Education and its contents
Editorials
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Saturday, October 14, 2006
“So how come we keep hearing governor after governor announce his Blueprint for Continued Education Reform, and no reform, continuing or not, ever seems to change much?”—Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 13, 2002.
BOY, WE were in a mood. It was an election year and the governor, Mike Huckabee, held a big shindig at the Rotary Club to announce his Blueprint for Continued Education Reform in Arkansas, and we weren’t buying it. Not that same old bill of bads. Nope. Not again.
Been there, heard that, seen nothin’ come out of it governor after governor . . . nothing real and lasting anyway.
Now here we are four years later and we’re about to write yet another editorial praising the reformers in the state’s Department of Education for setting out to raise the education floor. And putting this state among the nation’s big gainers in education. Again. And we wonder—again—should we pinch ourselves, or is this really happening?
Ouch! Yes, it is. And since we got on The Huck four years ago for words, words, words, he deserves some serious credit for deeds, deeds, deeds. And courage, courage, courage. Also for reform, reform, reform. Credit also goes to commissioners of education past and present, and Arkansas’ no-nonsense Supreme Court. By declaring the state’s system of public education unconstitutional, the justices got all of us serious about education at last. And kept us serious by refusing to relinquish jurisdiction over the Lake View case when a lot of politicians were ready to slack off again.
The latest good news showed up in Tuesday’s paper:
“The Arkansas Department of Education plans to propose more rigorous standards for public high school math and English courses—with help from a national organization that advocates better college and work force preparation . . . . Achieve Inc. is a Washington-based nonprofit group that a bipartisan group of governors and legislators established 10 years ago to assist states in better preparing high school students for life after graduation.”
Translating all that into plain editorial language: Arkansas’ students are making progress, but the state wants them to be even better prepared for college and Life After College. (Previously known as Working.) So we’re picking the brains of some folks who are supposed to know—like these people at Achieve.
And get this: For a Nonprofit Washington-Based Group with a stylish name, Achieve Inc. has some plain, simple ideas. For one, says its president, Michael Cohen, Arkansas might consider challenging its high school students with tougher English and math classes. Like, say, an English class that emphasizes expository writing—which is something our young people will need in Real World Inc.
And here’s the really good news: These recommendations from Achieve Inc. to toughen up the curriculum in Arkansas’ public high schools? We’re already on it, sir. Director James and the reformers have implemented a Smart Core curriculum in Arkansas’ high schools. Unless their parents ask for them to be exempted, high schoolers in Arkansas will be taking algebra I, geometry, algebra II and either trig, stats or calculus. Plus, science classes that run the gamut from biology to physics. And lots and lots of English classes. As if English were the language we read and write in—and think and feel in. Plus extras that aren’t frills but essential: like phys ed and the fine arts.
The consultants at Achieve recommend that Ken James also get together with the university presidents to make sure kids in high school are getting what they need to make it in college. And beyond. All of which sound like a good idea. All of education is of a piece, you know, even if not enough of us think of it that way. Secondary and higher ed. High school and college. The immediate future and the wide-open future. They’re all connected.
Ken James is working on the group’s recommendations for improving the state’s already-improved standards. The state’s education director and reformer-in-chief says he hopes to have a more challenging curriculum to present to the state’s Board of Education for its approval in a matter of months. Months. Not years. Not decades. Months.
Can you feel it? The momentum picking up? The old inertia falling away? One reform leads to another. And the state grows less intimidated by change every successful step of the way. Even if a few politicians are still trying to tell us that what was good enough for Grandpa ought to be good enough for us. But the state is changing nevertheless. We want more for our children than we had. Yep, we’re changing an entire culture here, folks.
NOT ONLY has Arkansas learned how to embrace reform when it comes to education, but we’re learning how to market it, too.
Have you seen those TV ads about the state’s Smart Core curriculum? If not, keep an eye out. In an election season muddy with political pandering, those ads stand out like The History Channel in an MTV world.
The commercials show high school students in the classroom, the cafeteria, and the football field.
One girl deadpans: “I hope I never have enough money to take a vacation.”
A boy says, all serious-like: “I want to bring girls home to my parents’ basement—when I’m 40.”
The football guy says: “Some day, I’m gonna buy the worst car that my minimum wage salary will get me. And it’s gonna be reeeeeal ugly.”
Finally, another girl allows: “Yeah, I’m all about just barely getting by. That’s why I don’t need no Smart Core.” Fade to black.
That kind of message should hit the kids where they live, or at least where they live in fear—fear of sorry cars, no vacations, little moolah, and having to live at home with—shudder!—their parents . . . Name your adolescent nightmare.
That kind of TV should get those little suckers interested in Calc and Trig in a way that threats from mom and dad never could.
Consider it an endorsement: We’re all for televised brainwashing in the interests of self-improvement. Advertising works—if it’s good advertising in a good cause. Notice how much clearer the air is thanks to the anti-smoking campaign. Consider this an anti-dumb campaign.
