According to leading education analyst Chester Finn, a paradox lies
at the heart of our educational trouble. While Americans commonly
acknowledge that public schools in general are a disaster, polls
consistently show that most parents, teachers, and administrators
think their local schools and their own children are doing just
fine. The implications of this self-congratulation are profound.
For if people believe their own schools and children are
succeeding, why should they feel compelled to change things? Yet,
if we don't, we will continue to watch the destruction of a system
that already lacks accountability and quality control, and is beset
by a teaching profession compromised by bad ideas, fads,
buck-passing, dubious theories, and stodgy practices.
Fin proposes radical changes which he insists must be championed
by all Americans if this atrophy is to be reversed. First and most
importantly, he calls on us to reorganize education in relation to
the results we want from it. This means establishing a clearcut
standard of intellectual achievement that we will oblige all of our
schools to enforce and our children to meet. To define this
standard, we will need to rebuild instruction around, a national
curriculum of core subjects - history, science, geography, math,
literature and writing. And we must demand a more detailed flow of
useful information, including reliable testing, about how our
children are performing in relation to this standard.
Finn calls on us to give our children as much time, as many
options, and as broad an array of resources as possible. As he
points out, learning can take place as easily in July as it does in
march, as easily in a museum as it does in a classroom. And if
parents have choices in deciding which schools and programs best
fit the needs of students, they will have an added incentive in
helping their children succeed. He urges us to revitalize the means
of delivering education from the bottom up, by vesting as much
authority as possible with educators in each individual school and
holding them accountable for their performance.
For Finn, the implementation of these radical measures is
essential to produce not only a knowledgeable twenty-first century
work force that will keep our nation competitive, but an informed
and reasoning citizenry capable of participating fully in a
democracy. Challenging and candid, this book will point the way for
all those insisting on the best that our schools can offer.
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