A factory reset in Education is in order, if we want to achieve real, positive and lasting change- here’s how. This essay began as a response to an article in Quillette: Standards-Based Grading Will Ruin Education.
Any real, positive and lasting change usually results from a form of life laundry when looking at our personal and vocational lives. It requires the recognition of both fault and weakness, an acknowledge of past mistakes made and the creation of an action plan, with a forward vision, with a view to creating structural changes in one’s life. What is true of individuals is doubly true of institutions. This is the real failure of attempts to address the school to prison pipeline- blaming community socio-economics or environment is a resignation to the inevitable- no matter how hopeful (and impractical) those on the Left may be about society acknowledging the difficult backgrounds of individuals when deciding hot to treat them when problems arise- at the pragmatic level such efforts are doomed.
In this vein one would hope that educational theorists and the educational Bureaucracy would admit just how disastrous their policies around school behaviour have been. Here is an article by the WSJ detailing how certain Obama era decisions proved disastrous: Obama’s Racial Preferences Made Schools Dangerous. It is the culmination of decades of mistakes and failures- deeply rooted in misconceptions about childhood development and how to aid the life chances of children growing up today. Any real desire for change would recognise the failures of the past, but no, far easier to paper over the cracks and pass the problem further down the line- with the inevitable result that the Criminal Justice System is racist when it is forced to deal with the consequences of an education system which fails structurally to equip many young people with the basic skills and the knowledge they need to participate in legitimate economic life.
‘School psychologist Craig Frisby, for example, has found that successful schools that teach large proportions of minority students focus on core achievement, provide strict discipline, and base policies on the science of learning—and not on trendy sociopolitical ideas.’
Many of us will have grown up with movies depicting the cruel and draconian policies of tough Catholic Schools- exempting corporal punishment as an issue, one wonders whether all those strict Catholic Nuns might have the had the right idea all along, and were simple relying upon the accumulated wisdom and understanding that kids from poorer and more difficult environments needed structure and toughness, rather than the stultifying platitudes of caring and temporary kindness which would see kids with a harder start in life pushed back down into the moral quagmire of their situation rather than pulled up from their morass by tough love.
It is not a cruelty to enforce stricter standards on kids from difficult backgrounds. Sometimes the medicine is bitter- with many on the Left persisting in the erroneous myth that it is really pragmatically possible to weigh a person’s difficult life circumstances when passing judgement in say, a courtroom, when, in truth, such circumstances can really only offer a relatively short discount in sentencing for all but the most activist of judges (which were rare and anecdotal, but served to provide grist for mill for those who, as a corrective, imposed now infamous instances of Three Strike Sentencing and the like).
One wonders what corrective measures will be necessary to overcome the current violent crime wave sweeping America. Here is an appropriately named Atlantic piece by freelance journalist Zaid Jilani: Progressive Denial Won’t Stop Violent Crime. What should become increasingly apparent from the direction of this piece is that there are two clear life path’s for entirely different political prescriptions for children from poor high crime communities. On one, an overdose of compassion-minded thinking leads to the carceral state. On the other, a world of opportunities opens up as a result of structure and strictness applied early on in life.
But conservatives need to revise their thinking somewhat as well. Many will be familiar with the Boot Camp model. Some will be enthusiastic advocates. But the evidence of the relative successes of the Boot Camps are mixed at best, which would suggest than whether a particular Boot Camp program works depends very much upon the participants and the approach taken. Perhaps the best example of a program which does work is with the Violence Reduction Units used by the Scottish Police.
Part of the program consists of an older ex-offender being paired with a police officer as a team, interacting with people emerging from prison, or with those whose lesser offences show a pattern of potential future escalation. The key is goal setting. The team will set the bar low with the first tasks set and achieved- simply making an appointment can be classed as a success. Gradually the goals increase in difficulty. Obtaining help to produce a serviceable CV might be a more substantial one, with the ultimate aim of transitioning into paid and reliable work. The system might be strict and structured, but there is a method to the madness- it affords teenage boys and young men the chance for positive feedback for the first time in their life- whilst also serving the societies larger goal of enabling a safer, more peaceful and orderly society. It was a part of the larger system which saw youthful Knife Crime halve in Scotland within a decade, without substantially increasing prison populations amongst the young.
