An excellent education is a matter of
excellent
teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, skill-replete broad and deep
curriculum in the liberal, technological, and vocational arts to students of
all demographic descriptors.
An excellent teacher
is a
scholar possessing deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical capability of
imparting that knowledge to students of all demographic descriptors.
The three driving purposes of an excellent education are
1 >>>>> cultural enrichment
2 >>>>> civic preparation
3 >>>>> professional satisfaction
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart
famously declared upon review of an obscenity case in 1964 that he did could not
define pornography but knew it when he saw it.
Academic decision-makers at the
Minneapolis Public Schools, notably Superintendent Ed Graff and Executive
Director of Teaching and Learning Aimee Fearing, apparently proceed in such an
intellectual haze in declaring pursuit of an excellent education for the
students of the district. Inasmuch as that
is true, they proceed as most people do whether seeking an excellent education
for their children or declaring that an excellent education will be provided by
students of the nation, the state of Minnesota, or the city of Minneapolis.
Gain clarity here, then, that
you are not likely to acquire elsewhere:
Excellent preK-12 education consists
of the impartation of knowledge and skill sets in the liberal, technological, and vocational
arts that send students forth into the world ready for culturally enriched,
civically prepared, and professionally satisfied citizenship.
Very few people seek an
excellent education for their children.
People who have been abused by history and hail from families with
little formal education
generally seek a safe and secure environment where their children can spend
seven or so hours a day; the hope is
that what happens during those hours gives the family’s young people a chance
to learn enough to get a decent job and live less wretchedly than prior
generations.
People from families with long histories of formal education and upper
middle class standing
want their children to attend an institution, either private or in
toney residential areas, that will give the young person a chance to get into a
prestigious four-year college or university graduation from which produces a
high-status job and a luxurious lifestyle.
The percentage of people in the population who seek cultural enrichment
and civic preparation for their children is so low as to approach zero; and high pay rather than professional
satisfaction is typically the goal.
This is lamentable for the low ethical and cultural values conveyed and
because of the failure to comprehend that even the philistine quest for money
is achieved most organically by a confident and knowledgeable person:
Cultural enrichment gives intellectual and ethical ballast to life and
enables a person to spend time on this one earthly sojourn in both the most
self-fulfilling and most altruistic ways.
Civic preparation enables a person to comprehend vital social and political
issues, vote on the basis of a strong knowledge base, run for public office,
and participate in civic and political activities.
Professional satisfaction ensures that the formally education person spends
this single earthly lifetime providing for the material well-being of self and
loved ones while knowing that one’s days are spent in worthy pursuits.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Before we race pall mall toward excellent education, we must understand
the foundation of education in knowledge and the quality of person whom we want
to go forth from the experience.
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