On March 28, 2014, PBS NEWSHOUR broadcasted the following report:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/arnie-duncan-education-agenda/A reasonable person would conclude that the federal government only succeeds in making a mess of public education. Every initiative has failed, and some have failed spectacularly. Obviously, something about the federal government's focus is wrongheaded, but getting any public education official to admit that seems to be an impossible task.
So I will make this simple. The focus of public education must be "top down," not "bottom up." I mean by that this: gifted education must have the first priority.
I firmly believe that a "top down" focus will reliably benefit everyone, even the remedial students. The reason is simple: success breeds success. Winning is something that must be modeled; it must be observed; it must be felt as something that is possible before the confidence necessary to achieve it can be mustered. A "bottom up" focus is like relegating your best players to the far end of the bench and then never letting them play no matter what. Truly, it is the most self-defeating thing that could ever be done, and yet it is precisely what the federal government has been doing for decades now with a never-say-die determination.
That public education is stuck in "bottom up" thinking in Sports Crazy America is something that defies all logic. I say: Put the coaches in charge! Believe me: everything would switch to "top down" thinking within 24 hours — and I mean everything!
Public education in America needs to be about winning, about succeeding, about achieving Personal Bests in competitions. I grew up playing sports, and I played sports for the love of sport. I do not advocate at-all-costs winning if "the love of sport" is lost, because establishing "the love of learning" must be the goal of education. But the glory of it all is found in letting the best players do their best — their very best. America loves a winner, and it is the winner who inspires everyone else to practice and make perfect, and to practice some more and win.
As in sports, so too in academics. "Top down" wins!
Steven A. Sylwester
