The Failure Of Institutional Remedies For Educational Problems

Institutional Wordle: Google Images

[I wrote a post yesterday about the increasingly difficult responsibilities placed on teachers in an educational environment that is rapidly changing- for a significant number of reasons. When I tried to post it- it disappeared. This may actually been a blessing, in that now I can write this to kind of set it up from within an instutional framework.]

Many years ago, the educational system, in America at least, was set up on a local level. The power structure was simple and easily understood by all. There was a superintendent,l a principal, and naturally teachers. Then there was the school board that consisted of local residents (instead of "experts"), the PTA and lastly the parents. This worked out well- for this reason...

By breaking the country down by state, it almost goes without saying, that the model that worked well in say Nebraska, would prove far less efficient in a place such as New York where the demographics are very different. Children in Nebraska would likely go into the family farming business- those that didn't go on to college, of course- whereas children in urban New York would have different employment opportunities after graduation, thus requiring a different model. But that was then and this is now... like the old saying goes, "you just can't keep 'em down on the farm anymore." The population has become more transient- people used to live their lives within 50 miles of where they were born- this is no longer so. However, that doesn't necessarily make the local-based educational model obsolete.

Enter the US Department of Education (1979) and with it the failures inherent in all institutions. I'm not picking on educational institutions per se, these flaws exist in all institutions. The localized educational paradigm has been replaced with a "one size fits all" national model... doomed to failure from the outset- not because of any nefarious scheme, or ill intent, only flaws that exist in institutions themselves. To understand the failures, it's important to understand institutions themselves and perhaps the best way to do so is by example...

Lets say that we (the ubiquitous we) decide to start an institution- staying with education- an institution to promote literacy. We get together and pool our resources and begin... and everything is going smoothly until our resources begin to dwindle. To compound matters, we discover that to achieve our goals we must expand to help more people. The realization comes suddenly upon us that if the instution fails, we can no longer help- therefore, our primary purpose (literacy) becomes supplanted by the need of the institution to survive... our primary purpose has now become secondary. It happens to all institutions, none are immune. This is the first flaw.

The second, and perhaps more critical, is that every institution, movement, organization, or what have you, is eventually usurped by its worst element- individuals who use the institution for their own selfish purposes... this seems particualrly in political institutions, but perhaps that's because the effects are more profoundly felt. This flaw is one manifested in human nature itself- a deep subject for another day perhaps. One thing for certain- Lord Acton's admonition that "power corrupts" is certainly applicable here. Positions of power, or authority have a way of attracting individuals driven by their own interests (most often to the detriment of others involved). What does this have to do with local vs nationalized educational institutions?

The answer is simple and should be obvious... problems of this nature are infinitely more easily solved at the local level where people involved are more likely to know one another. Potential problems resulting from any number of issues are much more efficiently solved by small local groups working toward a common goal. Nationally, it requires dealing with a massive, entrenched bureaucratic infrastructure, against which an individual- or even an organization such as a PTA or perhaps a local school board- is virtually powerless, thus making a reasonable solution impossible.

Having said this, how can we- as consumers of education, or as teachers solve the problems inherent in educating a transient nation with rapidly changing demographics, technology that changes even more rapidly, not to mention a myriad of other social issues? It's almost certain that the answer (the right one at least) won't come from a top-down centralized locus of power whose interests are more inner-directed than toward the wellbeing of children.

This post was meant to look at what teachers, parents and local administrators are up against. Tomorrow: The increasing pressures and responsibilities placed on teachers in a new (and dynamic) educational environment.

GIF by @papa-pepper