Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcl!unibase!leigh2
From: leigh2@unibase.UUCP (Leigh Calnek)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: In defence of the K-12 school system
Message-ID: <73@unibase.UUCP>
Date: 24 Feb 88 15:21:37 GMT
Organization: EMIS Consulting, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Lines: 49


I am a newcommermer to the network, and am excited about the
opportunity for educators at all levels to participate in
such a discussion.

As an educator with responsibilities at the K-12 level, I
seem to detect a note of superiority expressed in many of
the postings where they relate to the lower echelons of the
education system.  This is not surprising to me in that I
have always noted that the K-12 system was not held in high
regard by educators from post secondary institutions.

There are some things that we need to remember however when
we criticize our education system.  In the first instance,
we seem too quick to forget that western society has
embraced a philosophy of universal education, at least for
the population at the K-12 level.  We forget the
implications of this kind of philosophy, especially when we
don't have to implement it.  I would suggest that if we were
to apply that same philosophy to the post secondary level,
we would have at least an equivalent number of concerns
about that system.  Please recognize the benefits which come
from only having to accept the top 10-15% of the population,
and the problems which must be present when you try to
address the needs of the other 85-90%.  Remember when you
criticize the teacher at the K-12 level, and his methods,
that this teacher is a product of your system as well, and
if we are unhappy about what happens in those K-12
institutions, some introspection on your part may be well
advised.

I do not want to suggest for a moment that all is well in
the K-12 sector....but let's keep the problem in perspective
and recognize the magnitude of the issues involved in
attempting to educate an entire population.  How would post
secondary institutions be different if they were required to
accept ALL who presented themselves?  If they were subject
to close scrutiny at the community level?  If social
pressure prohibited a failure rate of less than 10%?  If 52%
of the student population came from broken homes and for the
most part that population was still trying to figure out who
they were and what was their purpose in life?  I would
suggest that most of these issues do not need to be
addressed by the post secondary institutions, and indeed if
they were, we would have most of the same kinds of concerns
that we currently express about the K-12 system.  

My experience has all been in Canada, but I suspect that
some reasonable parallels can be drawn.