Rotary Club of Windsor (1918) Talks



Education - The Core Of Society
by
Clare R. MacLeod

Mr. MacLeod joined the Windsor Rotary (1918) Club in 1951
He spent a distinguished career in education
Clare has addressed our club many times. He gave this talk on November 5th, 2001.

If you click on the underlined words in the document you will be taken to references for the topics under discussion.

The poet, Alexander Pope, remarked that, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread".
I find myself in that position at the moment. Since my retirement many years ago, I have delivered numerous speeches but none on the subject of education for two reasons. The new generation is quite capable of expressing current views and secondly, I would leave myself spin to the criticism that, "Times have changed". What does that old logic know about education in today's world. Both reasons have considerable merit.
In spite of Pope's warning, however, since I have not lived in a vacuum, have heard comments, observed, read articles and thought about my own experience, I have timidly decided to express a few thoughts on education and perhaps raise a few questions from a somewhat neutral and distant position.
In regards to my experience, I recall a man being asked the secret of his good judgment.
"From experience" he replied.
"Where did you get your experience?"
"From bad judgment"
So much for my experience.
Relevant also is a suggestion made to a speaker that he should put more fire into his speech
A listener replied, "what he really needs is to put more speech into the fire".
You are to learn the desirability of that.

Changes Affecting Society and Education

Great changes have taken place in society that have affected education.
For example: changes
These changes have affected education.

Change is disturbing to many people but if made wisely and selectively, usually leads to improvement.
If not properly introduced, it leads to conditions expressed by Tennyson when he wrote "Change and decay in all around I see".

The Importance of Education and the Teacher

I should like to comment briefly on the importance of education and the teacher
Education is a core enterprise in society. Our rapid and complex changes require that our youth be able to read, understand, evaluate and apply complex principles unknown to previous generations.
Edwin Markham wrote:
Why build these cities glorious
If man unbuilded goes
In vain we build the world
unless the builder also grows

Joseph Addison stated, "What a sculptor is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul".
A teacher is a sculptor and it is difficult to overstate his or her importance. A large part of education is contact with great teachers. The job has been described as being like an iceberg - three quarters of it is below the surface.
It has been said that there are two classes of teachers - those who are underpaid and those who shouldn't be in the classroom in the first place. I have found that most teachers are dedicated, hard-working and belong in the first class. Albeit, as in every profession, some might have more success in other lines of work.
Many baseball players are paid, calculated in Canadian funds, approximately 1 1/2 times per game what teachers at the maximum earn per year. Yet these players are able to achieve one hit out of three attempted. How have our values become so inequitable?
Without referring to Windsor schools, where I no longer have a first hand knowledge, I should like to refer to concerns which I have about educational practices in general.


The Role of the School

What is the role of the school in educating our youth? There seems to be little unanimity among the participants. A common expression is that the school should educate the whole child. This is an interesting slogan but impossible to achieve. It seems to omit the role of other organizations and particularly that of the parents in child rearing.
I believe that schools have a dominant role and a supportive role. The dominant role includes at least the accumulation of knowledge, the development of skills, the formation of attitudes and values and the appreciation of the arts and culture.
It certainly includes the basics of reading, writing, mathematics and science. I a student doesn't develop a reasonable competence in these subjects, his or her education comes to a rather abrupt halt. Some of the criticism of schools today seems to be due to a feeling that the schools should do better in these areas. If a child can't read well, business as usual is not good enough.
Schools also have a supportive role to assist other organizations and parents since the development of children requires the cooperation of numerous groups in society. Sometimes problems arise when the supportive role expands to interfere with the dominant role.
Society is eager to use the schools, where there is a captive audience, for its own purposes - to disseminate propaganda, to promote advertising, to provide entertainment and to help out with community problems to mention a few. Schools must be selective in their cooperation with the supportive role. There seems to be a plethora of questionable interruptions in the school program today.
One area of cooperation is very important and that is between the school and the parents in helping to prepare a child for school in motivating him or her and in assisting in the learning process.
A discouraged teacher wrote:
"One brief fact will confront you and briefly shed plan to rubble, for each pupil ready to learn, there will be others with ignition trouble."

The Educational Climate

For education to be successful, there must be a favourable climate for learning. For numerous reasons that seems to be less than desirable today. The province and teachers' unions seem to be constantly in a combative posture - one seeking change and the other the status quo. It is urgent that there be a meeting of the minds. Holding students hostage is unacceptable. A loss of time is unrecoverable.

Conditions for Learning

Conditions for learning are also affected by the amount of time spent in the classroom. With a demanding, complex, technological society and the high school program being reduced to four years, this is of increased importance.
At one time the school year was 200 days and the school day was 9:00 - 4:00 with no spare periods. Students studied eight subjects for a full year with examinations at the graduate level marked by a neutral body. Today the school year is shorter and many students seem to be on the streets at 3 PM. Most exchange students coming to our country find the time in school here to be shorter. Are we becoming comfortable and satisfied with the mediocre?
Expectations must be in line with reality. Requirements must be related to needs.

Rights, Restraints and Responsibilities

Rights , restraints and responsibilities are also controversial today. These are another set of 3 r's that enable society and school systems to function effectively and fairly. There should be a close connection of these 3 R's. They should be intertwined and we ignore that at our peril.I believe that this relationship is not as close as it was in former times.
Today we have the Bill of Rights and the Charter of Rights constantly being quoted and receiving dominant attention.
In 1991 the Canadian Government signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is intended to prevent abuse, neglect and exploitation. Rights and freedoms are a cornerstone of democracy and are certainly important. But rights are not absolute. Restraints are also essential to avoid chaos and injustice. It is also through the acceptance of responsibilities that we earn our rights.
Schools need to inform students and enforce this relationship. Yet teachers and even parents are having their ability to enforce restraints and responsibilities reduced. Teachers are fearful of being charged with harassment or child abuse. Young people are not benefiting by our unbalanced emphasis on one of these 3 R's. It may lead to behavioural problems and an atmosphere where students find it difficult to drink at the fountain of learning and are able to merely gargle. Respect and cooperation are better qualities to emphasize than merely rights.