A good analogy for the approach taken by the VRUs would be Basic Training for the military. Broadly speaking recruits fall into two categories: kids from nice homes and good families, motivated to serve by calling or the need for adventure, and kids from the wrong side of the tracks, looking for a way out. For the kids from nice middle class homes, the transformative change is accomplished mainly through the rousting of barracks and the abuse of drill instructors. For them it’s a shock, meant to first instil fear and discipline, and then steadily racket up aggression on the part of the recruit.
But this approach simply doesn’t work for the kids from broken homes. They’ve been shouted at by adults their entire life. Most have never encountered a positive male role model in a productive sense. Instead, they find their change in the discovery of a system of status and achievement awards- with positive praise from a person they respect the hallmark of their moral transformation. Perhaps they find they can run a course in record time, can strip and reassemble a rifle in record time or have a natural aptitude for shooting on the range. Regardless, this earning of status as reward becomes critical to the accomplishment of service as both vocation and a family. I have heard it remarked by the likes of Ant Middleton, that the kids from the wrong side of the tracks often finish up as the better special forces operators.
In case all of this sounds vaguely familiar, it is because you have probably heard it before. It’s part of 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. The admonition to ‘Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world’, or ‘Clean Your Room!’ might not seem as though it contains this wisdom, at face value, but implicit to this approach is the understanding that once you begin to set yourself attainable goals, you can quickly adjust them to fit your level and begin earning praise from those around you. Much as material improvement might seem to be a more powerful motive, the understanding that one can earn the respect and admiration of those around us, is far more profound and life-changing.
But what does this meander through race, education and correctional systems have to teach us? It means we really need to start earlier, before the damage is done- to close the stable door before the horse has bolted. The liberal urge is kindness, if, in the best circumstances and we are honest and fair in our evaluation, and making a clear distinction between the liberal approach and the more extreme pathologies of the Left- a fact only dimly remembered from the time before politics became cynical by necessity- in its requirement to vilify the opposition to detract from one’s own failings.
We have to recognise that sometimes kindness as a reinforcement of weakness and defect is no kindness at all. It doesn’t end well- it’s the degrading example of the participation medal applied on a grand scale, and with impacts which can last a lifetime. But equally, toughness as an approach which is punitive, or as an endorsement of the idea we should ‘slap them silly’ with rigid enforcement before people become problems- doesn’t work either. It’s in the mechanism of creating systems of positive feedback and praise earning, with every goal tied to the level of the specific individual and their capacities, which will achieve transformative, society-changing results.
And it works! This article from the Newham Recorder shows the example of state school which adopts this approach, the second one shows how:
Students wake up before 5am to get to Brampton Manor Academy for 6am
Where is it written that the liberal goal of engineering a kinder society is necessarily incompatible with a safe, peaceful and orderly society? We just need better standards, or even higher ones- which allow for an ascendant moral purpose. It’s the toolkit which was flawed, not the objectives- the liberal belief that discipline kills creativity in children, or is somehow not in their long-term interest, has a lot to answer for. It is a matter of means and ends- kinder means make crueller ends, stricter means are more compassionate- if our goal is really to help kids find their full potential.
Yes! You make excellent points. Strict boundaries, defined goals and love make a powerful package. It works. The problem is the 'progressives'. How do you change their warped minds? They not only ruin education but the entire nation along with it.
> Bureaucracy would admit just how disastrous their policies around school behaviour have been.
But fundamentalists always double down, don't they? If the faith-healing isn't working that's only because you need more faith.
> the Violence Reduction Units used by the Scottish Police.
If it works it works, but the pessimist in me is saying that many of these initiatives just waterbed the problem -- it doesn't really go away, it just moves around. Or not. The teaming up with ex cons sounds excellent.
