By Dan Irvin
At the Daybreak Rotary meeting on Thursday morning we were able to spend some time talking to a delegation from Denmark.
These five women and men were highly fluent in English, which led me to ask about formal English instruction in Danish schools. They said English is usually taught to children in Denmark beginning in the third grade. Then they start another foreign language in the fifth grade and still another one along about seventh or eighth grade.
At that point the sheepishness of we Americans in the room was palpable.
It got me thinking about education. I looked it up. The Pearson Company ranks Denmark #11 globally in cognitive skills and educational attainment. The U.S. is #14. Don’t hold me to this, but I think Pearson is the company that provides all the standardized tests over which there’s such a furor lately.
On THAT subject, well, I don’t claim to know anything about big E – Education. But, if it were up to me I’d let the teachers do it instead of having the government involved. You say, what about accountability? In my education-life, parents kept the schools accountable. They didn’t need standardized tests to tell them if their kids were passionate about their studies.
My mom didn’t care if our education system was better than Denmark’s. She told me to study hard so I could get a good job.
Surveys of employers usually indicate they’re looking for candidates with good people skills, who can work well in a group at problem solving. There’s not much about standardized tests in there.
We seem to over-politicize everything in the interest of proving we’re on the case. Yet, it seems pretty simple to me:
Give ISU enough money to turn out good teachers, and give Unit 5 and District 87 enough money to enable those teachers to do their jobs in a safe and stimulating environment.
We should spend our energy finding the money. Let parents worry about the accountability for how it’s spent.
Dan Irvin is Secretary of the Board of the McLean County Chamber of Commerce, Vice-President of the Bloomington Public Library Foundation Board, and a member of the Heartland Community College Foundation Board.
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