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It's The Teacher, Stupid! Thoughts on Restructuring Education in the United States

by Pierson F. Melcher

142 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0309; ISBN 1-55369-496-1; US$21.00, C$28.95, EUR18.90, £13.10

While politicians call for better standardized test scores, more security, The Ten Commandments in every classroom, compulsory classes in Patriotism, and other meaningless solutions to 21^st century problems, the 19^th century "system" of public education, which absorbs and then spits out all attempts to reform it, goes right on churning out its hapless graduates with meaningless diplomas. As in all huge bureaucracies, self-preservation has supplanted meaningful action and only systemic change of an overwhelming nature can once again bring it to serve our children in a time of blindingly fast economic and social metamorphosis.

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about the book      about the author      reviews      sample excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book Imagine, if you will, a group of doctors trained in 1850 seeing for the first time a modern operating room. They would, of course, be overwhelmed - and not just with the equipment! Even the process of diagnosing the patient's problem would be totally alien. Then imagine an equally talented group of teachers trained in the same era seeing a classroom in a modern school. They would perhaps (but not necessarily!) be appalled at first by the behavior, dress and grooming, but they would feel right at home in terms of teaching in and managing the classroom. That is an indication of the problem which Pete Melcher is addressing in this book. Simply stated, the procedures and practices of elementary and secondary schools and the teacher's role in them are virtually unchanged from those of a century and a half ago. We can probably all agree that change for the sake of change, whether in education or elsewhere, is not necessarily desirable. In fact, Melcher's logic frequently takes us back to some of the successful structures and patterns of education which have been abandoned in a decades-long, discouraging parade of failure: our attempts at curriculum reform, the introduction of more and more social programs, the growing dominance of athletics and the ever-less-demanding levels of academic achievement. In the course of these observations he makes us realize that without substantial qualitative changes in the structure of the school "system(s)" themselves, the general quality of public education will continue its descent to ever-lower levels of mediocrity. And nothing of this accelerating process, which has been characterized by others as "the dumbing down of America," is as critical as the ever-shrinking pool of high quality teachers. Always in short supply, the number of bright and well-educated young people who graduate from college and enter the teaching profession is shrinking rapidly. Mostly because teaching salaries have never kept pace with the economic development in this country, a situation which in turn has been encouraged by the lack of professionalism projected by teacher unions, the young people who should be exercising their talents in the classroom are entering other businesses and professions where their efforts are more respected and better compensated. Of course, at the root of all of the problems is the archaic and inadequate nature of school financing which prevents appropriate remedies. Melcher traces the history of this problem in compelling terms through the first chapters of this book. He also manages to deal surprisingly well with such persistent and nasty problems as student rights, religion in the classroom, and the Columbine massacre, to identify a few of his "Thoughts." This is a book which, while it does not pretend to have all the answers, does indeed provide many which everyone concerned with education should either accept or reject on a conscious level, any rejections being only on the basis of other proposals that are better. This is a book by a man who has worked with schools and school children for forty years, a man who appeals to our common sense to begin the painful process of necessary change. No one really interested in the quality of public education should fail to read it!

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About the Author A child of The Great Depression and World War II, Pete Melcher was born just three years prior to the stock market crash of 1929. Thus his life spans the last three quarters of the 20th century and the staggering changes which have occurred during that time. As a child he saw horse-drawn vehicles performing most of the transporting of goods in Philadelphia, while gas street lights in some places were still lighted by hand every night. Air travel was a rarity in relatively primitive planes. Then like just about every other male citizen he was thrust into the maw of the greatest war the world has yet seen, moving around many of the now-fabled islands of the Pacific Ocean with the Army Air Corps. After a very brief flirtation with the insurance business, he chanced into a teaching post and never looked back. Teaching English in New Haven, CT, Carpinteria, CA, Austin, TX, and St. Louis, MO, while also picking up administrative experience were all preludes to his becoming headmaster at a school in Los Angeles, CA, with the task of converting it from a family run proprietary school to a non-profit school. From there he went to another school in Waterbury, CT, to bring some new life to the dying cause of girls' single-sex education. That in turn led to his founding and constructing a girls' boarding school in Southborough, MA, a school noteworthy for its fresh and successful approach to single-sex education. When that school was absorbed by its sponsoring neighbor, a single-sex boys school, he went on to Jacksonville, FL, to repeat the revival of a girls' school. Mr. Melcher finished his career with an additional seven years as a school management consultant to over 100 schools in every part of the United States. These consulting assignments gave him a depth of perspective in school operation and management which ultimately persuaded him that independent schools had much to offer the nation as illustrations of different models of management, both good and bad. It also made him realize that the general citizens' view of public schools competing with independent schools was preventing a deeper and richer relationship in which cooperation and mutual exploration of new ways of doing things could help all children in all schools. Finally, his wide and deep experiences also brought him to the realization that the United States is at risk of losing its edge in the world economy unless it reexamines the principles on which the education system was founded.

