John H. Marble
It’s common knowledge: the horrible failure of our public schools
Hardly a day goes by when I don’t read an article or hear a comment about the desperate state of public education in America. Test scores in decline. Inadequate teachers, buildings and textbooks. Curriculum awash with unfunded mandates. Over-loaded classrooms. Out-of-control students, and on and on.
Bottom line: the American education system is failing, we’re falling behind, the future is bleak, and everyone knows it.
Well, maybe so, maybe not.
Last week I had the pleasure of being a judge at the Science Fair at Holley School. As a life-long science nut, I thought this sounded like fun. How difficult could it be? Kids from the backwoods hollers of Crawfordsville and the upper Calapooia, all waiting to show off their feather collection or their skills with a jackknife. Boy, was I in for a lesson.
What I found was a gymnasium full of bright-eyed, anxious and intense students, waiting impatiently to demonstrate their scientific prowess.
One after another, little kids from first grade to aspiring-adult sixth-graders chased me around the room, insisting that I should come and look at their project.
And the projects themselves? Well, here’s a sample of what I found: electromagnetic fields where energy was channeled into light or work. Animal behavior studies. Microbiology studies of living parasites. Electricity produced by fruits and vegetables. Active experiments involving pH (the measure of how acidic/basic water is, for those whose memory of science class may be vague), chemistry, and reaction by-products. Charts, graphs and videos. Explorations of velocity, displacement, thrust, friction. And a bunch more, as well.
Oh sure, there were some kid-science things there too (think spud guns and rat-trap cars). But here’s what’s interesting: Every science project, from the youngest kids’ to the most advanced, had a written hypothesis, a report of the data collected and written results with conclusions.
Pretty heady stuff, especially when we consider that these kids are the result of a horribly failing educational system.
In fact, the only widespread problem I observed was the general belief that if the results did not align with the youngster’s hypothesis, he or she thought the experiment was somehow a failure.
Imagine the smiles all around when I explained to students, one after the next, that this was simply the way science works. They were doing great science, figuring things out, making progress, expanding their knowledge of the world.
Results are just that: results.
On my way home I began thinking about the science training I received here in this same school district in the early 1970s. I was mesmerized by the work of master teachers named Lamb, Pyke, Wingfield and Widmark.
Looking back, although I feel confident that I was well-prepared for a lifetime of science and learning, I was struck by a nagging problem: I had just spent a couple of hours doing science with 10-year-olds who were working on concepts that I explored in my sophomore or junior years in high school.
Clearly, today’s Sweet Home science students are advancing much more rapidly than I did. They confidently discuss scientific concepts that I suspect challenge their parents and their teachers too. Is this a characteristic of a failing educational system?
Perhaps it’s time for a new hypothesis when it comes to our public schools.
Based on my brief period of observation and data, I believe our schools may just be doing a wonderful job of preparing our children to explore the world and be successful. I’m anxious to see how this little experiment – turning these kids loose on the world – works out. I find myself full of optimism.
Finally, a huge thanks to Caryn Wise at Holley School for letting me spend some time with these scientists of the future. And to the kids and the parents and all of the teachers: Bravo! Nice work, good science and keep learning!
Note: John Marble is a 1974 graduate of SHHS who has spent the past 50 years trying to figure out how things work. He lives in the Crawfordsville area.