MAP 150

I see MAP 150 everywhere I go– in almost every news story, conversation, public problem. I’m referring to the power of regular people (virtually unused at this point) to help solve public problems.

I’ve been trying to pay attention to how “stuck” things are in old, habitual ways of thinking. For example, a Pew Survey shows that more than three-quarters of school superintendents think that the low academic standards in their local schools are not a problem. Yet, in a just-released survey by the University of Indiana, two-thirds of students (81,000 from 26 states!) say that are bored every day in school.

Pundits and school administrators will quibble that these are two very different questions. Yet there is no mistaking that students and superintendents have very different ideas about what is happening in schools. How can we possibly expect the “experts” to improve education when their views are so different from students– and the students are the ones who have the ultimate decision-making authority over whether or not they will learn?

Here at home we have the bruhaha over North High. Kudos to Don Samuels for being brave enough to raise the issue. It matters less whether he’s right or wrong, and much, much more that he’s calling attention to the need for improving education. It’s clear that there are differences of opinion on the quality of North High…just as there are differences of opinion on the quality of education more generally. We need to be able to confront these differences, to have civil discussions about what we want from education, to bring in those who are at the receiving end of policy decisions, namely the students.