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Reviews

Something Must Be Done A Review of It's the Teacher, Stupid! by James Hunter

I just put down one of the best written, most penetrating books I have ever read on the subject of American education. No one today who is at work in the field of education, or with children in school, should miss this volume.

Published in August of 2002, Pete Melcher's book is a brilliant and loving effort to bring attention to an ailing patient. With authority and hard won wisdom he takes us on a long walk from our pine board frontier beginnings to the cement steps of Columbine.

Teacher, principal, consultant. Melcher has been each. For instance, in Chapter 13, where he discusses the "meltdown" - in fact, I think he says, "total meltdown" - of the American system of education, he discusses in detail the subtle processes by which schools organize themselves and continue to run. He knows how they should run, and also how they are actually running. If you want to know too, read this book.

Pete Melcher asks important questions, and works to provide answers. How do we actually educate people? What is the art of teaching? What are student rights? What should we be teaching our young Americans? Why not insist on excellence in education? Fasten your seat belts because this writer-educator will take you for a bumpy ride. However, you will rarely have such a skilled, sensitive and honest guide.

Melcher believes we must immediately reach a national consensus on what to do about our ailing American system of education. Size, Pete says, defeats us before we begin. Too many modern schools are too big. We lost the most important part of the student-teacher relationship when we lost intimacy. And the teacher, Melcher repeats often, is education's main gear. And while I find this book compelling and a must read, I did not like the title. I understand why it was chosen: for effect. But placing the word "stupid" adjacent to teacher has, sadly, too often had the effect of an insult. And if not the teacher, then who?

The respect and admiration Melcher shows throughout for teachers in general and for those who most influenced him is clear. This is a man who devoted his life to education, and even in retirement continues to do so, and would regret deeply the unintended effect of the title.

Truthful and pungent and accurate he is. But it's all achieved with respect. And simultaneously, an urgency to get us back to the place we once were. Not, he says, to try to recreate the "good old days." He knows that is not possible, for as he writes on page sixty, "We live not only in the New World but also in a new world."

Some will find parts of this book irritating, and others in partial or complete agreement, or disagreement. That's the way of education. That is the way of America. But one area of general agreement may be certain. Whether we agree with all or only a part of what Pete Melcher says, we may all agree that something must be done. America's system of education is no longer working the way it once was, and not for the better either. If you want to know why, read this book.

Long ago I worked as a Teacher, and since my wife just retired from thirty-three years of teaching in most grades and as a counselor at the elementary level, and since I've been around education as a worker, spouse, parent, interested spectator, and contributor for many years, as well as a reviewer of books, I affirm once more this book is important: that it contains almost as many questions as answers, which alone sets it apart from the rest of the pack.
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James Hunter may be reached by e-mail addressed to: mthunter@alaska.net. He and his wife live outside of Fairbanks, Alaska.

A Review by Ellen Rawson of It's the Teacher, Stupid!: Thoughts on Restructuring Education in the United States by Pierson F. Melcher:

I was prepared to dislike Pierson F. Melcher's It's the Teacher, Stupid, subtitled Thoughts on Restructuring Education in the United States. As a twenty-year veteran of the teaching profession, and still going strong, I initially misinterpreted the title. After too many years of hearing attacks on teachers in two different countries, I assumed incorrectly that Melcher was yet another education critic who would dump the blame on the teachers. When I realized that Melcher himself had worked in secondary education for forty years and currently resided in Colorado, where I'd spent seventeen years of my public-school teaching experience, I wasn't quite sure what to think.

My ideas are more organized now. Meleher definitely isn't attacking teachers. Rather than blaming teachers, he is trying to point out that teachers are at the heart of good education. Good teachers help to create well-educated, happy students. Overall, his ideas smack of common sense from someone who's been in the trenches. This hook isn't filled with the usual governmental nonsense from bureaucrats who've never taught or haven't been around a classroom in years. While I can't endorse all of Melcher's recommendations, I see where they are coming from.

For example, I personally disagree with his stance on vouchers. Melcher's teaching and administrative experience is in private schools; so it's reasonable for him to he biased in favor of vouchers. He does admit that some private schools are not the best, while some public schools are quite good. He states that any school, public or private, should he able to accept vouchers and that objections based on separation of church and state are invalid: "I can only say that this arrangement is no more of a violation of that principal than is tax exemption for non-profit organizations including churches." My, that really could open a whole new can of worms: an argument in favor of taxing churches, synagogues, etc.. He readily admits that "the state must he reasonably sure that the religious schools operate without discrimination arid offer an education as good as any other school," but that's another issue." Yes, it definitely is, and it's not developed within Melcher's essay. He seems to he using logical fallacies to dismiss one argument and avoid another. I wonder if he views vouchers as a method to provide quality education for children who might otherwise attend "failing" schools until his plans for improving all schools can he put into place.

