Learning by Playing

Do you remember recess? When I went to elementary school in Philadelphia, we had two 15 minute recess periods, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We were able to go out to the playground, play ball, ride on the swings or just take a walk. When we reached the upper elementary grades, the afternoon recess was eliminated. Of course when we got to junior high school there was no more recess. School became a more serious and academic matter and the social dynamics changed. Today many of the “fun” activities in elementary schools like art projects and such have been shelved in favor of more focused instruction in the academic subjects like math and reading. The rational for the current curriculum changes have a great deal to do with assessment testing, achieving grade level performance and keeping up with peers in other developed nations. This has been exemplified with both the No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top programs, neither of which have had great success.

Somewhere along the line educators have lost the importance of play. The current focus has been on the need to get students to learn to create, discover, innovate, and explore. Cannot these objectives be partly obtained through play?  Pre Kindergarten and kindergarten students are not necessarily ready for more complex educational skills. There is no consensus as to when the optimum time for students to learn to spell or read is. We know its crucial and we know it has to start at an early age but not to the exclusion of play. What many academic fail to realize is that schools are just as important as social institutions as there are as academic ones. So the phrase “ getting along with other children in the sandbox” is a significant one. Don’t disassemble the playgrounds yet.

c.2015 J. Margolis

James Meredith, Civil Rights and American Education

There have been several occasions during the history 20th century America where public education and civil rights issues crossed paths. The first notable instance was in 1954 with the landmark US Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka. The court ruled that the use of separate but equal educational facilities for black students was unconstitutional and led to the desegregation of America’s public schools. The ruling led to a mass exodus of white families to the suburbs and the establishment of white private school in the south. The tipping point of this issue was the events that took place at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas in 1957. The “ Little Rock Nine” were selected to integrate the school and lead to a confrontation between state and federal law enforcement officers and the citizens of the community. This incident placed civil right and education front and center in America's public conscience.

At the college level, the seminal story of civil rights and America’s education system was centered on James Meredith. Meredith was born in 1933 and raised on a farm. After high school he spent nine years in the US Army Air Corps. When he returned to civilian life he enrolled in Jackson State College, an all black school. In 1961 Meredith applied to the University of Mississippi and was accepted. However when the Registrar’s Office discovered that he was African –American, they rescinded the offer of admission. Meredith filed suit claiming that since the University of Mississippi was a public institution, the ruling of Brown vs. the Board of Education applied to his case. In an ongoing battle between Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett, Meredith and the NAACP, US Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent 500 US Marshalls to Mississippi to ensure that Meredith was able to matriculate.

Meredith went on to get involved in the civil rights movement  and was shot in 1966 by a white gunman. Meredith obtained a law degree from Columbia and spent his career as an  activist for the civil rights movement.

In the final analysis, an understanding of the success of public education in America and the civil rights movement go hand in hand. We need to convince the broader community that education is important for all Americans and that the barriers to success need to come down at every level.

c.2015 J. Margolis

Presidents and College Degrees- Is Having one a Necessity?

How important is a college degree for the position of President of the United States?

If you follow the writings of the Founding Fathers then the answer is “not very.” However if you scrutinize the credentials of America’s chief executives, most of them had college degrees. Many of them had law degrees as well. However, Woodrow Wilson was the only President to have earned a Ph.D. It should be noted that in the Constitution of the United States there is no mention about government involvement in education or about any education requirements to become President. The question is whether a college education is a requirement to be a successful president.

In taking a look at the forty-four men who have held the position, it comes to mind that at least three of our nation’s greatest leaders had no college training. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Harry Truman.  Others without a degree include Zachary Taylor, Andrew Jackson, and Millard Fillmore. The reverse can also be said. Some of our well-educated presidents were mediocre at best and several were down right failures.

This issue is bound to come up as we enter the 2016 presidential race. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, often mentioned as a possible Republican presidential candidate, does not have a college degree. From the standpoint of an educator, is one required? I think yes. While Silicon Valley successes can be mentioned as exceptions, the ability to reason, the importance of being well read, and having a mastery of “Cultural Literacy” will come into play at some point during a president’s administration. There are those who will argue that a President is only as good as the people he surrounds himself with and to a certain extent this is true. However, the ultimate decision maker is POTUS and as President Harry Truman noted with a sign on his desk, “ the buck stops here.”

c.2015 J. Margolis

It’s National Teacher Appreciation Week!

This week President Obama signed a proclamation decaling the week of May 4-8 as National Teacher Appreciation Week. Now you are going to tell me that teacher should be appreciated every week and just like every day should be Mothers Day, it is true. So aside from the appreciate breakfast or flowers what can parents, students and the community do so demonstrate their appreciation?

Teachers need to know that they are relevant, that what they accomplish every day in the classroom matters. In a 1985 personal letter to my wife, who was a social studies teacher for 35 years, former President Richard Nixon remarked that he still remembered his history from 50 years before and he hoped that my wife’s students would remember her. It’s funny, my wife always enjoyed seeing former students or getting letters and Christmas cards ten or twenty years after they had been in her class. It was a validation that she mattered to them.

Teachers want respect. They are not the blame for all of America’s ills nor can teachers alone solve all of this country’s problems, but teachers here seems to have a much lower standing than their peers in other nations.

Teachers want support. Parents and community leaders need to know that they can could on them for encouraging students to do their housework and establish fair and credible curricula and provide technological opportunities for students to keep pace with their peers.

So if you want to taker a teacher to lunch, don’t let me stop you. But if you really want help make a difference, show them that you support their work.

C.2015 J. Margolis