Michael F. Shaughnessy: Never Have So Few Tried to Teach So Many with So Few Resources
[The author teaches at Eastern New Mexico University, School of Education]
Never, in the course of human events, have so many teachers, been asked to do so much, with so many different, diverse students, with so few resources, and so little support (with apologies to the original author, Winston Churchill).
Never has a nation, attempted to educate so many students, with so many different languages, from so many different cultural, racial and ethnic backgrounds than ever before.
Never has an educational system been confronted with children with such a wide variety of medical, educational, psychological and other learning difficulties. Never in history has an educational system been confronted with children with attention deficit disorder, benign congenital hypotonia, learning disabilities, emotional disturbance and all of the other IDEA categories.
Never, in the course of human events, have we become so adamant that students should learn to read, write, spell, think critically and reason scientifically (and at grade level).
And never in the course of human events, have there been so many worthless television programs, video games, and time wasting music videos and movies extolling “gangstas” and crime and violence, not to mention pornography.
Never, in the history of education, have teachers been confronted with so many challenges. It may be that educators today do not read Pestalozzi, and Horace Mann.
It may be that only doctoral students, who take one course in History of Education or History of Educational Thought, ever think about what John Dewey would say about our current educational dilemma.
If our Senators and Congressmen had to spend a day in any classroom with children with dyslexia, asthma, diabetes, mental retardation, and other health impairments, ( not to mention bad attitudes ) they would certainly re-think No Child Left Behind, and realize some of the realities of the current classroom environment in 2005.
When Gerry Ford signed P.L. 94-142 into law [Education of All Handicapped Children Act], did he have any idea what the ramifications of this law would be? Will at some point in the future, some historian question “What hath Gerry Ford and P.L. 94-142 wrought?”
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
And what would Charles Dickens say today about schools that have laptop computers, calculators and access to the Internet. Would he comment about the fact that students were reading Harry Potter, or would he insist that they read Shakespeare instead?
Perhaps he would insist they read his works, and ignore this Steven King guy.
And if Thomas Paine were to peruse the libraries of the schools of today, would he find “Common Sense“ on the shelves of the library? And would he find common sense in the classroom and in the curriculum?
And our Founding Fathers, the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the architects of the Constitution, what would they say about current civics instruction and the current curriculum of American Government and History?
What comments would John Hancock have to offer today ?
And if Abraham Lincoln were alive today, would he begin to comment about the fact that “ several years ago, our forefathers, brought forth on this land, an educational system that is now in place”. Would Lincoln bemoan the fact that some individuals were still functionally illiterate? Or would he take pride in the fact that the great, great, great grandchildren of some of the slave that he had freed were now able to study Western Civilization, Calculus, Botany, and Anatomy and Physiology?
And if Marie Curie and Thomas Alva Edison were to visit science classes of today, would they take delight in the laboratories, and the supplies available to students of today, or would they shake their heads in bemusement and concern?
Some say that history is a good teacher. History may tend to repeat itself. But education may be the one domain wherein it does not.