In 1987, Mrs Margaret Thatcher flew to Moscow to meet the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. In their famous conversations, Gorbachev rounded on her. As she recalled it, “His view was that the British Conservative Party was the party of the 'haves’ in Britain and that our system of 'bourgeois democracy’ was designed to fool people about who really controlled the levers of power.” But she hit back: “I explained that what I was trying to do was to create a society of 'haves’, not a class of them.” (source)The greatest problem that I run into when confronting liberalism in schools is the idea that there are haves and have-not's- that some kids have it and that others don't. What they have is debatable- some teachers want kids to have intelligence, others want kids to have effort, and other teachers want kids to have the same opinion as they do about topics- but the educational world clearly believes that there are classes out there.
But being the deeply liberal institutions that they are, schools always arrive at the same and incorrect conclusion of how to break down this class system. Schools and the educational world pushes that all students should be equalized by going through education at the same pace (one grade per year), that every student should graduate at the same exact time with the same exact number and sort of classes, that the pace and level of education that is delivered in the classroom should be directed at the average (or even the least) student in the room, that the curriculum that is taught in schools must be exactly the same, that the funding of the school systems should be exactly the same, that classes must be large groups of students all moving at the same pace, and that teachers should be paid the same (or have pay scales that advance the same for everyone, whether they are an effective teacher or not).
The solution that liberals have devised to break down the class system in the education world is a leftist one that attempts to redistribute and equalize effort from those who have it to those who don't- the leftists in education try to use schools to transfer to those students who don't the natural intelligence, curiosity, industry, effort, leadership, communication, writing skills, the right opinions, the right mindset, or whatever that the others students do have. And the result is predictable- an educational establishment that achieves less results with more resources consumed, that falls further behind when measured against the past or other nations, and that does not give students the knowledge and skills to succeed in the future.
The solution in education is not to get rid of those who have it or transfer the stuff that people have to the others, but to create a society in education of people who do have it- to encourage every student to be successful and achieve all that they can be and to push them upwards, not work to keep them from falling behind.
In this new educational system of the conservative future, students will move through grades based on their achievements and skill level, not based on their age. Students (and parents) are free to have choices on what sorts of classes they should take and when they should take them, and will have input into the curriculum that is taught in them as well. In the education of the future that pushes all students upward to grow the pie of effort, achievement, intelligence, and skills, students will receive more individualized instruction that will push them in their own individualized ways- personalized feedback on writing and essays, one-on-one support for math and science skills, and personal attention to their communication of their views and knowledge on subject matters. Funding for schools will be variable, and teachers pay will be flexible and adjustable based on their performance and effectiveness in the classroom. Classrooms will be able to contain a range of different settings to learn the information, and will have more flexible hours and meeting times to meet the needs of the students.
In the educational world, we need to move away from focusing on a class system or pushing this idea that teachers have the knowledge and power and students are just trying to acquire it, and instead move to a culture and society where learning information and new skills is the goal so that students can successfully win jobs and promotions and be hardworking innovation workers and leaders of enterprise for the future. We need to move away from leftist ideas and more towards the right in education, and in so doing, the pie will be grown and our future will be better.
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