However, while I dislike his vouchers argument, I nod with approval when he discusses ideas such as smaller schools and classes, along with recruiting excellent teaching candidates by offering them higher pay (particularly via merit pay raises) and improving teacher training. Melcher might be pleased to know that the state-run education system in the United kingdom, in which I currently teach, pretty much practices merit pay increases today. Once a teacher reaches "threshold." he or she must apply for additional raises; they're not necessarily automatic. However, recent reforms in the British system tend to reflect the idea that teachers just aren't to be trusted, a problem seen across the globe nowadays.

Melcher also addresses an issue that has become more and more important globally in schools: that of student rights. He briefly discusses the history behind this movement and then argues that it's gone too far. While I disagree with his assertion that co-educational secondary education is to blame for problems such as male jock mentality and the girls' cheerleader syndrome without any mention of the general societal change over his forty years in education, I must agree with his overall blame of individuals -- "individual judges, individual lawyers, individual citizens seeking damages, and particularly juries of individual citizens -- for most of the excesses of the system." Over the course of my own career, half the span of Melcher's, I too have seen what he describes as "the parents, who all too often these days automatically defend their children from any attempts by the school to discipline them, however justified."

The sub-title to this book says it all. It's really not a whole book about reforming education; it's a collection of thoughts. Separate essays, connected by the sam overall theme, address serious concerns about education. While Melcher's opinions do not ncvessarily offer viable solutions and the solutions he offers are uup for debate, he has at least invited comment and debate on a controversial but very necessary topic of discussion.

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Sample Excerpts and Table of Contents

Contents

Dedication
In Special Appreciation
Foreword
Preface

Aspects of the Problem
The Ichabod Crane Syndrome
Education: the Concept
Mark Hopkins' Legacy
Students' Rights
Of R's and Aren't's
Leviathan
On Excellence

Aspects of the Solution
Taming Leviathan
Yes, It's the Teacher
That Special Place
Religion and Education
Random Thoughts on Learning

The Real World
Meltdown
Possibilities

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Democracy and Education

There is a great popular ideal called public education that has slowly taken hold of the American imagination during the past two hundred years: an ideal that is worshiped but at the same time practiced thoughtlessly. This ideal goes back to the basic concept of representative democracy leading up to the adoption of the United States Constitution. For to the Founding Fathers the formal education of voters was essential, even though they gave it no specific place in the Constitution. To the rest of the watching world at the end of the 18th century, the American experiment in government, giving sovereignty to the common man rather than to a ruling class of aristocrats, was an experiment that ranged from absurd to dangerous, depending on who was describing it. At worst it was conceived of as a major threat to the landowning gentry, leading to anarchy and violent revolution. At best it was seen as an absurdity that would founder on the inability of the common man to make rational decisions about his own governance. But those who forged this new approach to an orderly society knew that education was the key to success and said so often in their writings.

The Worship of Education

Unfortunately, the pseudo worship of education previously referred to has resulted in the current educational paralysis in which we find ourselves. Because education was so successful in the past and because the current generation of taxpayers still looks to that model in spite of the staggering social and political changes in the world, we are now finding that few of our formulas for success are working any longer. We are feeling that the god of education that we have so faithfully worshiped for so long (even if we never really understood it) has now abandoned us. And there is no disillusionment so great as that of a people whose god has abandoned them!

The Importance of the Teacher

We must get back to an understanding that all else in education - everything! - exists (or should exist) primarily to support good teachers. Not to understand this is to forever fail to solve the problems of education. And that just won't do!

The Student-Teacher Relationship

I have also tried previously to describe the teacher-learner relationship as an act of faith - a bridge, if you will, that the teacher extends toward the student and across which that student creeps fearfully to touch the outstretched hand of the teacher in order to make contact with the awe-ful [sic] and frightening world of ideas. Unless we see the teacher as an instigator of such acts of faith, we will have failed to grasp the essential nature of education.

The Teacher as Counselor

Adults who can both teach subject matter and at the same time be friends with the students are vital, especially in the adolescent years. Being friends does not mean abandoning adult standards, nor does it mean abandoning all "authority" roles or necessarily liking all students. (After all, some students make themselves very difficult to like.) But study after study has recently shown how important the emotional state of the student is to his or her ability to learn subject matter that frequently does not have any apparent relevance to the life of an adolescent. The sub-college level teacher, therefore, must always try to be a friend and counselor to the students in addition to being an "expert" in subject matter or skills.

