Tim
Edinger, President of Education Minnesota Brainerd, the Teacher’s Union, in a
guest column on Feb 14, 2010 stated that the teachers are not greedy. (
http://www.brainerddispatch.com/stories/021310/opi_20100213059.shtml)
Unfortunately Mr. Edinger, along with many people in our community, is in
denial. In fact, all of us are greedy. This
is one of the primarily problems that has brought this country to the point where
we are financially and morally bankrupt.
We all want more, whether it is over spending personally or
governmentally, or having children out of wedlock and expecting the government
to support them financially. What we
need to do is admit that we are greedy and change the way we live and what we
expect. This type of action has many
names: reform, change, or repenting. But
whatever you call it, we need to DO IT!
An
example of the kind of change or reformation, which is needed in education, is
for the teachers to leave the 20th Century agrarian society behind,
when whole summers were taken off to plant and harvest crops. The teachers need
to join the rest of us in the 21st century, where very few of us get
more than two weeks vacation. In fact, virtually, none of the rest of us gets
several months off to get advanced degrees to increase our earning ability, or
time for a second job to supplement our income.
Most of the rest of us have been hurt financially, some severely in the
past two years, while the teachers think they should have several months off
and constantly get higher salaries. How many of us are able to retire after 30
years, and have our health care costs paid during the most expensive 10 years,
55-65 years old? And they are not
greedy?
In education,
we need to begin to use better stewardship with our resources. For example, we
can do this by utilizing our school buildings 12 months out of the year. This would represent something near a 25%
increase in output capability without any additional substantial
expenditure. The students could choose
to attend 3 of the four quarters each year, or go four quarters a year and
finish school in 9 years or high school in three years. This has some advantages. Parents could
choose a winter vacation and go to Florida for the coldest months. Two parent
working families would not have the additional cost of daycare for the summer
months. This would leave time for
students to perhaps take time for an internship or apprenticeship in a business,
where they might receive some academic credit and a lot of practical
learning.
The
advantages of this type of approach was pointed out in a book, Outliers: The Story
of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell,
which can be found at the Kitchigami Library in print or on a CD. Gladwell
points out, in a very clear way, that one of the primary reasons that the Asian
nations and the Asian culture outperforms our American western educational
system is rooted in the attitude that is behind a 12 month school year as
opposed to our 9 month school calendar. This grows out of the difference
between field agriculture as opposed to rice paddy agriculture, which requires
much more constant, year-round attention and effort. There is a greater need for attention and
effort which is clearly manifest in the Asian culture and has produced great
rewards for them. Just look at how many Asians
fill positions as physicians, engineers, and computer scientists, in this
country.
What we are doing now is not really working for the benefit of
society - morally, financially, and even perhaps educationally. We need to change, reorient, reform, and
repent. We need to begin to think outside the box and come up with creative
answers to our problems, by going back to basics and using our resources more
resourcefully on every level; personally, educationally, and governmentally.
I welcome a healthy debate around the many issues we face during
the campaign, and I hope to have dialogue with the other candidates, not their
surrogates, whether it be Educational Minnesota, Minnesota Family Council, or
MCCL.