Education reform must come from us all

As a high school teacher, I’ve found out that everyone has an opinion about public education. Most of those opinions have to do with what needs to change. I remember having some of those opinions for myself as far back as my teens — at 16 I was sure I knew everything my teachers were doing wrong. As a university student in the Teacher Education department, the talk of educational reform was the backdrop of every day. It seemed that everyone had their own ideas about how to fix public schools, as if there were a consensus that they were broken, but disagreement on where the break was and what to do about it.

Then one day I understood something significant which changed my approach to the question of fixing education. I realized that our public schools are a product of our culture, reflecting and displaying our societal views, values, and priorities. This may seem obvious, since students and teachers come from the ranks of society, but its implications are profound. With this new underlying truth, I could see how vain it was to talk about ‘fixing’ education as if it were a motor on a workbench, as if it were isolated and unconnected. I began to see that schools were less like a motor, and more like the fruit of a tree that is cared for by our society. Attempts to change the kind of fruit we harvest must start with the planting, the care, and the nourishment we give the tree.

Why did this new perspective fundamentally change my viewpoint on educational reform? Seeing the public school system as a product of our culture shed light on why top-down bureaucratic interventions seem to have so little lasting effect. Policies may alter environments, but they do not change the people – teachers, parents, and students – who really make education what it is.

The hard truth is the same one we run away from with regards to our health, our finances, and our relationships; actions and consequences are a package deal. We can’t eat poorly, avoid exercise, and expect a pill to make us fit. We can’t expect to be financially successful while continuing in impulsive and short-sighted behaviors. We can’t expect our marriages and friendships to improve without first improving ourselves. In short, we live by the law of the harvest. We reap what we sow. We cannot sow pickles and harvest sugar cane.

So what does this mean for public education? I’m convinced that changes in policies, interventions, and programs are insufficient in fixing education. The good and the bad in public schools are products of how Americans choose to live their everyday lives. With this understanding, the solution to fixing the flaws in education becomes clearer – and much more uncomfortable to discuss. It is simply this: we must each fix ourselves. We must be willing to improve our behaviors, and become something better than what we have been. And after all, isn’t that what education is all about?

Tim Hall teaches Spanish at Wasilla High School.