What School Is About
by Stuart Dunn

With the New York City mayoral race heating up, the public is being deluged once again with political rhetoric on what the candidates will do to improve the schools. Perhaps it is unduly cynical to call it rhetoric, but past experience with political generalizations makes a person skeptical.

Take the case of President Bush. After reducing taxes, his most important campaign issue was education, with his commitment “to leave no child behind.” His education bill has hardly reflected this promise. The party change of Senator Jeffors was probably due more to this failure than any other issue, and that defection may serve to motivate the President where his own promises have failed. Perhaps he should recall his father’s request “to read my lips,” and what his failure to live up to his promise cost him.

It is a good thing to remind ourselves periodically what education is really about, and what it is not about. As always, it is easy to confuse cause and effect. It is not about training students to enter the labor market. It is not about religious training. It is not about providing jobs to administrators, teachers or aides. It is not even directly about patriotism and citizenship. And, it is certainly not about political rhetoric on these issues. What it is about is giving kids the basic tools to live a full and satisfying life, instilling a love of learning and teaching them how to learn. It is about socialization and respect for others. If we give kids these things, they will be good citizens, and they will be able to find meaningful and rewarding employment.

New York City teachers are in the midst of negotiating a new contract. Contract negotiations tend to reduce professionals to the basic roles of employer and employees. But in this case, we cannot lose sight of what teaching is about. A contract with the teachers should not be about protecting incompetent teachers, but it must provide teachers with the security to teach without undo pressure from the community or the administration. It is not about maximizing compensation, but it must provide adequate pay to attract and retain qualified teachers. Teaching, after all, has to be more than a job, and the UFT must acknowledge this if it is to regain the support of the general public.

With each question about our schools, we should ask how do we achieve the real objectives of education. There must be an overall plan, and that plan must be based on what it is we want to achieve. I suggest that all those involved in education keep this in mind while they debate the details. #

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