Public education is in a profound crisis. As with many problems we face as a nation, the solutions offered by our politicians have more to do with ensuring the survival of political careers and pleasing corporate donors, than serving the needs of our youth. The same anti-scientific thinking, promoted by our media conglomerates, that debunks our growing ecological disaster is center stage in the debate on how to save our educational system. Privatization through charter schools on the one hand or haphazard funding of our current system on the other, both miss the point. Making the profit motive the driving force or depending on the ever increasing sacrifices of heroic teachers and administrators both fail to address the underlying problems facing our youth and how education fits into the more general economic, social, and spiritual crises that are destroying our society.

The current benchmark used for measuring success in our public schools is the standardized-test-oriented ‘No Child Left Behind’ mandate initiated under the Bush administration. It would be easy to dismiss this program as a brainchild of a president who couldn’t spell and was so provincial that he castigated the French for not having a word for ‘entrepreneur’ (a French word). But Bush was just a mouthpiece for the larger forces that support this factory-style model of education. No Child Left Behind is nothing new—it just incorporates longstanding methods that have failed in the past and mandates penalties for the inevitable failures endemic to this model of education. It beats down public education with the same yardstick that has flogged our children for decades—which has no place in a modern educational system.

Standardized testing measures only one skill and a marginal one at that. It measures aptitude for taking standardized tests. It is useful for predicting success within a system based on standardized testing but unable to predict success in a wide range of far more important areas. Creative thinking, problem solving, communication skills, teamwork, cooperative learning and many other skills vital for success in business and citizenship are left out of the equation. Our future Albert Einsteins could not make it into higher education based on standardized testing—it cannot measure genius. In a world in crisis we do not need a new breed of graduates who can memorize and regurgitate information, we need a generation of creative thinkers who can generate novel solutions to complicated problems. Using standardized testing to evaluate and fund our public schools in our rapidly changing world is a surefire formula for leaving all our children behind.

The only reason standardized testing remains popular with those in power is because it supports the status quo. It favors the relatively well to do in the dominate (white) culture and those who have successfully assimilated those cultural values. Multicultural and/or multi-lingual experiences, so vital for future global citizens, are a liability in ethnocentric standardized testing. Statistics show that scores from such exams have little to do with IQ (itself ethnocentric) or other abilities tied to success in more real-life situations. Standardized testing becomes the linchpin in a system that produces more narrow-minded cogs to support our continued ‘progress’ in the wrong direction.

But even for those of the cultural elite, the standardized testing model supports a mode of thinking divorced from reality. (You are living in a dream world, Neo!) Take the famous: “A train leaves from New York at 10:45 am. It travels at 60 mph. The next station is 25 miles away. When will it arrive?”  Simple, right?  Sure, but only if you ignore reality. A train takes time to accelerate (it doesn’t start out going 60mph). And it takes time to decelerate, or slow to a stop. To answer the question correctly, you have to abstract the real train and force it to break the laws of physics. This is a silly example, but such thinking trains (sic) us to believe in an abstract world that doesn’t really exist. It breeds acceptance of authority and popular mythology even if such beliefs contradict hard evidence based on experience. It allows media fed Big Lies to replace critical thinking. We begin to accept the oft-repeated lie that giving more tax breaks to the rich will create more jobs for us—even though reality has proven otherwise. This model has ruined our educational system just as tax breaks for the rich have ruined our economy, but we are trained not to question the standardized answers to our life questions. As Einstein noted, insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. If we want to solve our mounting problems—continued reliance on standardized testing is a crazy way to build educational excellence!

The standardized testing model and its predecessor ‘back to basics’ fail our children in many ways. One of the most pernicious is reinforcing the unidirectional mode of instruction. This puts the teacher on a pedestal as the ‘one who knows’ and relegates the students to mere receptacles for this knowledge. When schools are graded according to test scores, teachers are obliged to spend more and more time ‘teaching to the test’ instead of engaging students in the learning process. This pressure to ‘show results’ on meaningless tests coupled with the overcrowding that budget cuts force on the classroom teachers, limit the options for creative solutions to meet the needs of students, instead of percentages to please administrators and politicians. The quiet classroom ruled by fear is more conducive to rote learning than a room abuzz with self-motivated critical thinkers working together to solve real-life problems. The testing model supports acceptance of solutions from on high and relies on memorization. Real life learning and cooperative group processes allows creative thinking and questioning—skills necessary for survival in an ever changing environment. In essence—the former is autocratic and the latter is democratic. The origins of the failure of democracy in America can be traced back to the longstanding model of education adopted from feudalism.

