After spending a year teaching, I can’t help but try to think of how the whole educational system could be improved. To be honest, this was a tough job for me simply because I’ve never had any respect for any educational institution I’ve ever been enrolled at. Because of that, I had no respect for any of the advice of the incumbent teachers (which rather pissed them off when I repeatedly ignored their instructions in favor of doing things in some new and unproven fashion [my way did work better incidentally]).

The thing I was thinking about today as I was walking back from breakfast at the Haiti restaurant in the Ovalo de Miraflores (it’s too expensive, but the food is good I have to admit) was how the educational system needs to be reformed. One of the things that became abundantly clear to me this year is how disruptive a single student can be in a classroom. It’s amazing that the worst student in your class actually acts as an anchor and draws down the level of the work of even the best students you have. You see, if you have a class with a bunch of committed students eager to learn and progress, you’re able to do marvelous things and engage more difficult topics. But if you have even one disruptive influence, that student acts as a cancer and seriously sabotages the progress of the whole group because, as a teacher, you have to always put something in the lesson plan that they are capable of handling. These “remedial tasks” take away time from the good students who are capable of doing more.

I have remarked on more than one occasion that the US seems to have a general sense of contempt for people of high intelligence, and I’m beginning to wonder if the seeds for this general malaise aren’t sewn from the flaws in our educational system. Obviously the worst student in the class is going to be vocally critical of the class he/she is failing just for the sake of protecting their own sense of self-worth. Now some people would say that this is unfortunate but impossible to prevent because all people have a right to feel good about themselves, but I’m not sure I agree. If you have one student who is deliberately and maliciously undermining the intellectual progress of several others, I think you have to take steps to get that student out of there. Somebody shouldn’t be able to destroy another person’s intellectual pursuit simply because that other person’s superiority makes them feel depressed. In fact, a culture that would support such acts smacks of prejudice and bigotry.

I’m starting to think that all school districts should be divided into two schools, one for the “advanced” or “college bound” kids and one for those that are going to go into more remedial vocations. I think most schools do have some “college placement” type classes, but the point I’m trying to make is that separation simply by class isn’t enough. You need to remove the disruptive influence entirely. Put the people who learn through silent, diligent study in one building, and the people who are disruptive in another. I’m thinking you’d have about a ten to one ratio of remedial to advanced students, but that both of the schools would receive equal funding. In the end, something like this would actually save taxpayers a lot of money. There are a lot of students who are actually capable of doing college-level work in high school, but are prevented from doing it because of the disruptive influence. There could be some sort of provision that if you finished an advanced high school program, you only needed two more years of college to get your BS or BA. It would be fairly easy to offer some sort of supplementary four year program for students who were late bloomers and only decided to become diligent about their education later in life.

Of course, the problem you would eventually have is parents who become infuriated when the devil they think is an angel gets kicked out of the advanced school in favor of the remedial one. Fuck ‘em. With the extra funding you’d get in the “advanced” school you could put in video surveillance that proved adverse behavior.

It goes without saying that you’d have better quality teachers in the advanced schools, and they’d get better pay with a lower teacher to student ratio. Actually doing something like this would encourage more people to come into the teaching profession. I think the main thing that keeps qualified people out of teaching is the fact that they know they’ll have to deal with a bunch of little bastards who need to get their teeth kicked in (who they are prohibited from beating). Once again, this represents an extreme prejudice against good students who are forced to receive a lesser education from inferior or incompetent people simply because too much disruptive behavior is being tolerated.

Imagine the whole new social structure that could be created. Intelligent people could finally get a certain amount of recognition simply for the fact that they are going to the “advanced” school. You see, our society needs to be restructured so that intelligence is recognized and applauded. What better way than to construct an obvious separation between the intellectually remedial and elite?

Now, in saying all this, I can’t help but think of a friend of mine who is an extremely intelligent guy but does not learn in the traditional way. He has ADD, and I know that has affected his class work in the past, but he has since gone on to receive his college degree and obtain a lucrative and challenging career. I wouldn’t want to propose a system that didn’t provide for students such as him. There are two possible ways to respond to such a problem. One is that it is possible that in my system, actually good teachers would recognize the difference between a student who is full of energy, but willing to learn, and one who is simply apathetic and disruptive. I know that my friend received a lot of unjust punishment simply because he had insecure teachers who misinterpreted his energy as insubordination. Another possibility is to just simply say that it is impossible to create any system in which some people don’t fall through the cracks. As long as there are at least two or three alternate routes to achieving the same thing, you really aren’t putting anybody at too much of a disadvantage.

It’s funny that this topic is almost never discussed in the public forum. The more I think about it, the more obvious and horrible the whole thing is. In my opinion, the most oppressed and exploited people in the whole history of the human race are those that are blessed with intellectual gifts. Ironically, this is the same group which is single-handedly responsible for every achievement the human race has seen fit to boast about. It’s time to stop dealing our best people a lesser hand.

Indeed, it’s time to surrender them the reigns.

The End