Some Very Modest Proposals for the Improvement of American Education
Author(s): Nathan Glazer
Source: Daedalus, Vol. 113, No. 4, Values, Resources, and Politics in America's Schools (Fall,
1984), pp. 169-176
Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences
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Nathan
Glazer
Some Very Modest Proposals for the
of American
Improvement
we
That
can
American
Even
deal
do
with
modest
apparently
of money.
Consider
average
A great
education
compensation
Education
deal
more
the sorry state of
is generally
accepted.
cost a great
however,
money
will,
proposals
something
of American
for
as
simple as
teachers?who
the
increasing
are generally
considered underpaid?by $2,000 a year each. The bill would come
to five billion dollars a year. A similar figure is reached by the report
of the highly qualified Twentieth Century Fund Task Force on
Federal,
and Secondary
Educational
and additional
compensation
Elementary,
poses
fellowships
class size 10 percent,
Reducing
same
the
would
percentage
by
federal
present-day
education
is paid
deficits,
for almost
these modest
increases.
believe
But
or increasing
the number of teachers
cost another
five billion dollars. With
these
look
like
small
entirely by states and
would
lead to substantial
proposals
(I leave aside for the moment
that none of these changes would
the occasional
pro
Policy, which
for master
teachers.
visitor
the views
matter.)
to American
schools
sums, but since
local government,
tax
and painful
of
will
skeptics
note
who
some
cost much
at all, or even save
less, nothing
at
would
least
the
educational
environment
yet
money?and
improve
in American
we
schools
(once again,
ignore those skeptics who would
insist that even a better educational
cannot be guaran
environment
changes
that would
to improve
educational
further cheap proposals,
here
teed
169
In the spirit of evoking
achievement).
is a small list of suggestions
that, to my
Nathan
170
at
mind
American
Glazer
the mind
least?and
I believe
mean
schools?would
public
visits
any adult who
a clear plus for American
of
education:
1. Disconnect
least
reserve
at
in American
schools?or
all loudspeaker
systems
between Moscow
and Wash
like the hotline
them,
The American
classroom?
emergencies.
and his or her charges?is
continually
over the
from central headquarters
by announcements
system. These remind teachers to bring in some form or
ington, for only the gravest
teacher
and the American
interrupted
loudspeaker
or students
other;
engaged
rehearsal;
is nothing
in some
to bring
in some
to
activity
a change
or they announce
so unnerving
to a teacher
or
or students
other;
or
come
to practice
of time for some activity. There
form
remember
to
in trying to explain
engaged
to
in
understand
trying
something,
engaged
something,
as the crackle of the loudspeaker
to issue an announcement,
prepared
of the
and the harsh and gravelly voice (the systems are not obviously
or a student
highest grade) of the announcement
of personal
Aside
from questions
one
I have
idea? As
suggested,
itself.
this be a good
taste, why would
reason
is that the loudspeaker
to communicate
material
that requires
complicated
it demeans
the teacher as professional:
Second,
is not very
she is doing
tells her whatever
every announcement
accentuates
at
can
time.
it
be
and
Third,
any
interrupted
important
interrupts
undivided
efforts
attention.
in education?the
and assistant
of hierarchy
principal
are the important people,
time and attention
and command
principal
I
even in the midst of instruction.
softened by too
have
been
Perhaps
a
as
it
that a
be
would
but
many years
unimaginable
college teacher,
a
ever
one
class
if
existed, would
interrupt
college
loudspeaker,
the notion
of the gravest and most
except under conditions
students
of showing
limb. One way
life and
it for band-rehearsal
is not to interrupt
important
2.
Disarm
One
the school
in the United
immediate
States
school
it, and that seems to me quite contradictory
be. Outer doors are locked. Security guards
school
marched
Internal
or move
doors
in groups
is
announcements.
are locked.
