Back to Basics

...However much the back-to-basics movement has been linked in the public mind with forced patriotism, paddling, preaching, and Puritanism, its stripped-down essentials amount to nothing more than an insistence upon improved teaching and learning in the fundamental subjects of education— reading, writing, spelling, mathematics, history, the basic sciences...

...And the people who want that are not easily divisible by race, sex, economic class, religious belief, or political ideology...

...If the movement is "mere nostalgia," the Council says, "it will pass...

...There are no objective answers to such questions, nor is there much to indicate that the people in Pasadena— or, for that matter, anywhere in the country—are close to reconciliation on the broad issues that education raises...

...When parents were asked in a Gallup Poll last year if they would send their children to "a special public school that has strict discipline, including a dress code, and that puts emphasis on the Three Rs," 57 per cent said yes, 33 per cent said no, and the remaining 10 per cent were undecided...

...The fundamental alternative schools, it says, should be viewed with caution: "Some of the programs contain some simplistic battle cries of doubtful merit, such as 'bring back the paddle,' "teach truth, justice, and virtue,' and 'what we need is a dress code.' Basic education does not necessarily include corporal punishment, dress codes, or moralistic indoctrination, and it would have been better if these schools had confined themselves to curricular reform and reasonable changes in discipline—as some of them have...

...We're not elitist, and the 'educational conservative' label doesn't fit us either...

...It has often addressed the subject in its monthly Bulletin, calling the phenomenon a consequence of rising costs, declining achievement, deteriorating discipline, and "disillusionment with many recent educational innovations...

...They are, in fact, a mixed lot of people whose only common bonds are a dissatisfaction with the schooling children now receive and a conviction that the best way to improve it is to concentrate on the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic...

...No failing grades are given, and credit is allowed for a wide variety of on-campus and off-campus educational activities...

...Yet the phenomenon exists: Liberals and conservatives and moderates, affluent and middle-class and poor people, whites and blacks and other minorities, Protestants and Catholics and Jews, book-banners and lovers of the classics, people with a wistfully nostalgic remembrance of things past, and people with an ambitious yearning for upward mobility can be found in all sorts of strange and unorthodox alliances having to do with the education—or, as many of them would say, the mis-education —of their children...

...It may even be misleading to call the trend a movement, because that term suggests a degree of unity and cohesiveness the advocates of basic education do not possess...

...In another of its publications, the Council says that the "non-academic aspects of the back-to-basics movement and some of the aspects related to academics— letter-grades, homework, order, quiet, drill, and memorization—are linked in part with nostalgia...

...We've attacked the notion of Arthur Jensen that blacks are inherently stupid, and of James Coleman that social class is the only factor influencing school outcome...

...It seems reasonable to conclude that the school board members, educators, and parents in Pasadena who created John Marshall and the other fundamental schools there had two overriding objectives in mind: One was to get from their children the sort of academic performance that would equip them for the most competitive colleges and for the competitive world beyond college...

...Instruction is also given in "character education"—in lieu of religious instruction —and patriotism is emphasized...

...The best-known schoolbook from the past—the 140-year-old McGuffey 's Reader—is back in vogue in many places, one of which is the Pilgrim School, a respected Congregational Church institution in Los Angeles...

...There is no dress code, and there are only a few written rules of behavior...

...The "back to basics" movement is, in a sense, a pervasive reaction against all of the highly touted programs of educational reform that failed to deliver what they promised, but it goes deeper than that...

...To be sure, economics, politics, race, and religion are still the primary determining factors in the makeup of many schools, including a great many of those which identify themselves with the "back-to-basics" movement...

...Everything else, it says, should be considered secondary and supplementary...

...Their differences with the John Marshall parents, it may be assumed, have less to do with objectives than with definitions, with philosophy...

...Predictably, it pits ardent advocates against caustic critics in a running verbal battle that doesn't reveal much about fundamental schooling, but says a lot about a fundamental split in American educational and social thinking...

...they avoid being "different...

...they revel in noncormity...

...What does it mean to "make it" in the real world...

...Within the traditional setting of the formal classroom, there is heavy concentration on the Three Rs...

...Those five crises—finance, equality, quality, confidence, and control—are still unresolved...

...Teachers striking for higher pay are encountering stiff opposition from parents and taxpayers who insist that the quality of instruction—measured by student performance—ought to be a consideration in salary negotiations...

...Parents and school boards in many communities are attacking educational books, films, and other materials they claim are obscene, racist, sexist, sacrilegious, or anti-American, and calling for a return to "old" materials...

...Governments change leaders, but the immutable bureaucracy plods along almost unaffected...

...The answers seem as elusive as ever...

...One of the largest and most prominent of these is the John Marshall Fundamental School in Pasadena, California...

...one degree or another, it is also a reactionary response to some changes that have had a measure of success— racial desegregation and the ban on Bible-reading and prayers, to name two...