The School Curriculum and methods of teaching

An appropriate and challenging school curriculum also plays an important role in providing a sound education. Students differ in abilities, talents and interests. Some are academically inclined and find book learning to their liking. Some have technical skills and show great promise in mechanics. Some have social skills, valuable as sales and marketing people and some have artistic skills.
There is little so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals. Yet sometimes, parents and students insist on programs which may not be best suited to students talents. Success frequently depends upon finding the right niche in life.
Teaching methods influence achievement. Also every few years, new ideas come along which are to be a panacea for educational advancement. Two recent ones are whole language and group learning. Nearly all have benefits as these have but also weaknesses. There is often a tendency to jump on the band wagon too wholeheartedly without measuring the results obtained. Results should be the yard stick, not how many new ideas a school can implement. Choosing the strengths and rejecting the fallacies is very important for students and administrators.
Problems also arise when students don't see the curriculum as pertinent. A teacher was showing a student how to diagram a sentence. The student looked puzzled and the teacher asked if he didn't understand it. "its not that I don't understand it, I just don't see no future in it" he replied.
We are told that 7% of Canadian adults are unemployed but 20% of youth aged 15 - 24, who have not completed high school, are unemployed. Did they leave school because they didn't see the program as relevant?
Students need a program where they participate, reason and make judgments. They need to be able to differentiate between truth, fact and just hearsay. Much of which we read and hear is opinion, gossip or fables.
For example, we quote:
"all things come to him who waits"
but we also repeat: "Tide and time wait for no man"
or:
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder"
and:
"Out of sight out of mind"
or
"Look before you leap"
and:
"He who hesitates is lost"
 Thinking is a burdensome process.
Perhaps improvement in education will come about most effectively by the acceptance of accountability and an understanding of change.

Accountability

A School system must be accountable for both the business and academic aspects of the operation. As in every organization there is never enough money or time to fulfil its dreams.Success, therefor, depends upon choosing the best priorities and using available resources as efficiently as possible. Without doing this well, mediocrity reigns. Results are what count. The world is not interested in the storms you encountered but did you bring in the ship?

The School Principal

If I were to name one very important player in the academic accountable process, it would be the school principal. He or she is close to the classroom and the students and like the head of any organization must accept responsibility for the quality of education by the school's graduates, recognizing of course the quality of students and factors beyond his or her control.
Too often the principal gets involved with too much minutiae - discipline, school records, time-tables, community requests and a host of minor duties. The focus should be on the progress of the students, cooperating with teachers, identifying problems and implementing plans to effect improvements. The role of the principal needs to be reorganized and emphasized to a greater extent.

Understanding Change and its effect on Education

I mentioned about the importance of understanding change and its effect on education. Schools tend to reflect the values and philosophy in vogue in society at any given time.
Usually change takes place gradually and quietly without much notable effect. Great events, however, bring major changes. I recognize three of these in my life time.
The first occurred during the depression before the second world war. Masses of people were out of work and hope for the young seemed dependent on education. Thus there was great interest in a rather narrow program with strong emphasis on the 3 R's - reading, writing and arithmetic.

The second major change came after world war 2. People relieved of the pressures and tensions of war were seeking a life with less coercion and fewer restraints. Dr Benjamin Spock and other philosophers encouraged raising children with fewer restraints and dissppointments. This attitude flowed into the schools where less emhasis on standards, the avoidance of pressure, automatic progress through the grades regardless of achievment, laxer discipline and an easing of accountability came into vogue in too many schools.

The third major change is taking place at the present time. The explosion of technology, global competition and avolatility in the workplace have increased the public's awareness of the importance of the basic literacy subjects. At the same time much remains of the serene attitude prevalent after the war resulting in a dichotomy of the two views which seem to be in conflict.

Many parents seem to have a tendency to be overprotective of their children protesting inconveniences, protesting new programs to be too challenging, protesting testing as too much pressure. Perhaps this is because people are being encouraged to be assertive. Assertiveness is great if the cause isright, if various views are understood, if people have an open mind, if the common good is considered rather than just self-serving interests.
Many parents still seem to prefer the more relaxed program where students pass though the grades without too much challenge. Getting through school, however, is not as important as getting an education. As a preparation for the adult world, challenge and responsibility are rather desirable not - that school life should not also be enjoyable. Both, I believe, can be acquired and kept in balance.

Conclusion

You probably by now feel like the man who asked
"The speaker bore you?"
"He's also boring me, but treat him gently when he's through, he comes to us for free.""
No society has ever perfected an educational system which completely satisfies the conservation of sacred traditional values and the needs of a growing changing culture. Economic difficulties, social struggles,religious differences and political policies raise problems that society expects education to play a major role in solving while at the same time providing a student's literacy growth.
When we look at the progress made to this point in our history, education has served us quit well but it has a huge challenge ahead. It needs to help improve our productivity, provide an intellectual and cultural component and encourage a desirable set of values.
We need to remember the words of Daniel Webster:
If we work upon marble, it will perish,
If we work upon brass, time will efface it,
If we rear temples, they will crumble to dust,
If we work upon immortal souls, they will brighten to all eternity.

REFERENCES



Document created on November 11, 2001