Before we can even begin to solve the crisis in education we must answer a fundamental question. Do we want to create mental serfs dependent on answers from the intellectual aristocracy or do we need a new generation of thinkers able to go beyond knee-jerk answers to the complex problems we face as a nation? There are those who would choose ignorance and superstition. These are the same ones who support more terrorism to fight terrorism and more capitalism to solve the worldwide crisis of capitalism. They deny the scientific facts of global warming and support every effort to extract profit regardless of long-term environmental consequences. They want to funnel public school funds into private institutions and undermine an already weakened system. Many public schools in poor neighborhoods are becoming little more than holding cells where desperate children wait to be transferred into the adult (private profit) prison system.

This ultra-rightwing fringe of American society has a near corner on the debate over education (and the way forward for our nation) for two basic reasons. First, they represent the interests of the one percent of our population that controls ninety percent of our wealth and therefore enjoy nearly unlimited financial support for their agenda. The Republican Party primaries show how the thinly disguised racism, overt religious fanaticism and class-conscious elitism have become the new norm in our political discourse. ‘The lazy food stamp addicted welfare mamas should be taught a lesson in honest work ethics by the job creating super-rich. And by the way let their children work for slave wages cleaning up their schools so we can get rid of the overpaid janitors.’

The second reason these attitudes are gaining traction among layers of the population that have nothing in common with the wealthy elite is the total failure of the ‘progressives’ to offer an alternative. The Democrats offer more of the same and people are not buying it. In education, as well as the economy in general, they want to throw good money after bad. When they offer anything at all—it is along the lines of stimulus money to fix leaky roofs, when the whole structure of the educational system needs fundamental change. Theirs is a ‘balanced approach’ to reach the same goals as the fanatical right. The Democratic Party is controlled by the same narrow economic interests that own the Republican Party. Whether it comes up red or blue, the game is rigged. Either way the crisis in education and the broader economic, social and political crisis will continue unchanged.

So, with the whole political and economic system controlled from above, why should we even bother to imagine an alternative? To rethink how we educate our youth for a future that doesn’t seem possible must be a waste of time. But the rise of the Occupy Movement has shown that beneath the sound and fury of the Tea Party hype, in spite of the media spotlight focused on the fringe rightwing, there exists a vast (silent) majority who refuse to shut down their brains. In a matter of weeks the Occupy Movement caught the imagination of more Americans, regardless of non-existent or negative media coverage, than years of well financed rightwing propaganda. This is a cause for hope. Not the empty sound-byte hope of Obama, but a deep questioning and capacity for change inherent in the DNA of true American patriots.

One symptom of our educational system is the lack of in-depth knowledge of the revolutionary thinking that allowed for the creation of the United States. We were forced to memorize dates and names to pass boring tests, instead of absorbing the revolutionary spirit of our founders. Revolution itself has become anti-American, a tiny step away from the curse of Communism. If we are to pull the United States back from the brink of disaster, we need to reclaim our revolutionary heritage—now!  Read Common Sense by Thomas Paine. It has more relevance to our present situation than all the prattle between the Democrats and Republicans—the twin parties of the new oligarchy. Read the words of Samuel Adams, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin not as dead historical figures but as bold thinkers unafraid to imagine a better world. What they would say now that the brutality of the British Empire has been replaced by the global domination of the American Empire? For those who prefer, Hollywood has produced some passable mini-series about the revolutionary period. Rent them or borrow them from the library. Even these sanitized histories provide a feeling for the incredible faith in the power of reason that our revolution required. Are we capable of using our reason to justify the sacrifices of those who came before us and think ahead to the next phase of our social evolution?

At the very least, we cannot allow those who control the wealth of our nation to goad us into fighting among ourselves for the crumbs that drop from their feast of profit. They want the unemployed to blame immigrants for taking their jobs. They want us to blame social programs such as food stamps or welfare for the bankruptcy brought on by corporate greed. They want us to blame the terrorists for reacting to our own long history of anti-democratic and terrorist activities around the globe. They want us to blame ourselves for our failures, or fearfully grip our small fortunes, to keep us from uniting in action to create possibilities for future generations. If we can take the first step and occupy our minds, turn off the TV and refuse to go quietly into the darkness, we will find unimagined strength and earn the gratitude of Americans yet unborn.