Passes
to what
a school
are present
in the
are necessary
to enter the
and for students.
it, for outsiders
to classroom,
under
from classroom
within
to
aspects of the
depressing
is the degree of security manifest
urban
should
threat
education
of the most
within
corridors.
that
Students
are
the eye of the
Some Very Modest
171
Proposals
in lower-class
that given the conditions
It is understandable
teachers.
areas?some
not
areas
lower-class
cities?and
in our
only
large
is valuable
There
is necessary.
equip
degree of security-mindedness
can be
audio-visual
computers,
equipment?that
ment?typewriters,
can enter the
is a serious
vandalism
concern; marauders
stolen;
for
in search
school
threaten
equipment,
or to
pocketbooks,
so
on.
or
in search of money
sex, and
at least in their initial stages, have
safety
personal
and
busing,
integration
to increased
interracial
contributed
directly
School
or
teachers'
in schools
tensions
and school.
part severed the link between
community
of faculty, other
in ethnic and racial composition
same end.
to
the
contributes
and
students
tors,
in
and have
The
staff,
difference
administra
Having acknowledged all this, I still believe the school should feel
to what
extent
than it does. One should examine
less like a prison
to what
extent
the security guard
be closed;
doors must
outside
or paid; the
cannot be replaced by local parents, volunteer
degree to
are
and
which
the endless bells indicating
"stop"
"go"
really neces
sary. I suspect that now that the most difficult period of school
has
integration
staff more
passed,
now
that
teachers
and
Here
come
we
whose
to the sticky problem
of removing
school board will
has decreased. What
need
and
administrators
closely parallel in race and ethnic background
community
owing to the increase in black and Hispanic
we may be saddled with more
administrators,
security
students
teachers
than we
and
and
need.
security measures
open itself to suit
or to public criticism by deliberately providing less security? And yet
of the school
and a school's
the atmosphere
can
a
a
as
this
be
with
reconciled
teaching agent:
primary objective
are
to
maximum
there
lessons
be
of
condition
security?
Perhaps
one must
learned
which
reason
consider
in older urban areas,
and community
colleges
seem
to
with
do
less security. One
manage
experience
are
more
in such institutions.
Is
is that there
adults around
from
colleges
in my
that a hint
as to how we
could manage
better
in our public
schools?
3. Enlist the children in keeping the school clean. Occasionally we
see a practice
abroad that suggests
scene. In Japan, the children clean
transfer
possible
the school. There
come
to the American
is a time of day
and the children
sweep
and pails and brooms
out,
mops
am
I
and
This
wash
sure,
up
up.
does,
suggest to the children
a
not
matter
is their school, that it is
of being forced
simply
when
that this
to go to
Nathan
172
a foreign
Glazer
imagine
obstacles
in American
clean-up
upon them. I can
imposes alien demands
in the way
of instituting
student
regular
schools?custodians'
for
unions,
example,
that
institution
some
might object. But they can be reassured that children don't do that
as in the case of
good a job, and they will still be needed. Once again,
one wants
to create
in the school,
if at all
the security problem,
a
common
of teachers and students, without
the
enterprise
possible,
in response,
the former,
latter being bored and resistant,
becoming
indifferent.
equally
place?and
Save
4.
me
The
participation
old
that while
schools.
school
Build
be seen
should
in cleaning
fewer
as everyone's
the school will
new
ones.
help.
It has often
surprised
in schools such as Eton and Oxford?and
schools
well-known
and
work
in the United
indeed
States?old
private
colleges
are prized, in so many communities
older public schools are
buildings
to the naked eye they have many virtues that would
torn down when
warrant
I
and use. Only a few blocks
from where
their maintenance
fine brickwork
of late nineteenth-century
live, an excellent
example
as
Latin School
the Cambridge
that served
stonework
and carved
are still displayed
came down
The carved elements
for a remodeling.
about the remodeled school, but why a building of such character
deserved demolition
particu
escaped my understanding,
can take it almost as a given that a school building put
one
larly since
and sturdier materials
the 1940s will be built of heavier
up before
inconveniences
of the old can
Even
the
than one constructed
today.
a
of
worthwhile.
And
indeed
that
them
charm
makes
many
possess
new
to
that seemed
the reforms
(for example,
buildings
require
should
have
centers
in
activities
around
concentrated
walls,
so
on
to
not
be
desirable.
have
turned
out,
use,
large open rooms)
a history,
a character,
aim should
be to give each school
Our
to. The pressures
for
that at least some students
respond
something
are enormous,
new buildings
and sometimes
(as
legitimate
perfectly
as
when
builders
but
often
communities
when
illegitimate,
expand),
classrooms
without
and contract-givers
workers
and building-trades
or when
state aid makes
it appear as if a new
seek an opportunity
cost
building won't
anything.
