your wife know too well, a school administration that strongly backs up teachers whenever they try to deal with students who misbehave or don't meet the requirements of their classes. I don't think this is as big a problem in Montgomery County as it is in other school districts, but I agree that some parents fight too hard to get their children better grades or more lenient treatment when they have not met their teachers' standards, and that some school administrators too often try to work out a compromise, rather than backing up the teacher as they should.

Teachers who insist on keeping their standards high are often labeled as ogres, although over time the smartest students, parents and principals see them for the treasures they are. I wish education schools did more to train other teachers to act in the same way.

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