What does the health care debate have to do with education?

Now that Congress is back from their summer break, fresh with input from their local constituents, they are continuing their effort to shape fundamental health care reform. Did you get to see or hear the “discourse” that transpired at local town hall meetings?  In too many cases it was a disgraceful display of boorish behavior that resembled anything but the kind of civil discourse our forefathers had in mind when they crafted the Constitution.  And what does the health care debate have to do with education?  Lots!!

I have long taken the position that public education must guarantee equity of opportunities and outcomes for all students.  In other words – All Means All – all students learning to high levels regardless of race, ethnicity, family income or education.  In fact this is a fundamental principle for our work at the Center for Educational Leadership.  For a moment let’s dream that as a country we achieve our goal of all students learning at high levels with no academic or other gaps separating students based on historical predictors such as race and class.  The question is to what end should this high level learning serve?  Clearly, we want all of our public school graduates to partake in the “American dream,” awash in opportunities to earn a decent living in a vibrant economy of a country with the highest standard of living in the world.  But there is something much more precious and vital at stake.  That is the preservation of the very democracy that from the beginning has fueled the greatness of our country.  In other words, our citizenry must have the knowledge and skills to participate in collective governance as well as ensure the well being of our democracy in the process.  In this regard I am deeply troubled by the current polarization that exists among our people that may make it impossible for any President and Congress to govern – regardless of which party is in power.

Now back to the question of education.  Since the idea of healthy discourse is fundamental to the well being of a democracy, I ask the following questions: To what extent does our daily teaching produce students capable of deep intellectual discourse?  How often do students have the opportunity to engage in this type of meaningful conversation?  Are they taught the skills to engage in healthy debate?  Are teachers taught how to create opportunities for this rich written and oral form of communication in their classroom?  Do our central office leaders and principals recognize discourse when they see it or not in the classroom?  Do our current accountability systems guided by the uneven application of No Child Left Behind regulations encourage and reward the teaching of discourse?  

In other words education has everything to do with the development of discourse and discourse, or lack thereof, has everything to do with our current health care debate – which by the way hardly can be called a debate.

In my previous post I shared the results of our 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning assessment.  We have found that discourse, among many other important aspects of quality instruction, is not readily recognized and understood among educational leaders.  Discourse is not simply students talking with one another although frankly that would be a start in too many of our classrooms that are dominated by teacher talk.  Discourse is much deeper and tied to an intellectually demanding curriculum and rich learning opportunities.  The extent to which our leaders understand what this means is the extent to which they can guide and support the kind of teacher professional learning necessary to teach students how to engage in deep discourse.  We owe it to our next generation of students so that perhaps in another time, in another debate over another topic of importance to the American people, we can be proud of our citizens’ behavior rather than be embarrassed!

Dr. Stephen Fink is the Executive Director of the Center for Educational Leadership, and Affiliate Associate Professor, College of Education, University of Washington.