5. Look on new hardware with a skeptical eye. I think it likely that
not only
for the new in the way of teaching-hardware
the passion
to higher educational
but may well
not contribute
achievement
does
Some Very Modest
serve
means
as a temporary
to evade
the real
173
Proposals
and
hard
tasks
of
at all, besides
require almost no hardware
one comes
to
and
chalk.
when
blackboard,
textbooks,
Admittedly,
our
more
is
called
And
for.
yet
science,
something
high-school
It's fun to get
is to always find cover behind new hardware.
tendency
new rooms
new audio-visual
in
with
them
equipment,
equipped
really
teaching?which
which all kinds of things can be done by flicking a switch or twisting
as
is now
kind of personal
case, to decide what
a
are
for
and software
necessary
pro
computers
good educational
can
Once
be
When
gram.
experience
again,
foreign
enlightening.
was
most
ahead
of American,
education
already well
Japanese
a dial,
or,
Japanese
up-to-date
to do with
the
schools were
buildings.
(They are now as
nor
as ours, but neither their age
has much
up-to-dateness
the
their good record of achievement.)
Resisting
appeal of
new hardware
saleable
in prewar wooden
not only saves money,
and provides
less in the way of
to burglarize,
but it also prevents distraction
from the
goods
tasks of reading, writing,
principal
that computers
and new software
these key
case?there
tasks?I
will
am
skeptical
be time enough
and calculating. When
it turns out
are shown
to do a better
job at
as to whether
this will ever be the
to splurge
on new
The
equipment.
is
the
heart
up
front, explaining,
teacher, alone,
encouraging,
guiding,
rest is fun, and very helpful
to corporate
of the matter?the
income,
new to do. But
and gives an inflated headquarters
staff something
to learn about computers when
students will have time enough
they
get to college, and getting there will depend almost not at all on what
but how well
words
computers,
they can do with
they understand
at
and sentences,
and how well
do
mathematics.
they
simple
too. Recently,
is nothing wrong with old textbooks,
There
review
American
ing some recent high-school
history texts, Iwas astonished
new
come
to discover
out
in
editions
every two years or so, and
they
not because
the main body of the text is improved,
but because
the
wants
to
covers
to
able
it
claim
textbook
be
the very last presidential
and the events of the last few years. This is a waste of time
campaign,
and energy and money.
There is enough to teach in American
history
or
to
not
to worry
about whether
the text includes
1950
up
i960
tax cuts. I suspect many new texts in other areas also offer
Reagan's
little advantage
over
the older
ones. There
is also a virtue
with a particular
textbook. When
becoming
acquainted
are old,
is disadvantaged
school
its textbooks
because
in a teacher
I read that a
I am always
Nathan
174
Glazer
the newest
Even
mystified.
well be reserved
at
accepted
preparatory
the public
willing?after
is considered
teacher
It has
school.
public
biology
might
teachers. This
a number
covers
general heading
as: if a teacher
school,
and
the pool from which we draw good
6. Expand
that
in physics
advances
for college.
should
always
of simple and concrete
things, such
a
to
at
teach
qualified
good private
to teach at a
be considered
qualified
to me ridiculous
seemed
that teachers
in New
schools
York
private
City or top
not be allowed
to teach in
in the country would
or
New
school
of
York
Boston.
system
Often,
they are
in public
schools
and there are
all, the pay is better
the
best
schools
greater fringe benefits. They might, it is true, be driven out of those
schools
when
the challenge
of lower- and working-class
children.
But
are
seems
it
that
unbelievable
the teacher qualified
they
willing,
by
(or so Brearley thinks) for Brearley will not be allowed to teach at P.S.