On the Law

We often make the crucial mistake of thinking of the law as "common sense." In fact, it never can be common sense even though common sense may be and should be the instigating force behind specific laws. Laws are simply the attempt by human beings to establish a procedural framework for the application of common sense by judges and juries. The fact that those entities often fail to exercise that common sense does not invalidate the system unless a better one is designed, something that has yet to occur.

The Side-effects of Students' Rights

Then the whole concept of children's rights went to school, which up to that time had operated legally in loco parentis. Suddenly the school was unable - or unwilling because of potential lawsuits - to discipline the child. In this manner "civil rights" has in effect, even though probably not in intent, granted the child nearly full adult rights under the Constitution. And the effect on education is devastating! In a mere decade the two greatest controlling influences in a child's life - the parent and the school - have been effectively eviscerated!

Of Rights and Democracy

... the major limitation of democracy, whatever its other excellent qualities, is that it gradually slips into a somewhat benign form of mob rule as more and more coherent minorities of various types pursue more and more "rights." The ultimate result, of course, is a mass of conflicting splinter groups resulting in institutional powerlessness or even chaos.

Education Reform

Reforms in education come and go like tsunami waves. They are huge at the time, relatively unpredictable in occurrence, frequently do a lot of damage (sometimes some good, i.e., wiping out a waterfront slum), and then go away to be seen no more. Education reform has often been compared to punching a bag full of water. The effect is felt as the fist makes an impression on the bag, but the weight and fluidity of the water soon restore the bag to its original shape again.

The System

So then, on we go, trying to patch and mend an outdated Leviathan, which still operates from its huge municipal holding tank with its irrelevant staffs of so-called educators doing anything but educate, gobbling tax dollars without producing results, a plaything for state political groups of all stripes.

The Education Dilemma

Thus we are faced with an irresistible force, uncontrolled change, that wages war with the equally immovable object, our education bureaucracy. And as a result our schools, those places that we adults remember as Edens of innocence from our childhood, have to survive in a world that neither they nor their students can understand, filled with guns, and lacking any cultural lighthouses by which they can chart a course away from the shoals. In fact they cannot even identify their port of destination! Instead, like Jonah, they sail around aimlessly, avoiding their responsibilities, in this case already having been swallowed up by Leviathan, the great whale. (Captain Abab, where are you when we really need you?)

Using the "Bully Pulpit"

In a democratic society we must always remember that people's expectations about anything, including education, rise or sink to the level of the expectations of the ruling majority. That is mediocrity by definition. Such expectations must continually be raised in order to prevent them from continually sinking. The "bully pulpit" of the White House should be heavily involved in this process.

The "Real World"

One of the shibboleths used by those who would attack private schools in general or public schools with which they have a complaint is that they are not in "the real world." Students also use this complaint when asked to do something that they don't want to do. Well, I hope it is not the real world... A school is a very special environment meant to accomplish a limited but supremely important task: the development of the minds and the spirits of young people. As such, a school is a refuge from the distractions of the "real world" in many regards: a fortress island in life, perhaps. It is a place in which the student should be able to acquire new ideas and new skills, perhaps a new self-image, in relatively complete freedom from fear, and from which, more and more as he or she matures, that same student can venture forth into the real world to try out those newly acquired skills and ideas, returning after each trial to "lick wounds," "talk it over" with a teacher-friend and refine ideas or skills or self-images.

Columbine

So we need to stop the mindless blaming and exoneration from blame of which Time's article is but the latest and boldest example. When an entire system of public activity is doing the wrong things, blaming individuals is simply a sophisticated form of lynching.

"Cider House Rules"

Like most similar groups of students, the Columbine students operate under a set of "cider house rules" and policies designed by others with little sensitivity to student needs and concerns, which the students themselves often cannot articulate. These rules and policies date back to the beginning of public education in the 19th century and are based on the principal of the adults' keeping the adolescents quiet and in good order, the assumption being that education requires such an environment. In this scheme of things students are rarely consulted for their ideas and input because they are theoretically too young and inexperienced to be able to arrive at sound decisions (meaning "adult" decisions - which are always "sound" by definition!).

School and Teacher Evaluation

So how do we evaluate school and teacher performance anyway? Much is being made lately of judging them by standardized test scores, but any experienced test-giver knows that at best such tests can only supply a minimum standard of judgement that is subject to manipulation and outright fraud by unscrupulous teachers and administrators. Further, in a time when vocabularies and types of questions are being challenged as discriminatory and judged by revisionist history, it is nearly impossible to interpret standardized tests consistently and fairly. They do, of course, generally show that most schools are doing a poor job.

Copyright © 2002 by Pierson F. Melcher. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to newspaper, magazine and television critics and reporters to use the foregoing quotations in reviews. For other permissions contact the author by e-mail at pfphoenixm@earthlink.net

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Catalogue Information

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