Le

There is substantial agreement on equal op-
portunity for learning. The school system
has progressed from low levels of retention
and secondary school graduation to the
present-day very high levels.

There is substantial agreement on the uni-
versality of the public school system. The
school system has progressed from exclusion
of many categories of students to acceptance
of almost all children who wish to attend.

There is substantial agreement on numeracy,
literacy, science, and arts. The progress
of knowledge has expanded these crucial
fields of human endeavor enormously. The
public school system has adjusted to this
information explosion. Twenty-five years
ago when we thought of languages we did not

 

think of BASIC, FORTRAN, ASSEMBLER, PASCAL.
Chips were associated with fish, not robot-
ics. Gene splicing had something to do with
old clothes to be used as swimming trunks
and nothing to do with biological chemical
factories.

Set theory, group theory, transformation
theory and mapping have changed all of our
ideas about numeracy. Someone at the level
of numeracy of 25 years ago would today be
"innumerate." The technology of art and
history has changed our understanding and
creative abilities. Information science and
television have placed new demands on liter-
acy.

Yet, despite what the critics say, the sys-
tem has responded and has achieved. Many
...I1 repeat, many...more students are now
achieving in these greatly expanded crucial
disciplines. Yes, there are those who stum-
ble with "like," "well" and "you know" and
who struggle with simultaneous equations.
It has always been so. But even these pu-
pils stay in the school system longer, un-
derstand more, achieve and contribute far
more than they would have 25 years ago.

There is substantial agreement on employment
and career preparation for the education
system as a whole, although much less agree-
ment on the role of the public school system
in this. Today, although we have unprece-
dented levels of employment (for example,
the participation of females in the work

 

Mad Hatter Page 4

employment. The young are the most severely
affected. It is facile and wrong to blame
the school system. In terms of secondary
school preparation to enter careers and
professions, the young are exceedingly wel]
equipped. By and large the school system
has done its part. For technological, econ-
omic and social reasons, the jobs aren't
there. The school system can prepare stud-
ents for jobs; the economy must provide the
jobs.

1

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force), we also have very high levels of 7
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What about those areas in which values con- |
flict? I think one can find the richness of|
diversity in many such areas. For example, |
family life education. Many people want sex
education and the morality of sex taught in
the schools. Whether they see this as a
means of preventing venereal disease and un-|
wanted pregnancies, or whether they simply
want the school to assume responsibility for,
moral instruction, is less important than |
the decision that they want family life edu-|
cation. Many other people want a complete
separation of moral instruction from school
curriculum. Again, whether they want this
because they want moral instruction to be
given by home or church, or whether they |
fear the influence of open discussions of |
sex, is less important than the decision
that they do not want family life education. |
The school sytem has become flexible enough |
to allow choice.

 

Similar stories can be told about French ithe.
mersion, personal counselling, alternative |
schools, community schools, Montesori |
schools, etc., etc. |

The public school system has achieved the |
simultaneous acceptance of a very large num- ,
ber of competing value systems. |

Costs and Hficiency |

What price this expansion and accommodation?
An incredibly small price. Oh, yes, the
dollar value of school district budgets has
been on a rapid escalator for a long time. |
But so has inflation; and so has everybody |
and everything else. Hospitals, utilities,
government, oil companies, auto makers, |

transit systems, sports enterprises, cosmet- |

oo