George Will on Education

"Where Paternalism Makes the Grade"

Paternalism is the restriction of freedom for the good of the person restricted.
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Unfortunately, powerful factions fiercely oppose the flourishing. Among them are education schools with their romantic progressivism -- teachers should be mere "enablers" of group learning; self-esteem is a prerequisite for accomplishment, not a consequence thereof. Other opponents are the teachers unions and their handmaiden, the Democratic Party. Today's liberals favor paternalism -- you cannot eat trans fats; you must buy health insurance -- for everyone except children. Odd.

All we need to do, you see, is to apply this administration's philosophy of the unitary executive (greater empowerment of a benign and protecting leader at the expense of civil liberties) to the classroom. This authoritarian model will make up for what Will sees as an epidemic lack of qualified teachers in the country. In his example, he suggests mandatory uniforms, the prohibitions against jewelry, makeup, slouching, holidays, etc., are responsible for student success, and casually notes that the teachers at this school are from places like "Harvard, Dartmouth, Oberlin, Columbia, Berkeley, Brown and Wesleyan."

I've been in the dysfunctional high schools of inner-city Houston, especially those in the low-income northeast side, and the campuses look like prisons. The kids wear uniforms. There are plenty of security gaurds, assistant principals walk around with bull horns, and the teachers' main priority is discipline. The teachers are not from Harvard and Dartmouth. Just maybe, more capable teachers than those we have could be drawn into education by paying them salaries comparable to those of other valued professions.

Most educators, even while they quarrel among themselves, will agree that a genuine commitment to any one of a number of different solutions could help enormously. Most agree that although money can't by itself solve problems, without money few problems can be solved. Money also can't win wars or put men in space, but it is the crucial facilitator. It is also how America has traditionally announced, We are serious about this!

If we were serious, we would raise teachers' salaries to levels that would attract the best young professionals in our society: starting lawyers get from $70,000 to $80,000 [in 1993]-why don't starting kindergarten teachers get the same? Is their role in vouchsafing our future less significant? And although there is evidence suggesting that an increase in general educational expenditures doesn't translate automatically into better schools, there is also evidence that an increase aimed specifically at instructional services does. Can we really take in earnest the chattering devotion to excellence of a country so wedded in practice to mediocrity, a nation so ready to relegate teachers--conservators of our common future--to the professional backwaters?

George Will is not serious. Barber's essay is a classic, and worth a read.