122.
use of part-time
Greater
upon
qualities
people
doesn't possess?such
unfortunately
in writing
and mathematics.
recurrent
Our
concern
also be able to draw
might
are told the average
teacher
as a higher level of competence
teachers
that we
with
with
should lead
foreign-language
teaching
are problems
us to recruit foreign-born
in getting
teachers. There
in
and
teachers
there are
France?yet
jobs today
Germany
teaching
with
drawn
from
of
students
academic
skills
higher
typically
pools
we make
in this country.
it easy for
Paradoxically,
to
to the
of Spanish-language
get jobs owing
background
is confined
then their teaching
of bilingual
expansion
programs?but
accent
to children whose
It
doesn't
need
improvement.
Spanish
than
is the case
teachers
would
more
make
background
more
sense to expose
of
children
to teachers with native English?and
foreign-language
children from
to teachers
who
speak French, German,
and
Chinese
and, why not, Japanese,
natively. This would
Spanish,
a
must
mean
be a citizen, or must
that
teacher
that rules requiring
English-speaking
families
an accent, should be lifted for special teachers
speak English without
with special tasks. Perhaps we could make the most of the oversupply
to teach
in some
countries
them
of teachers
by using
foreign
count.
accent
where
doesn't
The
school
mathematics?a
subject
is already recruiting
from Germany.
system in Georgia
use teaching
is not native
assistants
whose
English
often
Colleges
and far from
Some Very Modest
175
Proposals
to assist in science
from Korea and China,
Asians
are
courses.
state
laws which would
many
(There
to teach in elementary
and secondary
schools.)
including
perfect,
and mathematics
not permit
them
All the suggestions
above
issues of education?tradition
role
in the
of
religion
over
arguments
that
proposal
eschew any involvement with some great
or reform, the teaching of values,
the
in the past dominated
schools?that
have
and
education
is still,
today. But I add one more
somewhat
controversial:
still do
I am afraid,
or let parents
reason, pick their schools,
7. Let students, within
choose
them for them. All those informed on school issues will sense
under
the heaving
of controversy
this apparently
modest
depths
this mean
Does
proposal.
without
being
required
choose
schools,
they might
parochial
to pay tuition out of their own pockets? Or
does thismean black children would be allowed to attend schools in
in white
areas, and whites
areas, or the reverse if each is so
we
two
all know,
inclined? As
the
great issues of religion and race
stand in the way of any such simple and commonsensical
arrange
are regularly
ment.
Students
bused
from one section of a city to
another because of their race, and students cannot without
financial
black
penalty attend
most Northern
that substantial
and Midwestern
sector of schools?30
percent or so in
are
cities?that
I
called "private."
all factors constant,
of whether,
students
ignore the question
holding
in private or public
or
do "better"
in
well-mixed
schools,
racially
is
schools. The evidence will always be uncertain. What
hardly mixed
is that students will do better in a school that
less arguable
perhaps
forms a community,
inwhich
teachers, parents, and students all agree
to teach in, to attend, to send their
that that is the school they want
children to. Iwould guess that this is the kind of school most of the
of this article have
readers
our complex
racial and religious
race or of
for those of minority
attend.
I have
improving
it is the kind of school, alas, that
it harder and harder
history makes
attended;
lower-
and working-class
status
to
eschewed
the grand proposals?for
curriculum
for
change,
on the
the quality
of entering
for checking
teachers,
of teachers in service, for establishing
national
standards
competence
for achievement
in different
form
for many
the agenda
levels of educations-all
state commissions
of which
of educational
now
reform,
176
Nathan
and all of which
on a variety
Glazer
seem
of other
reasonable
things
to me.
that serve
Rather,
to remove
I have
concentrated
distraction,
to open
the school to those of quality who would be willing to enter it to
improve
it, to concentrate
on
the essentials
of teaching
and
learning
as I (andmany others) have experienced it. Itwould be possible to
propose
larger changes
size of the bureaucracies
in the same direction:
in urban
school
for example,
reduce the
Some
of
modest
my
systems.
proposals are insidiously intended to do this?if therewere less effort
new schools, buying new equipment,
to building
evaluating
or busing
new
to
there would
be no need
children,
textbooks,
so
so
at
I
Or
maintain
would
many people
quite
headquarters.
hope.
devoted
In the meantime,
why
not disconnect
the loudspeakers?