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Whose Job Is It Anyway?

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Every additional mandate, whether it's for accountability testing, drug awareness programs, sex education programs, character education programs, bullying prevention programs, technology integration programs, or one of a slew of other local, state, and federal initiatives, places additional demands on the precious few teachable minutes in a school year. Now that the federal government has found it necessary to mandate -- and monitor -- reading and math achievement, can we really afford to simply shove these latest requirements into the school day and hope for the best?

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Linda Starr, a former teacher and the mother of four children, has been an education writer for nearly two decades. Starr is the curriculum and technology editor for Education World.


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An elementary school teacher wrote to an advice columnist reminding parents of their responsibilities when it comes to their children's education.

"It is the teacher's job to prepare your child academically and provide a good foundation for future educational growth," the teacher wrote. "It is the teacher's job to provide challenging and interesting assignments and projects." It's the parents' job, she pointed out, to see that their children are sent to school prepared to learn.

I'm sure that teacher speaks for most teachers when she says "It is very hard for me to do my job when children show up late, without supplies or homework, and with a poor attitude. ... Parents, please, do your job so I can do mine."

That teacher raises a point that, now more than ever, needs to addressed. Just exactly what is a teacher's job -- and what parts of the job now being done by teachers should really be someone else's responsibility?

The passage of the No Child Left Behind Act mandated the creation of state reading and math standards for grades 3 through 8 and annual student testing based on those standards. Contrary to the apparent belief of federal lawmakers, the school day and year contain a finite number of teachable minutes. Every additional mandate, whether it's for accountability testing, drug awareness programs, sex education programs, character education programs, bullying prevention programs, technology integration programs, or one of a slew of other local, state, and federal initiatives, places additional demands on those precious minutes.

Eventually, something important is lost. As we've seen in recent years, what's lost is all too often academic instruction. Now that the federal government has found it necessary to mandate -- and monitor -- reading and math achievement, can we really afford to simply shove these latest requirements into the school day and hope for the best? What will we lose if we do that? And who will pick up the slack?

The answer is that unless schools plan ahead, identify and prioritize their current responsibilities, and communicate their future needs -- unless, that is, educators start to share responsibility for the education of our young people -- something else will be lost. And most likely it will be something else we can't afford to lose.

In recent years, the education system in the United States has become a largely reactive entity. State boards of education react to the concerns of government by implementing politically correct social programs. Local boards of education react to the enthusiasm of educational theorists by implementing revolutionary -- and unproven -- instructional innovations. School systems react to community demands by implementing special-interest curricula. Schools react to poor parenting by taking on the role of surrogate parents. All those imperatives eventually fall into the lap of the classroom teacher. Who has time to actually teach?

Right now, with the push for academic accountability at its peak, is the right time for schools and school systems to become proactive; to take a fresh look at the flotsam and jetsam that's accumulated in our schools, decide exactly what is -- and isn't -- necessary, and what is -- and isn't -- the teacher's job, and reallocate the rest. How?

Let's make parents responsible for making sure their children are ready for school -- ready to listen, ready to learn, ready to accept that an education is a privilege and a responsibility. Let's insist that parents teach their children good manners, good behavior, self-respect, and respect for others. Let's refuse to allow children into school until they've learned those lessons. Education is every child's right; it's a right that shouldn't be infringed upon by children who show up at school unwilling to learn.

Let's make the popular media responsible for drug, tobacco, and alcohol education. In-school efforts, including the highly touted D.A.R.E. program, have been notoriously unsuccessful anyway -- probably because kids expect educators and law enforcement personnel to preach against dangerous substances, and so tune out the messages along with the messengers. While we're at it, let's insist that the media employ all their extensive resources and abundant creative energy to present persuasive, effective messages -- not just a few 30-second celebrity sermons.

Let's make the entire educational community responsible for our public schools. At Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, computer science students enrolled in an Educational Software course design custom software for local public schools -- to the benefit of both groups of students. That effort, of course, is just one of many -- but there are still way too few. Let's insist that more of our college and university students and professors abandon their ivory towers for the reality of public school classrooms, where they can help solve problems and create practical, usable resources.

Let's make all businesses, not just a few large civic-minded companies, responsible for helping to educate future employees. Let's insist that local businesses encourage their current employees to spend time in the public schools -- tutoring and mentoring, directing special projects, providing technology training and support, supervising lunch hours and recess periods, providing clerical skills and services, and more -- and reward them for those efforts.

Let's make local, state, and federal government responsible for obtaining the cooperation of parents, businesses, colleges and universities, and the media through legal and financial incentives -- and penalties, if necessary.

Then, let's make teachers responsible for teaching reading, math, English, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography. Let's make teachers responsible "only" for teaching.

In other words, let's make everyone accountable for the academic achievement of our students.