Education Week - April 27, 2016 - 23

True Opportunity Is About More Than Access

By Kimberlee Everson
n the course of the current presidential campaign,
the candidates have offered a range of views on how
to improve K-12 schooling. Amid competing calls for
free preschool, revised education standards, and universal college access, it is time to finally realize that
families, not schools, are the most important force in
children's lives. It's time we embrace family rights as
a cornerstone to sound education policy as we look to
the future for our nation's children.
So what would a new set of family rights for the educational
arena entail? I propose that all children have the right to find
and follow their passions; be inspired by creative, motivated
teachers; and have sufficient time and opportunity for developing relationships.
Few people would not agree that there is a base
of knowledge that children need to build on for
them to reach their potential. However, beyond this base, there are unlimited paths
for children to explore.
Some children may grow up to excel
at professional dog-sledding or become
successful cartoonists. Others may
wish to become experts in the lives of
Benjamin Franklin, Harriet Tubman,
or Robin Williams. For others, success
might look like creating their own online startup selling knitted socks. And
we hope that some will cure cancer, obesity, and AIDS or build the next generation
of space shuttles.
Are we certain that what the world needs is more
than 50 million public school children who meet the same
academic goals? Is it possible that true opportunity is the opportunity to develop specific expertise? Might the success of a
nation, in the face of a future that no one can predict perfectly,
rest on the diversity in educational goals-in the same way
that biodiversity ensures the success of a species?
What if the true educational gap for disadvantaged children
is related to the opportunity to develop their passions? What
if children need more time for free play, recess, or self-directed
learning and less time spent in structured preschools or prepping for tests?
Teachers increasingly are subjected to evaluations largely
based on student test scores. Few would argue that striving

for high test scores is a bad idea. The problem is
friend time. Would a careful recalibration of how
that, in the quest for higher test scores, we are
much time students are devoting to these
losing something of greater value.
activities ensure an increase in quality
The hours in a school day and a teachrelationships? Of course not. But it
er's energy are not limitless resources.
would, at the very least, provide
Most teachers already work as hard
an opening for those students-
as they can. Higher test scores
and their families-who would
like to lead more balanced
come at a price. One of those
lives.
costs is often teacher enthusiasm, motivation, and passion.
What if families were
Teachers need the freedom
given one night a week that
was guaranteed to be hometo be passionate about what
work- and school-activitythey teach. They need to be
respected as the inspiring leadfree? What if the school proers they can so often be to our
vided endless ideas-but not
youths-when they are not
"assignments"-for families
hampered by needing
on how to best use that time?
to teach to a test.
Some families might not take
What if teachers
advantage of the opportunity, but
had some room left
wouldn't many families become just
over in their teacha notch stronger? Wouldn't children be
ing day for sharing
just
a bit happier and, thereby, better able
Getty
their own passions with the
to focus on their schoolwork? It would be interchildren? What if one teacher taught
esting to find out.
students chess, another taught waEducation policy should not prescribe children's access to
tercolor painting or filmmaking, and institutions at the expense of access to personal development,
another shared an interest in the me- growth, capability, or happiness. All students attending free
chanics of flight-and what if none of and high-achieving schools from preschool to college is certhose subjects was part of the "core" cur- tainly a beautiful ideal, but if these very institutions quash
riculum? What would happen? Would the passion or inhibit relationship-building, then the loss to our
opportunity gap for children widen or would nation may be greater than the gain.
it narrow? Would teachers and, thereby, children
We are approaching a period that has potential for some
be more excited about coming to school each day? shifts in educational policy, particularly with last year's pasWould general academic performance improve?
sage of the Every Student Succeeds Act. And as presidential
There are great teachers out there who are already sharing candidates continue putting forward their visions for the natheir passions. But for many, the burdens of accountability and tion's schools, it is my hope that they will advocate for rights
other demands have become a straitjacket.
of families that extend beyond access to buildings, a uniform
Most psychotherapists would tell you that a person's hap- curriculum, or high-test-score-producing teachers. It is my hope
piness in life is closely related to the quality of his or her rela- that they will feel teachers' desire for freedom to inspire and
tionships with family and friends. Yet in school, students are children's desire to explore the world with passion. It is my
shushed and asked not to socialize during class, and recess- hope that they will extend true rights to all families. n
the one time in the school day when students really have time
to explore and develop relationships with their peers-has KIMBERLEE EVERSON is an assistant professor of quantitative methods
in the educational administration, leadership, and research department at
taken a back seat to test preparation.
Excessive homework or school sports, particularly at the high Western Kentucky University. Her research focuses on teacher and school
school level, often contribute to insufficient quality family or accountability.

Are we certain that
what the world needs is
more than 50 million public
school children who meet
the same academic
goals?"

Cellphone Addiction
Is No Joke

By Steve Gardiner

ddiction is a
strong word, but
it accurately describes the dysfunctional behavior exhibited
by teenagers in
my high school
English classroom when I ask them
to put away their cellphones.
In a career that spans 38 years, I
have not seen any single diversion
that so distracts students from reading, writing, thinking, and working.
When the cellphone is in front of
them, they are completely focused
on it. When the cellphone is in the
backpack, they are worried because
they can't see it.
On the first day of class, I tell
them that if they can't go 57
minutes without checking their
cellphones, they have a problem and
need to seek professional help. They

laugh. I laugh, but I know how true
that is. Only when I tell them to
take their cellphones and put them
inside their backpacks do they start
to understand how accurate my diagnosis is.
In much the same way a chemical dependency controls an addict's
life, my students' cellphones control
their lives. Students claim they can
read and listen to music at the same
time. They claim they can do math
and text simultaneously. Numerous
research studies state otherwise.
The ability to multitask with a cellphone is an illusion. With a phone
in front of them, students' thinking
is fragmented, as is all their work.
We provide help to people who
can't control their behavior related
to gambling, sex, drugs, alcohol,
and tobacco. We have no programs
to help teenagers who can't live
two minutes without seeing their
phones.
Yes, they have their excuses.

"I am expecting a text from my
mom."
"My grandma is in the hospital."
"My boss is going to tell me
what time I have to work this afternoon."
"I need to know where my
friends are going to eat lunch."
All of those reasons may involve
important information. Some
of them may actually be true.
We have eight minutes between
classes. We have 43 minutes at
lunch. School rules allow students
to use their phones during those
times, but not during class. That
means nothing to them.
They get creative. They text in
their laps. They text in their notebooks. They text inside their pockets.
They tell me how important it is
to respond to their friends, but the
irony is that in paying so much attention to the friend on the other
end of the cell connection, they
blatantly ignore the friends sitting
in the room with them. They walk
down the hallways, oblivious to the
hundreds of other students walking
past them, in order to text a student
on the other side of the building.
Needing a phone in hand or sit-

"
Getty

ting on the desk in front of them
reminds me of Linus from the Peanuts comics, who carries a security
blanket. Cellphones have become
the modern security blanket. It
is not just during school, at lunch,
or after school. Students are using
their cellphones 24/7. They sleep

"The ability to
multitask with
a cellphone is
an illusion.
With a phone in
front of them,
students'
thinking is
fragmented, as
is all their
work."

PAGE 25 >

STEVE GARDINER is a high school
English teacher and a National Board
Certified Teacher in Billings, Mont. He
was that state's teacher of the year in
2008.

EDUCATION WEEK | April 27, 2016 | www.edweek.org/go/commentary | 23

http://www.edweek.org/go/commentary

Education Week - April 27, 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - April 27, 2016