Occupy your mind. Then use that freedom to create something new. If you can, add your voice to the protests growing around you. Just go check it out—don’t be shy, the protesters are not like they tell you on TV. Use your experience to explore other possibilities. If you’ve worked in the medical field, research how to make meaningful healthcare reform. Study what has happened in England, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Taiwan and even Cuba. Don’t believe what the news media says—do your own research. If you are a small farmer or even not so small, what changes would make you able to provide quality food and maximum benefit for everyone involved in your enterprise? How has the crazy immigration policies prevented you from offering decent incentives for your workers? What changes are necessary for you to become sustainable and still profitable? And if you are a teacher, employed or not, how can we provide meaningful education for the next generation in a world of shrinking possibilities? Let’s get back to a few meager suggestions for sustainable, future-oriented education.

Step one: reject what is possible. In other words accepting what current ‘common sense’ says is possible only limits solutions to what is already acceptable to the system. To solve fundamental problems we must challenge basic assumptions. Accepting the premise that ‘we must cut education to balance the budget’ implies that we accept that half of our available tax revenue goes to war related activities. So whether it is education, healthcare, farming, protecting the environment or urban planning—think big. It’s the only way to get outside the mental box.

Step two: decide what you want to achieve. If you want to promote narrow thinking and mental subservience, make standardized testing the end all and be all of your system. But if you want to create more flexible thinkers, able to problem solve and create real-life solutions, other models are needed. Not to say that standardized testing has no place in a more forward thinking educational system, but it would be relegated to the status of one diagnostic tool among many. We need to recognize that human beings are able to express their creativity in many ways and our educational system must reflect those differences. Our current system of evaluation could be compared to giving a room of musicians the same instrument and seeing who could play it the loudest and fastest. We need to allow for different instruments playing in harmony and appreciate a symphony instead of cacophony.

We Are All In This Together!

What flows from an understanding of the present juncture in the course of human affairs is the need for cooperation. From the quagmire of local and national politics to the insane tangle of international relationships, we are faced with the need to work together. A small but vocal minority refuses to recognize this. They call for more war, more austerity, more us and less them. Fundamental Christians, Islamists, Zionists, Monarchists, and Capitalists are leading the charge. Peace and cooperation threaten their worldview based on fear and loathing. Their educational model is one of competition and exclusion. They love winners and hate losers. Cooperative learning and group dynamics cut across their drive for individual or class gain. Unfortunately this approximately 0.001% of the world’s population controls most of our social systems including education.

Yet we must begin to imagine the educational system we actually need instead of the one we are stuck with. We need a system that recognizes and prioritizes learning as a group process and success as measured by teamwork not star power. Luckily the models and strategies for such system have existed for some time. It is simply a matter of bringing these to the fore and binding them within a global vision of human progress.

Cooperative Learning models have been around for decades. Instead of a teacher dispensing truth to a room full of passive learners, the class is divided into learning groups. These groups cooperate to solve problems that require skills across the academic spectrum. Instead of ‘math time’ separated from ‘science time’ or ‘social studies time’ these disciplines are utilized within a larger context. It may seem more efficient for a teacher to draw a food chain on the board or overhead projector and have the students look at the relationship of predator and prey or how they all depend on producer’s ability to convert sunlight into energy rich food sources. But it is boring and does not engage students in active learning. Especially with the aid of online resources, a much more holistic approach is to have a team of students research food chains and develop their own model, which they present to the class as a whole.

This group activity not only makes the basic curriculum goal (learning about food chains) more interesting and therefore more likely to be internalized, it involves other important skills. Teamwork is crucial. Decision making and prioritizing the results of basic research is essential. And it also involves computer skills, artistic design, public speaking and a myriad of other important life skills. Depending on the grade level and educational objectives, real life math can be integrated to explain photosynthesis or the relative populations as you go up or down the food chain. These active learning units can relate back and forth to basic skill sets such as reading and math as well as extending classroom learning to the world at large through field trips related to the subjects being learned. Instead of silence and fear (of either discipline or failure) students are empowered and inspired by their own ability to learn and share and find the connection between what they are learning and the world outside.

This type of unit can also link with real-life social or ecological problems. What is the affect of a polluted river on the viability of a food chain? Any teacher who has engaged students with such real problem solving and drawn on the expertise of scientists and educators outside the school setting can testify to its energizing effects. With careful planning such activities can lead to schools adopting a segment of watershed and engage students in real life monitoring under expert supervision. But a narrow focus on test scores precludes such a broad student based approach.

Likewise there are other teaching models that can enrich and improve the learning environment for our youth. Master Teaching/ Individualized Instruction methods, multi-grade classrooms, peer teaching, bilingual education, and some of the cross-curriculum strategies contained in the International Baccalaureate programs offer a wide range of instruction suited to a diversity of learning styles. Unfortunately most of these can only be implemented in any serious way in private institutions free from federal and state standardized curriculum and testing mandates. The phenomenal failure of public education is inherent in its narrow vision of success not in the lack of viable alternatives.

