Education

The president is going to mention education reform in his state of the union address tonight. He intends to put $6.4 billion into a dysfunctional system. All the money in the world will not fix this broken way we attempt to teach our children.

We in Kansas City know all about misspent money. Our city was awarded billions in a desegregation ruling. We got a bunch of pretty new schools, tons of administrators, gaggles of bad teachers, a laughable school board and the same miserable educational system, just as segregated, disconnected and irrelevant as it been since the length of my memory. Ours is not an isolated cases but a shining model of all that is wrong. The one room school houses of the 19th century are better education models than anything we have today.

Schools should be open places surrounded by ample nature. Rather than compartmentalization all kids age 6 through 13 should be under one roof, in one big room. Teach them to read, teach them manners, imbue them with curiosity and the adventure of discovery then leave them alone. The big kids will help the little ones. Teachers will be there only to answer questions, orchestrate discourse and encourage unflagging etiquette. No lessons, no texts, no tests. Kids will run and play for half the day. Games will be invented, rules established, society formed and learning will take place at every turn. Interests will be formed in these early years and then carried into a higher form. High school and college will all be the same; students bound by common interest, engaged in Socratic symposiums led by the learned, interest will evolve into expertise. The world will serve as practicum.