Thought some more about the whole Bush/education thing from the previous post. I guess I’m not so much mad at him as disappointed that the education community can’t strike back with any sort of coherent public relations. Why aren’t they making it easier for teachers, the people on the front lines of public education, to speak to the public directly about what it means to be a teacher, what their problems and frustrations and successes are like, in their own voices? This is basic Cluetrain stuff – there is no market for messages. What affects perceptions more: a TV commercial starring actors playing teachers, or a conversation in the produce section between a teacher and a parent? If things don’t change pretty soon, the conservative “public schools are failing and should be shut down” mantra will be gospel, and the era of public education will end.
It’s no surprise that when people are asked to rate the quality of public education, they generally rate their local district good or very good, their state fair and the country poor. But the pollsters never consider – how can every local district be doing such a capable job, when the country as a whole is rated so poorly? It’s because people know locally that their district is doing well, but they’re so awash in propaganda that they think the U.S. is going to hell in a handbasket.
Instead of encouraging people to get involved in their local schools, conservatives like GW want people to pull back, disengage, and wait for that tax refund check to come in the mail. So far, they’ve been doing a bang-up job. Educators and those who care about them better start working to reverse this trend, or pretty soon they’ll be about as relevant as a telegraph operator.