...Adult authority is virtually absolute: courtesy titles are required, written rules of behavior and dress are strict and specific, discipline is given heavy emphasis, paddling is permitted...

...Corporations change their packaging, but the products stay pretty much the same...

...Over the years, the Council for Basic Education has been called, in Weber's words, "an elitist organization, an organization of educational conservatives, and even a right-wing political outfit, in the same bag with the Birch Society and the Ku Klux Klan...

...We're for concentration on the fundamental subjects," he says, "and for a structured and organized approach to teaching, and for firm and fair discipline in the schools...

...The lines of division we customarily associate with social institutions and movements—economic, political, racial, religious lines—do not seem to fit this phenomenon...

...In place of courtesy titles, students and adults there address one another by their first names...

...But there is a substantial an4 growing number of public schools in which widely diverse student populations are guided by a comprehensive philosophy of fundamentalism...

...George Weber, the editor of the Council's publications, admits to some ambivalence about the organization's place—and his own—in the broad movement of people and institutions attracted to the "basics" label...

...What does it mean to "do well" in school...

...Preparation for college is the main objective, and in that connection, performance on standardized tests is considered all-important...

...Basic education, in order to reestablish itself permanently in the schools, must involve the "rediscovery that some purposes of education are more valid than others, and that demonstrable academic achievement is worthwhile...

...The Council also advocates strongly that able students be allowed to advance at their own pace, that clear standards of achievement be used to measure student progress, and that teachers be "thoroughly competent, by training and temperament, to teach the subjects assigned...

...The John Marshall school serves kindergarten through twelfth grade...

...To these indicators of increasing emphasis on the basics can be added some related developments: ^More and more states are requiring students to demonstrate minimum competency in the basic skills before they can be promoted to higher grades or graduated from high school...

...Schools are called upon to do just about everything for young people, and they have tried—no doubt unwisely—to meet almost every demand...

...Creativity is highly valued, and the limits of acceptable behavior are broadly defined...

...These are some features: An atmosphere of order and formality prevails...

...kids should be getting the basic, fundamental skills and courses, and all the non-intellectual stuff should either be put in after school hours or taken out altogether...

...What are we trying to do for our kids, or with them, or to them...

...According to a report from the school district, the racial makeup of the student body is approximately the same as in the Pasadena schools generally: 42 per cent black, 41 per cent Anglo, 13 per cent Spanish-surnamed, and 4 per cent others...

...Students are never paddled...

...they are disdainful of processed learning, choosing instead to be "into" experiences...

...We've criticized the negative effects of IQ tests, and the practice of feeding educational pablum to slow learners...

...The only unambiguous things are the basic courses and the fundamental skills...

...Its current president is Carl J. Dolce, dean of the North Carolina State University School of Education, and its board of directors includes such prominent educators as philosopher Jacques Barzun, historian Arthur Bestor, psychologist Kenneth B. Clark, and author-critic Clifton Fadiman...

...It deals with the content and purposes of schooling, not with the means and methods of teaching...

...Just within the past ten or fifteen years, we have been promised a dozen or more revolutionary breakthroughs, only to discover that most of them had little effect at all—or worse, had a negative impact on learning...

...they also share authority with adults in such matters as internal governance, teacher employment, and teacher evaluation...

...they wear blue jeans and long hair and sneakers or sandals...

...exception, they have turned out to be less effective than their advance billing indicated...

...One helpful source of clarifying interpretation in this complex realignment of educational interests is the Council for Basic Education, a small, privately financed organization in Washington, D.C...

...The latest "new approach" may actually be the oldest in the educator's arsenal...

...Whether or not they actually undergo substantive change, they constantly experiment with new techniques and materials, and the perpetual dialogue between educators and their critics is laden with "new" ideas, "fresh" approaches, and modified versions of practices that are as old as learning itself...

...And on still another level, the return to basics has been described as a restoration effort, an attempt to recapture some things that many people feel have been lost in the schools and in the society at large—patriotism, morality, manners, adult authority, discipline, order, and an elusive prize known to one and all as "quality education...

...Some proponents, in fact, "seem to want to bring back everything from the schools of 1915 except the potbellied stove...

...Arizona, Oregon, and Florida are three of the leading states in this regard...

...What constitutes self-discipline and productivity in a citizen...

...Almost without John Egerton, a free-lance writer in Nashville, has frequently written on issues in education for The Progressive...

...Established private schools which have always emphasized the venerable arts and sciences are now experiencing an upsurge in enrollment...

...It is easy to be misunderstood on the subject of education these days...

...Churches occasionally consider new creeds and covenants, but tradition usually triumphs...

...they memorize and regurgitate facts...

...That would certainly make it simpler—tight versus loose, rigid versus flexible, controlled versus free...

