Come my friends, ‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Why should you bother taking part in discussions on education? After all, there are only so many hours in a day, and so many days in your life; with so many legitimate options calling for your time (playing with your kids, making money, eating donuts, etc.) why should you take time to think about and discuss education?
Most people will agree that education is important, but so are many other things we don’t routinely talk about. Dentistry is important, for example. Improper dental care can result in terrible pain and costly bills. But by and large, we leave the talk about dentistry, to dentists. They are the experts. Not only that, Adam Smith taught us back in 1776 that this division of labor is a major driver in economic growth. So you could argue, if we appreciate superior goods and services, then we should not be discussing dentistry (at least, not instead of our own specialties). And of course, the field of education has specialists as well: teachers and administrators. Shouldn’t we treat our educators like our dentists, get out of their way, and let them do their jobs?
Before we do, let’s look at another important specialist-driven discipline that we do talk about, obsessively: politics. (I know. You thought I was going to say football. That’s a good example too, but politics is more weighty.) Of course we feel duty-bound to discuss politics because in a democracy, we the people are an essential part of the political process. We have a sense that the identity of our country and all that that entails (freedom vs. tyranny, wealth vs. poverty, etc.) is largely dependent upon our role in the political process; hence in all things political, we discuss, we analyze, we argue, not so with dentistry. But apart from voting for school board members and bond elections, there is currently not the same kind of built-in responsibility for we the people in the education process.
But there is another reason why we talk so obsessively about politics. We discuss, analyze, and argue politics because we have a firm conviction that government could be run better. Everytime we argue for a law, regulation, or politician, (or to repeal a law, regulation, or politician) we do so because we think politically there is great room for improvement. And this is my argument for why you should bother with education: There is great room for improvement.
People have endlessly argued this point. They compare American test scores to other countries, compare reading lists and curricula from today to 100 years ago, or note large gaps in the quality of education within the public school system itself. But I think there is a better way to make the room for improvement argument: piano lessons.
I took piano lessons from the age of eight to the age of seventeen. I attended a private lesson once a week, usually for half an hour. Not the most diligent student, I probably averaged practicing thirty minutes a day, four to five days a week. By the time I was sixteen I was playing difficult repertoire (Beethoven piano sonatas, Chopin polonaises, etc.). These never failed to impress adults and friends alike. People spoke of my playing either in mystical terms (“God-given gifts”) or deterministic terms (“You must have it in your genes!”). And yet, my experience was that every student who put in the same amount of time and effort played pretty much the same caliber pieces and possessed roughly the same musical knowledge. In retrospect, the lack of variation in outcome seems pretty simple. The key factor doesn’t seem to be whether you have a gift from God or inherited genes from a piano-playing grandfather, but rather whether you put forth long-term effort.
So what’s my argument? Ten years of thirty minutes a day, four to five times a week, produces consistently jaw-dropping ability and knowledge, creating in children incalculable pride, self esteem, and the belief that they can do incredible things with long-term effort.
Schools have children for over ten years, five days a week, for roughly six hours a day. Six hours. Not thirty minutes, six hours. Just think of what education could be! Think of the knowledge and talents children could have. Indeed, there is great room for improvement. But rather than focus on what education currently lacks, be excited to think about what it could be. Think about it, and talk about it.
My plan is to continue to analyze and discuss education, what it could be, and what it should be. I hope you will too. When I think about what each individual is capable of, and how everything the individual does could be done better with more knowledge and deeper, clearer thinking, I know it will be worth the bother.
Michael Saenz, Marble Falls, TX
(Education today doesn’t get near the attention, thought, and discussion in our society that it should. As a consequence, both educators, students, and parents are shortchanged. This is the first of many essays designed to remedy this problem by encouraging discussions about what education is, what it could be, and what it should be, at mikesaenz.org.)