The downward spiral of public education and the drive to cut federal and state funding even more has spurred a variety of solutions. Foremost on the list is the Charter School movement where public funds are shifted to private institutions through some form of voucher system. Most proponents of public education decry this as an attack on the whole idea of secular education and particularly as an attack on teacher’s unions. The fact that many of these schools only rehire teachers willing to work for reduced wages and benefits and no union protections gives credence to this perception. Also there is growing support for ‘parent trigger’ schemes, where vocal parents can demand a substandard school convert to a private charter institution. The theory is that with a gun to their head and the parent’s finger on the trigger, school administrators and teachers will come up with a magic cure for chronic failure—or face elimination. While toted as giving parents more control and a move towards democracy, none of these schemes even touch on the underlying problems at the root of our educational crisis.

The choice between the failing public education system and an uncertain private system based on profit is no choice at all. It is analogous to the choice between the Democratic and Republican parties—both bought and paid for and in the service of a tiny minority of our nation. The real democratic choices need to go to a deeper understanding of the role of education in society. Do we want to continue the factory model of education or is there a more human model? Are we justified as a society to continue to shape the expansive human potential of the individual into cogs able to fit a preconceived standardized mold? Why do we need our students, each one with unique talents and limitations, to jump on the conveyor belt educational system leading to success or elimination?

Is it really necessary to hold tight to our concepts of success and failure in a world where physical and mental diversity points to a more inclusive model? The categories such as autistic, ADD, ADHD, behavior disorders, gifted and other ‘special needs’ children merely hide the fact that these are arbitrary divisions along a continuum of ‘needs’ with each child deserving of special attention. Standardized testing based achievement is a type of brain washing allowing us to pass students on to the next level of social conformity. Our educational system cannot deal with an Einstein or Mozart any more than they can deal with average students who refuse to be subjected to regimented incarceration in the name of education. Many behavior problems are merely the logical reaction of healthy young people to being locked in cells under the watchful eye of well meaning wardens.

Obama’s new twist on the old model, “Race to the Top” extends the performance-based incentives that shackled public schools under “No Child Left Behind” to the job security of individual teachers. It is no wonder that as soon as the details of his plan became clear, teacher organizations denounced it. The drive to do ‘more with less’ is the underlying motivation for all of these schemes—aimed at moving us more quickly and efficiently in the wrong direction. When teacher’s jobs are on the line, they will be even less inclined to use innovative methods to meet the educational needs of students. They will have a singular goal of showing improvement in meeting the artificial goals through standardized testing. Already there are growing reports of administrators changing test results to show the improvement necessary to protect their jobs. How much easier will it be for teachers to get caught in the bind of either showing results, by any means necessary, or find themselves on the street with millions of other unemployed. As in war and terrorism, Obama just ‘ramps up’ the Bush plan for education and drives America in the wrong direction.

The real question Americans should be asking is how to improve our educational system and tie it to a realistic view of our future needs. Instead of blaming public education and other social services for our current financial disaster, we need to look at the real causes for our soaring debt. Government spending is out of control! But it is not allocations for education that has ballooned over the last decade. Since 9/11 spending on national intelligence has increased 250 percent to more that 80 billion a year. That does not include the 58 billion spent by the Department of Homeland Security or the billions spent by the Department of Defense on ‘counterterrorism’ and domestic security. Not to mention the trillions spent on foreign wars, drone attacks and our exploding giveaways to private military contractors. These expenditures have not made American citizens safer, but reflect the need for the hundreds of compartmentalized government agencies and the thousands of private enterprises that feed off of them, to justify their existence and continued funding. It is a huge self-perpetuating drain on our resources that no one in government wants to discuss and due to multiple levels of secrecy, no one even knows its total cost. But Democrats and Republicans prefer to flog the starving step-child called education instead of facing the military/industrial/security monster that is bleeding us dry.

