To Face Brutal Reality, Readers Must Look Below the Surface of Star Tribune Articles

The actual dilemmas at the Minneapolis Public Schools are knowledge-deficient curriculum, low teacher quality, lack of an aggressive program of skill remediation, absence of staff comfortable on the streets and in the homes of families of students facing the challenges of life at the urban core, non-scholars making and implementing academic decisions, and the superfluity of many central office staff members and whole departments. 

 

But to gain anything worthwhile from articles by education beat writers at the Star Tribune, one must already be aware of these problems to glean anything of value, because those such as Mara Klecker and Anthony Lonetree merely report the news emanating from those most culpable for the dilemmas in the Minneapolis Public Schools and St. Paul Public schools respectively.  Further, editorial decision-makers at the highest circulation newspaper in Minnesota give appearance of having a low information base on matters pertinent to K-12 education, and they manifest only very erratic interest in printing expressions of opinion that run counter to education establishment positions.

 

In Klecker’s “History in the making tests teachers” (Star Tribune, January 21, 2021), the focus is on the recent high profile events of the January 6 insurrection at the U. S. Capitol and certification of the Electoral College victory of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.  Teachers report difficulty attempting to cover these events in social studies classes as some parents wonder why students must confront such events and others complain if these occurrences are not covered.  And a social studies supervisor attests to the curriculum that she makes available to teachers in navigating issues supposedly difficult to discuss with students.

 

The underlying truth pertinent to the momentous national events and to the education establishment figures who are chiming in is that these events were not covered at all by most social studies teachers.  This was true, too, of Martin Luther King Day (occurring this year on Monday, January 18), the  presidential inauguration (Wednesday, January 20), and the death of Hank Aaron (Friday, January 22).  And lurking below the surface as the most vital components of brutal reality that gives us such classroom incompetence is the history behind the murky creation of “social studies” in the place of history, government, and economics;  teacher training that produces classroom presences possessing insufficient factual knowledge and unpracticed in analysis of objective information;  and the existence of such bureaucratic creatures as social studies supervisors who themselves are academic lightweights.

 

In Lonetree’s “St. Paul planning online school” (Star Tribune, January 25, 2021), we learn that the St. Paul Public Schools are planning to give grade 9 through 11 students an online option that was already in the planning stage before the advent of Covid-19.  But a reader would have to be aware of all the dilemmas specified in paragraph one above to comprehend the triviality of such as program as compared to curriculum overhaul, teacher training, remedial instruction, family outreach, and the jettisoning of inept academic decision-makers.  Even if one considers online learning as a viable option, the abiding situations of knowledge-deficient curriculum and low-quality teaching will remain, whether online or in the conventional classroom.

 

Readers of the Star Tribune should by all means continue to read the articles of Mara Klecker, Anthony Lonetree, and Erin Golden (who covers statewide education issues).  But inasmuch as those writers never dig below the surface to discover brutal underlying realities or to follow any leads that would confront them with bracing truths, readers will have to interpret what they read in view of the actual dilemmas in public education identified above.  They will either have to do their own research or avail themselves of books and cybernetic sources that give the facts from history and current circumstance upon which analysis of K-12 education can proceed.

 

L. K. Hanson continues to provide thought-provoking quotations and drawings in the political cartoon, “You Don’t Say,” appearing on the opinion pages of the Star Tribune.  Such, in the January 25 edition, is the observation from political theory magnate Hannah Arendt that “The ideal of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e. the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i. e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.”      

 

Donald Trump has become a deserving but easy symbol as purveyor of lies over truth, with followers who make no distinction between fact and fiction.

 

Much less easy for editors and writers at the Star Tribune to target is the brutal reality of the actual dilemmas of the largest public school districts---  and their own culpability in failing to dig below the surface to discover the truth or even to face the truth when confronted with fact.  And by failing to discover or acknowledge truth, those editors and writers at the Star Tribune become enablers for the education establishment just as complicit as are those political sycophants who abetted the venal words and actions of the most recent ex-president.