How Will Obama Change Education Priorities?

Getting together with friends and family over the holidays, talk turns to education as it almost always does with us. We come from an education family -- going back generations. My ancestors were Pilgrims, who valued education and reading and invented "public" school. Another walked from his home in Ohio to California to make his fortune in the Gold Rush. He was one of the fortunate who returned with at least some meager earnings, and then put his daughters through teacher college -- pretty unheard of in those days for farm kids of the 1850s. Since my husband is a school administrator, and I still teach art to kids whenever there's an opportunity, we live and breath education issues. When I had my radio show "Making the Grade" I got to yak about it on the air with everybody from teachers to governors.

So, the chatter this Thanksgiving centered around the severe budget meltdown facing LA Unified and the possible ramifications, art teachers with no supplies, the enormous frustration with No Child Left Behind, the sometimes ridiculous hoops that teachers have to jump through to stay certified...oh what fun! Truly, only conversations that educators would love. (That's why I had to become a teacher after art school, just so I could join in.)

If Obama is interested, teachers have plenty of advice gained from some crazy real-life experiences. I have my share of war stories, too -- and moments of shining brilliance. After teaching in 21 schools in three states off and on over three decades (started teaching 3rd grade in 1978!!!), I've seen kids change, society change, and education change innumerable times. But I think the verdict is universal -- education has got to change direction now. The testing has reached absurd proportions, teachers and kids are exhausted, vast sums have been spent on testing materials, and though everybody has given it 110 percent, not a lot has changed fundamentally.

What's the 21st century outlook? Are we still educating for the past century? Or even the one before that? If we could start over completely, what would education look like? Tinkering around the edges isn't the change we need.

We haven't heard any rumors about Obama's Secretary of Education yet. But if you've got a solid "how-to" plan, send it to Change.gov. I think we can bag this Texas model that we've all labored under. Having taught in Texas, I finally understood it. But I think a new vision -- along with the capital to fund it -- can be transformative. Maybe the new vision is funding all those mandates! That would be a change.

But maybe we should be like England, Singapore, Finland, and even China -- who are now changing the focus from testing being the primary goal and function of education to teaching students how to think creativity, with the focus on innovation. We kind of got into this testing thing to keep up with the rest of the world. But guess what? They've concluded the way to beat the USA is in the area of innovation -- and that is not achieved through high-stakes, find-the-right-answer type of testing and education.

I've been in a unique position as an art teacher, especially when I traveled between schools in the same district. Not only did I see all the kids in a school from Kindergarten on up, I got to see how policies played out across a district between at-risk and upper-end schools. I knew first-hand how much harder we all worked at schools serving the most challenging neighborhoods and the attitudes towards us from our own colleagues in the comfortable middle class suburbs. Like other specialists who serve an entire school, I knew who the good teachers were and those who were struggling.I've had the opportunity to work under a variety of principals and the effect they have on staff. Basically, I have to say that teachers are amazing. They are one of the few adults who willingly work with other peoples' children, towards the betterment of our country. I salute everyone of you!

President-elect Obama, bring in teachers -- not those who've been out of the classroom for years or holed up in ivory towers. Those who have been in the trenches know what the real scoop is. I can recommend some truly awesome, but unsung heroes. They could really turn things around if we quit hamstringing them!