We need to adjust our educational system in line with a realistic vision for our future. The number one threat to our life, liberty and prospects for happiness is not foreign terrorism but the continued degradation of our environment and most particularly the scientific fact of global warming. The pace of climate change has surpassed all predictions and with our current policies will continued unchecked. Besides the contamination, that we have the ability to stop or reduce, are a whole number of positive feedback loops including reduced reflectivity, methane release, and deforestation from drought, pest infestation and wildfires, that we have set in motion but are powerless to stop. Even if we completely stop human generated factors promoting global warming, the planet will continue to change in unexpected ways.(see Eaarth by Bill Mckibbins)

On the new planet we are creating the weather patterns humans have depended on for thousands of years will continue to change. We are already seeing the effects of higher temperatures with more destructive weather patterns. Food production is already suffering from record droughts followed by unprecedented flooding. Higher temperatures mean more evaporation and greater capacity for air to hold moisture. Droughts are followed by intense rain. Warmer temperatures also promote reproductive capacity in pests. Bark beetles have already destroyed huge swaths of US and Canadian forests. Monoculture agricultural practices make our food supply particularly vulnerable to pest infestation. These are just hints of what is in store for future generations. Facing this reality should inform our plans for resolving the crisis in education.

This new world on the horizon lends urgency to the need to engage students at all levels in real world education. The methods exist to motivate students as active learners in activities that go beyond the classroom. We have created a giant experiment though our focus on economic growth at any cost, so we need to train the generations who will need to adjust to this changing reality. Science is happening all around us—dramatically. The drama and poetic grace of a California Condor soaring on thermal updrafts will never be seen again. This possibility disappeared in the mid-1970s, but there are greater changes on the horizon. We need to give our youth the opportunity to witness nature first hand and learn to use the tools of science and art to preserve what we can for the future. We need to energize students by taking them out of the classroom and inspire learners with themes related to their future survival such as ecology, meteorology, species biology and alternative energy technology.

Any teacher who has developed a unit on the Amazon rainforest, for example, knows that there is a staggering amount of information and curriculum support material already out there. Any serious look at this topic can include the sciences, social studies, multicultural differences, national and international politics and provide inspiration for student generated music and artwork of all kinds. Green Chemistry is on the rise, driven by private industry with an eye to profitability and ecologically sound practices. Beyond Benign, a non-profit organization, has already developed a K to 12 curriculum designed to promote science literacy and utilizes undergrad green chemistry students as “ambassadors” to interested schools. Groups like the Bioneers have worked with at risk inner city youth on community projects such as creating ‘green zones’ which have lasting affects not only on students but also on the quality of their urban environment.

Rewarding and promoting such programs should be the focus of educational reform, not another round of whipping the dead horse of standardized testing. Children instinctively want to save the planet. They like animals and plants. Their natural sensitivities have not been educated out of them to the point where things become more important than life. We need to encourage these qualities instead of the cutthroat, competitive, bullying, qualities they see in our national politic.

Schools can be involved in practical campaigns that save money and educate at the same time. We need to launch a national campaign to make our schools carbon neutral. Students at all levels should be involved in devising a plan to eliminate waste as a first step. Water conservation could be part of a cross-grade unit on hydrology. The water cycle is one of the key systems being affected by climate change. Reducing water usage through creative campaigns generated in the classroom and instituted throughout the school would inspire students. Relatively cost rain collection and water storage additions to existing buildings could move schools towards water independence.

A national campaign to reduce energy usage could follow similar lines. Beginning with student inspired conservation and moving to energy independence though wind, solar or other renewable sources. Limited programs are already in place, usually promoted and financed by local alternative energy companies. This should be expanded. But it should be viewed as an educational opportunity for the entire student population. Students should be involved in all aspects of the project from calculating the generating capabilities to the correct battery capacity needed and physical placement of the hardware. Monitoring of the equipment and calculating the net savings in energy should be part of the learning process tying real-life experience to the math and science they study in the classroom.

Garden and greenhouse projects could reduce the dependence of schools on outside food sources and teach students to value what they grow. Reducing food waste and composting would naturally tie into such projects. Students could play an active role in every phase of producing at least part of their own lunches. From preparing the soil and planting to care and harvesting real life biology and science lessons would be internalized as well as work ethic and teamwork. Preparing and cooking what they grew would be a new experience in practical home economics. And any teacher who was ever able to have even a limited classroom garden can tell you that inevitably students are asking for seeds to plant at home and parents are working with their children on home gardens. In a world moving towards an uncertain future such experience goes beyond mere academic skills and standards and into the realm of survival skills.

All of these projects would require the schools to reach out to their parents and community. It would require overcoming one of the major complaints leveled at public schools—the lack of communication with parents. Working together to draw up ambitious plans and drawing on the resources from the community would break the isolation of the public education system that often leads to resentment and misunderstanding. As with innovative teaching styles, models already exist within our school system. We need to promote what has worked, reward creativity, and create a national campaign to inspire solutions that go beyond the sterility of higher test scores. Every child needs to be engaged and know that his or her contributions count in the real world. When we think globally and act locally we can make sure that no child is left behind and when we race to the top, we race to the top together.