Loosely Related Outcomes

Secondary education is a patchwork of various objectives. To the question, "What is the purpose of a high school education?" there is a smorgasbord of answers.

First, there is the learning of content - amassing the skills and knowledge base of various academic subjects: mathematics, foreign languages, history, literature, etc. After completing four years of high school, it should be said of students that they "know something about" these various bodies of knowledge, and that they have the skills to work within them.

Secondly, there is the matter of earning good grades, accumulating scores from standardized tests, and generally attempting to impress the admissions officers at some college or university.

Thirdly, there is the somewhat more ambiguous matter of developing one's intellect: being able to think critically, being able to explore texts and academic disciplines.

Fourthly, there are the "soft skills" and "life lessons" of being able to work with people: punctuality, politeness, and simply being able to walk into a room, look someone in the eye, say "Good Morning!" and offer a hearty handshake: the social skills of silently allowing offense to pass when one's views are contradicted by another, of honoring freedom of speech, and of finding the appropriate moments at which to express one's views.

Fifthly, there are those skills which are more directly and narrowly related to some future employment, i.e., job and workplace skills.

Sixthly, there is the matter of understanding one's role as a citizen, or as a resident alien, inside the nation-state. What are the duties, privileges, obligations, and rights of a citizen? Of a non-citizen resident alien?

In addition to these six, there are doubtless others.

It is important to note that the relationships, if any, between these are loose. One can learn much, and yet receive a rather low grade. One can learn little, and yet receive a good grade.

While educational systems strive to establish some correlation between grades and content mastered, such a relationship is, at best, always indirect. A student who has learned relatively little can get a better grade by means of "busy work" or "extra credit" or "effort and participation" or simply cheating.

Likewise a student who's learned much, but fails to motivate himself to complete certain key assignments, may receive a low grade.

[Andrew Smith has taught at Huron High School, Pioneer High School, Tappan Middle School, Scarlett Middle School, Clague Middle School, Slauson Middle School, and others. Andrew Smith has served as a German Teacher and a History Teacher, with occasional stints in other academic departments.]

That Pesky Latin Phrase – in loco parentis

The role of the notion that a school, or an educator, acts ‘in place of a parent’ – in loco parentis – has changed over the decades.

This Latin phrase is used by lawyers. It indicates that an individual or an institution has the rights, privileges, duties, obligations, and responsibilities of a parent.

A century or two ago, this concept was applied in relatively broad way. Schools and teachers could administer rewards and punishments as they saw fit, and instruct students on all types of moral and personal matters.

Slowly, some aspects of in loco parentis have eroded over the decades. Most public schools no longer administer corporal punishment and decline to comment on moral or religious topics.

Because public schools are extensions of the government, the concept of in loco parentis was perceived as granting the government the power to reach into people’s private sphere – a power which people did not want the government to have.

Other aspects of in loco parentis, however, are still quite in vogue. While public schools have fewer rights and privileges vis-a-vis the students, they are still held liable for duties, obligations, and responsibilities toward the students.

In fact, schools in many respects are held even more responsible and liable. Litigating schools is a popular pastime.

This shift has, therefore, left schools in a position in which they are held responsible for more, but given fewer powers with which to meet those responsibilities: an unenviable position.

The situation is different with private schools.

Because they are not part of the government, private schools are granted whichever roles parents choose to give them. Enrollment in a private school is a contract of sorts, and the understanding of the school’s role is determined by mutual agreement between the parent and the school.

Among private schools there exists, then, a broad range: from schools which have no trace of in loco parentis to schools which embody a robust understanding of in loco parentis.

Being disconnected from the government gives private schools, and parents, the freedom to explore various arrangements.

The public schools, meanwhile, labor under the burden of ever-increasing expectations regarding their duties, obligations, and responsibilities to the students, and to the parents, while having ever-fewer rights, privileges, and powers with which to fulfill those expectations.

The Age of Majority: Re-Thinking Adulthood

In the late 1960s, a political movement in the United States succeeded in largely establishing the age of adulthood at 18 years. At this age, one can now sign most legal documents, vote, own property, and be treated as an independent agent in court. Similar movements achieved similar results in other nations.

Since that time, advances in neurophysiology and psychology have led to a consensus among researchers that the human brain is not fully formed until the age of 25 or 26, on average.

The physical formation of the brain correlates with the faculties of decision-making, judgment, and choosing response over reaction.

These findings from the academic world are confirmed by the experiences of those who work on a regular basis with teenagers.

Allowances must be made for the fact that these are statistical averages. There are certainly some 17-year-olds who demonstrate great maturity, and some 35-year-olds who are quite immature.

Because we must deal with averages, however, it is clearly a mistake to call a 18-year-old boy a "man", and to call a 18-year-old girl a "woman."

It's time for our nation to revisit the age of majority.