> Brampton Manor Academy
I don't notice a single white face in the picture. Good. Segregation should be given another look. When whitey isn't there at all, the race baiters have less chance to do their mischief. An explicitly black school that achieves excellence can and should crow about it and if the *earned* pride there reflects back onto the race in general that's very good.
Yes, the Basque people, interesting bunch. I was in their region once years ago and right away I felt I could easily live there. You are right, and I like your nuanced version of progressivism. Well done!
The recent school shooting shows how public schools keep bad students too long, as if the public interest is in ensuring the least capable should get the lion's share while holding back all those actually want an education.
I'm all for kindness bur kindness isn't necessarily the permissive style a lot of people think. Kindness is about structures - a recognition that discipline and standards make life better for people both within themselves and within society. It is not kind to pass a pupil who isn't working or producing on an assignment but it is kind to fail them. Failure is a very motivating lesson and a growth lesson more so than constant passes.
Like you say it's also important to provide a career path particularly in the crafts. It's skills like these which are still needed and always will be. Not everyone can be computer specialists just like not everyone can fix a burst pipe. What needs to change is the value allocated to craft/physical engineering tasks and the steering of young people into these roles.
Oh the food! Yes, better than the French by far. Spain is my spiritual home for reasons unclear. Will alas never see it again...my days of flying to Europe every year are over. Lots of things seem to be over...
A bit late to the party here, but good analysis. My dad went to Catholic school and he had a great deal of respect for the disciplinarian nuns and priests who taught him. It was strict, but not in a vindictive way.
There’s a Pro Publica article from November about a school district in Tennessee where a “law and order” judge transgressed laws to punish students (in many cases innocent) out of a vindictive belief that she was providing “tough love.” I’m all for tough love but that second word has to be there.
Trendy Innovations in American Education Will be Disastrous...
Yes! You make excellent points. Strict boundaries, defined goals and love make a powerful package. It works. The problem is the 'progressives'. How do you change their warped minds? They not only ruin education but the entire nation along with it.
> Bureaucracy would admit just how disastrous their policies around school behaviour have been.
But fundamentalists always double down, don't they? If the faith-healing isn't working that's only because you need more faith.
> the Violence Reduction Units used by the Scottish Police.
If it works it works, but the pessimist in me is saying that many of these initiatives just waterbed the problem -- it doesn't really go away, it just moves around. Or not. The teaming up with ex cons sounds excellent.
> Brampton Manor Academy
I don't notice a single white face in the picture. Good. Segregation should be given another look. When whitey isn't there at all, the race baiters have less chance to do their mischief. An explicitly black school that achieves excellence can and should crow about it and if the *earned* pride there reflects back onto the race in general that's very good.
Yes, the Basque people, interesting bunch. I was in their region once years ago and right away I felt I could easily live there. You are right, and I like your nuanced version of progressivism. Well done!
The recent school shooting shows how public schools keep bad students too long, as if the public interest is in ensuring the least capable should get the lion's share while holding back all those actually want an education.
I'm all for kindness bur kindness isn't necessarily the permissive style a lot of people think. Kindness is about structures - a recognition that discipline and standards make life better for people both within themselves and within society. It is not kind to pass a pupil who isn't working or producing on an assignment but it is kind to fail them. Failure is a very motivating lesson and a growth lesson more so than constant passes.
Like you say it's also important to provide a career path particularly in the crafts. It's skills like these which are still needed and always will be. Not everyone can be computer specialists just like not everyone can fix a burst pipe. What needs to change is the value allocated to craft/physical engineering tasks and the steering of young people into these roles.
Oh the food! Yes, better than the French by far. Spain is my spiritual home for reasons unclear. Will alas never see it again...my days of flying to Europe every year are over. Lots of things seem to be over...
A bit late to the party here, but good analysis. My dad went to Catholic school and he had a great deal of respect for the disciplinarian nuns and priests who taught him. It was strict, but not in a vindictive way.
There’s a Pro Publica article from November about a school district in Tennessee where a “law and order” judge transgressed laws to punish students (in many cases innocent) out of a vindictive belief that she was providing “tough love.” I’m all for tough love but that second word has to be there.