Interim Superintendent Michael Goar and his staff can turn the Minneapolis Public Schools into a model of K-12 excellence in public education by eschewing current trends in the educational ether and focusing on what really matters: curriculum and teachers. Then, as an important supplementary activity that will promote the delivery of a powerful liberal arts curriculum by teachers of genuine excellence, Goar and staff must put in place those programs of outreach to families facing challenges of finances and functionality, so that every student has a chance to be a receptacle for the knowledge that will be imparted.
Goar must make sure that all of his staff understands that an excellent education prioritizes the subjects of math, natural science, history, economics, literature, and the fine arts and begins the logically sequenced delivery of the pertinent knowledge during Grades K-5:
In math, students at K-5 should acquire knowledge sets pertinent to the four basic operations, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, and proportions. They should learn the coordinate system for graphing and the interpretation of tables and charts.
In natural science, students should gain substantive introduction to the earth sciences, biology, chemistry, and physics.
In history, they should thoroughly survey world and American history.
In economics, they should study the fundamentals of the subject at the micro and macro levels, including an understanding of the stock market; the fundamentals of GDP growth, inflation, recession, depression, and federal government budgeting; the functioning of the Federal Reserve System, and the essential positions of Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, and Karl Marx.
In literature, students should be given a chance read the likes of William Shakespeare, Sophocles, Homer, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Ralph Ellison, Maya Angelou, Louise Erdich, Gloria Anzal Dua, and Amy Tan.
And in the fine arts, students should gain strong introduction to Renaissance, Impressionist, Expressionist, Cubist, and Abstract painting; classical and modern styles in sculpture; and musical genres including classical, romantic, and baroque; blues, jazz, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country and western, and hip hop.
Students in middle school (Grades 6-8) should then build upon that strong foundation, mastering algebra and geometry in math; continuing to build knowledge in the earth sciences, biology, chemistry, and physics; applying the principles of microeconomics and macroeconomics to problems prevalent in the current national and international economy; continuing to read classical literary works, and those of a wide variety of authors who have stood the test of time and have gained strong critical following; and acquiring ever more abundant knowledge of major visual artists, musical composers, and musical genres. Study of world languages should also begin in earnest.
By the time students arrive in high school upon such a strong knowledge base, the study of math (through calculus), natural science, history, economics, literature, and the fine arts should be pursued to the level of Advance Placement and an array of specialized offerings more typically associated with courses of the first-year and second-year college student. And students should be required to take at least two years of world languages; and to gain through training in the industrial and technological arts.
Such a curriculum imparted throughout the K-12 years would produce students who will have lives of cultural enrichment, civic preparation, and professional satisfaction; and able to pursue two-year or four year college experiences upon a knowledge base from a full array of fields.
So terrible is teacher preparation for K-5 teachers in conventional programs of departments, schools, and colleges of education that Interim Superintendent Goar and staff will have to invite university professors in math, natural science, history, economics, literature, and the fine arts to thoroughly retrain K-5 teachers for a substantive Master’s of Liberal Arts degree.
Teachers at the Grades 6-8 and Grades 9-12 levels should have to pursue master’s degrees in their teaching fields, in departments such as math, chemistry, history, economics, English, and music; rather than in departments, schools, or colleges of education. New teachers at any level (K-5, 6-8, or 9-12) should not begin until they have obtained a genuine academic master’s degree. Veteran teachers should be required to retrain.
On the strength of such a curriculum and teacher base, Goar and staff should then address the needs of all students and families struggling to meet the exigencies of finances and functionality. Services to these families should be provided directly by staff trained by the school district to meet the needs of families.
Dedicating themselves to K-12 education of this high quality, and to the educational success of students of all demographic descriptors, Goar and staff need not overly concern themselves about buzz words and phrases that mostly originate from education professors, who are abhorrently culpable for the low level of American education for at least the last four decades, ever prattling about learning styles, personalized curriculum, critical thinking, lifelong learning, and cooperative learning; and giving rise to the excessive expectations of so-called “next generation school communities (buildings)” by members of the education establishment who have been tainted by the world of education-professor speak.
What Goar and staff will have done instead is to provide students with the knowledge that is their cultural inheritance, bearing the gifts of cultural enrichment, civic engagement, and professional satisfaction.
