Here's another letter to the Editor from Gauld's indefatigable pen. It was on a page with several other letters preceding it, and I scrolled slowly down, occasionally getting distracted by reading another's story. However, as soon as I spied that now familiar phraseology, "...impotency ...educational ...throughout my 50-year career," I knew I had found it! :rofl:
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http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2001/ ... r.h20.htmlEducation WeekVol. 20, Issue 32, Pages 44-45
Published: April 25, 2001
LETTERSTerminal Cynicism: Reform Needs a Revolution, Not a Premature ObituaryTo the Editor:
America has had to endure the impotency of educational reform throughout my 50-year career. Now, in "The End of School Reform" (Commentary, April 4, 2001), Peter Temes cynically tells us the system cannot be reformed, and to accept the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation's heroic idea of simply saving as many students as we can.
Mr. Temes gives us the analogy of the man who loses his watch in the living room, but chooses to look for it in the kitchen because the light is better there. Indeed, once America finally tires of the misplaced kitchen searches of Mr. Temes and colleagues, it can start searching where a new and revolutionary educational system is to be found.
Such naysayers rigidly believe that the basic purpose of school must be the intellectual development of the student. But this focus is only a minor subset of a far more powerful purpose: character development.
A focus on character unleashes the deepest human motivation—self-discovery. Adolescence is primarily meant to help students answer the three basic questions of life:
Who am I? Where am I going? What do I need to do to get there?Today, our zeal to provide universities with better students and industry with better workers forces students to ignore or look elsewhere to answer these crucial questions. But if we focus schools on character, and thus self-discovery, students will begin to devour what we presently try to shove down their throats—and more.
Why don't schools make this obvious intellect-to- character transition? Because we fear (1) revolutionary change of the unknown, and (2) our abilities to address larger issues like character.
Character is primarily taught by example. This means that teachers—and parents—need an ongoing program to address their own character and self-discovery.
In character development, parents are the primary teachers and the home the primary classroom. This means that we must make the family part of our educational process, and train parents just as we do teachers.
Clearly, to change schools for our kids, we must first be willing to change ourselves.
We presently lack the guts to institute such revolutionary change, but given increasing Columbine-like tragedies, we may soon find the vision to shuck our long-term cynicism, as expressed by Mr. Temes, and finally live out the true meaning of our American creed.
Joseph W. Gauld
Founder of Hyde Schools
Bath, Maine
Woodstock, Conn.