WE ARE CHEATING OURSELVES

This week is national teacher appreciation week. If you haven’t done so already, thank a teacher. If you already have, consider doing so again. Teachers aren’t only impacting the lives of their students, they’re impacting our lives as well. Teachers have the most important job in the country, but too many of our schools are not delivering the education that our students deserve.

In recent years, education has gained political traction, and positive steps have been taken to address America’s education crisis. But there is a long way to go, and the emotion and even fury that education incites politically makes policy messy, as it is at both the federal and state levels. Schools are horribly underfunded all over the country, though I’ve been feeling particularly upset about how bad it is in my home state. But lack of funding isn’t the only problem. Schools cannot attract and retain good teachers, making the ones we have even more valuable (thank them again), curriculum and pedagogy are largely stagnant, and there is little professional development. Overburdened by an abundance of high-stakes testing, many schools, teachers, and families push back against even a necessary amount. Meanwhile, sensible attempts to set a higher bar for achievement via the Common Core standards are decried on both sides of the political spectrum.

All the bile and hubbub around testing and the Common Core has obscured some of the real changes that are happening, but even worse, acts as an impediment to the acceleration of progress. Schools continue to go underfunded, and struggle to recruit, develop, and retain teachers. Students are understimulated. Learning, too often, does not happen. We are still failing far too many of our students.

Step back from that moral failing, however, and you will realize that we are also failing ourselves. Today’s students are tomorrow’s doctors, lawyers, creators, and leaders. Doctors who will be treating us; doctors who will develop new kinds of treatments and cures. I am 29 years old. In fifty years, if I make it that long, a child born today could be treating me for whatever ailment I may be fighting at 79. Less dire, but just as plausibly, a child born today could invent an awesome set of wireless headphones that would make life more enjoyable, and that might only take 20 years.

The point is that when we fail to give a child an education we fail the child, but we shoot ourselves in the foot. Our schools are failing millions of students all over the country; it’s as though we are trying to amputate a leg. My future doctors? Fewer of them. The engineers to build my future home and design my cool future-toys? Fewer of them too. The tax base to pay into my future retirement account? Diminished. I have no idea what any particular student will do with their life, but I know all of them are capable of doing something. Many of America’s students will pursue ideas and careers that allow them to better themselves and us along with them.

Our failure to invest in students, to support teachers, schools, and scholars, that isn’t just an injustice to them, it’s a bit of collective masochism. That’s a book we’ll never get to read, a product we’ll never get to experience, a leader we will never follow. There are visible consequences of our failing education system; we see them — human beings — in impoverished communities all over the country. It saddens some, inspires others, some people are ambivalent, and sadly, some even blame the poor. However we feel, we too often think only in terms of the outcomes of these individuals, and that is both understandable and commendable, but how often have we seen someone our schools have failed and asked ourselves, could she be my dog’s vet, could he an intern at my business, could they be creating the next addicting game app for my tablet? We are cheating ourselves.

So if you haven’t, go out and thank a teacher today. But more importantly support a teacher. Be willing to put some of your tax dollars now into a better future for all of us tomorrow. Mentor a kid, volunteer, donate time, energy, money, or resources. Do it for the teachers, do it for the kids, do it for all of us.

#Education