Editor’s note: This commentary is by Joe Carroll, of Montpelier, who is a high school teacher.
In his column “It’s time to question our public school curriculum,” Bill Schubart asserts that “what’s largely missing from the discussion — and arguably its most important issue — is the quality and relevance of our public school curriculum to the current and emerging needs of today’s Vermonters.”
As a high school teacher in Vermont, this is news to me. I can’t think of a single teacher or educator I know who doesn’t think about whether or not what we are doing is high quality or matters to “today’s Vermonters.”
The banalities about what schools should do are worth pondering as far as they go, but I’d like to make an alternative proposal: Perhaps Schubart should direct his energies toward political action and public policy.
I say political action because if, as he implies, the conditions (namely, “intact families and cohesive communities”) that once supported education no longer exist, this is not a failing of individual parents, families or communities, but of public policy. To that end, here is my proposal for a political program that would (re)create the conditions that would help Vermont families flourish:
— Expand access to high quality and affordable health care.
— Eliminate poverty with direct cash payments.
— Eliminate unemployment with a job guarantee.
— Eliminate onerous zoning laws and build more housing so working families can find an affordable home.
— Expand family leave so parents can stay home for a longer period of time after the birth of their child.
— Provide more mental health supports for families and schools.
— Lobby our federal delegation to advocate for these at the national level, and vote them out if they don’t.
When our communities flourish, our schools do too. It is a mistake to view schools as separate from the larger political and socioeconomic forces that impact them. To do so is to pathologize human suffering as an individual failing rather than the outcome of deliberate policy choices. Healthy communities will create healthy schools.
We tolerate suffering because we have bought into the notion that everyone can pull themselves up in this country, so poverty is tolerable because we have schools that can fix it. We blame teachers, struggling families, and students rather than politicians. We have chosen a half-percent of GDP over human dignity.
So, Mr. Schubart, and anyone else interested in helping with education, let’s restore a politics that affirms human dignity. Then, and only then, will we have the moral justification to begin a conversation about school reform.
