For some liberals, the school must first change attitudes or provide nurturing in place of failed families or help establish equality and social justice.
For some conservatives, the schools must first prepare kids for the workplace by molding them into supple corporate citizens, while other want the focus to be on family values, a competitive spirit, or other social or behavioral objectives.
But the idea of simply educating kids seems to have taken a backseat to most educational expert and administrators.
They miss the point that kids with real academic skills, especially skills in reading, writing, and mathematics, are more likely to overcome social barriers, more likely to have genuine self esteem, and likely to be genuinely prepared for the challenges of life and the workplace.
By emphasizing so many things besides a genuine, classical education, the educational establishment tends to sell our kids short and bring about many or the problems they claim to be solving.
(2) Consider the case of Wesley Elementary School in Houston. According to Richard Nadler in article, "Failing Grade", Wesley has all the demographic markers of a school bound for failure.
Over 80 % of the students quality for subsidized lunches, and nearly all are minorities (92 % black, 7 % Hispanic).
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Yet it ranks among the best school of Houston, with first-graders placing at the 82nd percentile level in reading test which is 50 points higher than the expected level for similar at-risk schools.
(3) What has made Wesley So successful? The answer is classical education in the form of Direct Instruction curriculum design by Siegfried Engelmann, an example of the much ridiculed "Sage-on the-stag" approach.
The Direct Instruction system boosts reading, writing, and math scores by 30 to 40 percentile points in at-risk schools.
Sadly, Engelmann like others who successfully challenge popular fads in educational reform, has been rejected by much of the educational establishment. His success is in embarrassment to them.