In Defense of Public Education- Meier

The way Deborah Meier starts Chapter 1 of The Power of their Ideas is something that we all should take into consideration when educating our students. Meier asks, “Why were the self-confident voices I knew so well at home and on the playground muted in the schools I taught in?” (3) Why is this? We should all be examining this conundrum and looking for possible solutions. So often, the children that are the most vocal, the most imaginative, and the ones with the most ingenuity are silenced in the classroom. Perhaps because they do not fit the restrictive mold in which we expect all students to remain. What we need to do is throw out this mold and let students be themselves and realize their own potential, because “All kids are indeed capable of generating powerful ideas” (4).

I remember seeing this first hand when I was in Practicum. The students who, outside the classroom, were very passionate and bright about areas that interested them- were stifled in the classroom. They were students who were tracked, who were pigeonholed, and who were expected to perform poorly academically. They had no chance. They were not valued for what they were capable of, they were instead judged and expected not to do anything more than perform a trade job and stay out of trouble. The fact that schools foster these ideas means that teachers, fellow students, the parents of these students and the students themselves, all begin to view these divisions in this way- students X will go on to college, while students Z will not. Why not? Where is this breakdown? Moreover, how do we fix it? I think we need to address this issue as early on as pre-school. It is here that children begin to be put into categories of ability and some of these children are quickly shut down. This is when the disconnect between the playground to the classroom begins.

I think if we start really addressing this concern from the get go, some great changes will be made. The sense of community that appears to be lacking in our public schools will begin to surge- there will not be that prominent division between the “haves” and the “have nots.” Meier suggests that “Schools can squelch intelligence, they can foster intolerance and disrespect, they affect the way we see ourselves in the pecking order” (6). This is a sad truth, and I commend her for bringing up this concern- and suggesting that we come together and have some conversations around this issue to create a system where all students are expected to and have the opportunity to succeed.