...But that doesn't mean we're for religious instruction, dress codes, corporal punishment, patriotic indoctrination, and McGuffey's Reader...

...Nonconformity is frowned upon...

...It is called basic education, or fundamental schooling, and it is catching on everywhere...

...TThe difficulties that students of all ages are having in reading, writing, and computation—and the much-publicized decline in standardized test scores—have increased the pressure on schools to do a better job of basic education...

...At this point, the temptation is strong to conclude that there really is a conservative-liberal cleavage in the argument over basic education...

...One California parent went so far as to file suit against a school system for allowing her son to graduate without what she considered to be an adequate education...

...Now there is another, made "new" by the "back-to-basics" debate—but in truth, as old as McGuffey's Reader and the little red schoolhouse...

...With so many people expecting so many different things from the schools, it should not be surprising that something like the "back-to-basics" movement would emerge...

...The students are not all of the same economic class, religion, or political persuasion...

...We just believe that the purpose of schooling is primarily intellectual...

...they are neatly dressed and clipped and combed...

...And then there are the schools...

...They are, however, all subject to the same highly structured conditions of performance and behavior...

...It would be simplistic to characterize the "back to basics" movement as nothing more than a manifestation of reactionary conservatism...

...What should one "get" from college...

...the other was to make children behave in school...

...Weber clearly resents the charges: "We're interested in the education of all children, and we always have been...

...The nation's Catholic schools, after more than a decade of declining enrollment, appear to be growing again, and their "old-fashioned" image is cited as the principal explanation for the shift...

...Having labored long and hard against what it disdainfully calls "the old progressive and life-adjustment philosophies" and their more recent "anti-academic revival," the Council has been predictably encouraged by the "back-to-basics" movement...

...On the surface, the connections among these developments may seem tenuous and coincidental...

...A descriptive match-up of the opposing sides can be readily drawn: On one side are the sternly conservative adults and their docile, obedient children: They use McGuffey's Reader, and the paddle, and the Pledge of Allegiance...

...Basic education represents fundamental educational philosophy...

...Educational television, the "new math," computer-assisted instruction, compensatory education, career education, open education, mainstreaming, tracking and ability grouping, modular scheduling, individualized instruction—one after another the innovations have been trotted out and tried...

...On the contrary, the split may be widening...

...It is the crisis of purpose...

...Since it claims to have coined the phrase "basic education" when it was founded back in 1956, the Council is in a position to give some historical perspective to the current interest in basics...

...Public school systems in cities from the Carolinas to California have set up "traditional schools" as an option for patrons dissatisfied with the pace and purpose of innovative "modern" schools...

...When the nation is confused and divided and uncertain, so are the schools...

...But it just won't wash...

...Independent study, individualized instruction, and non-competitive learning experiences are commonplace...

...Their functions have multiplied and, inevitably, so have the complaints about cost and quality and purpose...

...No doubt the parents of students in the Alternative School also want their children to do well in school, to go to college, to "make it" in the larger society and to be self-disciplined and productive citizens...

...Four years ago, The Progressive published Erwin Knoll's article called "Five Crises in Public Education...

...New fundamental schools such as John Marshall in Pasadena, the Council says, have been started by people who "demanded the creation of alternative schools on the educationally conservative side," just as many "free" and "open" alternative schools were launched by educational liberals in the late 1960s...

...In just three years of operation, it and two similar schools in the Pasadena Unified School District reached an enrollment of more than 2,600 students, and more than 1,000 additional applicants were on a waiting list...

...On the other side are the casual, "with-it" grownups and their cool and clever kids: They are free and easy learners on a cooperative trip...

...Many newer private schools which began as segregation academies now place greater emphasis on quality than on color, and others whose main feature is religious conservatism also acknowledge the need for strong programs of instruction in the basic academic courses...

...Now, in the fourth year, the schools are permanent fixtures...

...The most important subjects, the Council asserts, are "the basic intellectual disciplines, especially English, mathematics, science, history, foreign languages, and the arts...

...Everybody is educable, except perhaps the most severely retarded...

...Daily homework is required, memorization and rote learning are standard methods of instruction, tracking and ability grouping are practiced, competition is emphasized, and A-to-F letter grades are given...

...As far as we're concerned, all the rest is of secondary importance—if not entirely irrelevant...

...Another Pasadena public school—in most respects the polar opposite of Marshall—is called the Alternative School...

...But not even the Council for Basic Education buys everything in the "back-to-basics" bag...

...Students have wide discretion in the selection of courses and teachers...

...Its small staff, its lean and unadorned publications, and its spartan offices on 15th Street near the White House are consonant with the Council's bare-bones educational philosophy, the essence of which is that some subjects are more important than others, and that all students should study and master these subjects to the best of their ability...

...The atmosphere is casual, loose, informal, even at times chaotic...