If legal adulthood were recognized only when one reached, e.g., the age of 21, the benefit both to society and to young people would be immense.

Many 19-year-olds are making disastrous decisions which harm themselves and others, decisions which, however, the current legal system is obliged to acknowledge and even defend.

Parents, lawyers, physicians, psychologists, police, counselors, and other helping professions are not able to offer curbs to the wilder instances of excess because these children are legally considered adults.

Minimizing College Debt

Naturally, it's the best and wisest course of action to keep your debt as low as possible. How can you do that? Universities and colleges are so expensive these days!

There are different ways to keep your debt low. It depends on your situation, and your family's situation. Every family is different.

Some parents have been able to save a little cash for future college education, others have not. Some families are able to keep a college-age child at home, other children must establish their own residence when they graduate from high school.

Here are a few tips:

• Start at a local community college. It's often possible to complete the first one or two years of a four-year degree at a community college, and then transfer to a four-year institution.
• Programs like AP and IB allow graduating high school students to earn university credits by taking tests.
• High school students can take college classes while in high school, either by attending classes at a local college, or online. Often the tuition is less for high school students.
• Compare costs: some universities have lower prices than others. Shop selectively, not only for tuition prices, but also where the student will live during college. Which is cheaper - a dormitory or an apartment?
• If it's possible, students can live at home with their parents for some or all of their college careers. This won't work for every family, but if it works for yours, you can save a lot.

By the time you're reading this, it's probably too late to begin a savings program. But if you have a small child or a baby, or if you're pregnant and expecting a child, open a college savings account.

Not only can you start saving money while your child is still a baby, but you will pay fewer taxes to the government as well.

There are a variety of tax-deferred or tax-free educational savings programs: Coverdell Accounts, 529 Accounts, UTMA, UGMA, and local pre-pay tuition plans. Some of the details vary from state to state.

Naturally, the very best possible outcome is to graduate debt-free. That's a lofty goal, and sometimes an impossible one.

But you can help yourself greatly by keeping your debt as low as possible.

The Teenage Brain, Unplugged

While phrases like ‘digital fast’ and ‘digital detox’ are trending on some social media, these terms represent an idea that may be more important than a mere fad, and more relevant to teenagers than they may understand.

At various universities, neuroanatomists and psychologists have data about the effects of ‘screen time’ on the brain. This data leads to the conclusion that everyone, but especially those under the age of 25, should take occasional extended breaks from the cyberworld.

Frequent and extended interaction with computers, smartphones, tablets, and gaming devices changes both the structure and the functioning of the brain.

Given that the brain is still growing and forming until, on average, age 25, large amounts of time with Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft may truly produce a misshapen brain.

Many people under the age of 25 spend more time with interactive electronics than adults, including their parents, apprehend. The more interactive the experience, the greater the distortion it produces in the brain.

For a teenager who may spend five or more hours a day with iPhone, iPod, and iPad, 24 or 48 hours of a total ‘digital fast’ may simply be the beginning. It takes that amount of time simply to get through the first phase of withdrawals.

Various forms of brain imaging - PET scans and functional MRI - suggest that a brain heavily influenced by Twitter, Facebook, xBox, and PlayStation won’t return to healthy internal patterns until a full week of ‘digital detox’ is behind it.

Given modern lifestyles, this is difficult to do!

If you’re going to try it, true ‘wilderness’ camping is a good way to start - out of cell phone range, and no electricity of any kind.

Happily, there are less drastic alternatives. Simply reducing the total number of hours per week spent in the presence of anything electronic is healthy.

Adults and teenagers can find alternatives in the real physical world. Indoors, there are jigsaw puzzles, card games, crafts, or simply straightening up that pile of papers on your desk.

Outdoors, you can take a walk, ride a bicycle, or read a book sitting on your back porch or under a shade tree.

As long as there’s nothing plugged into an outlet, and nothing running on battery power, you’re giving your brain a break from the almost non-stop assault from digital media. Whether you’re 55 or 15, it’s a good step toward health.

Workers of the world, unplug! You have nothing to gain but your brains!

The Cost of Time

If a high school has, e.g., around 100 teachers, the cost of holding a meeting can be enormous. Of course, counting the teachers can be done in different ways: one can count actual people, or one can add up the FTE, i.e., two half-time teachers equals one FTE.

In either case, let's assume that the average take-home pay of the teachers is somewhere between $20 and $40 per hour. Remember, however, that what a teacher costs the district is more than what he or she receives. So the cost per teacher might run between $30 and $50 per hour.

A two-hour meeting, then, could have a base price of $8000, if we arbitrarily take $40 as an hourly cost. But additional costs quickly appear: additional school personnel at the meeting (secretaries, administrators, counselors), electricity and heating or air conditioning, and coffee if it is offered.

In addition, those presenting at the meeting will have spent time, and therefore money, preparing their materials. Photocopies of handouts will have a per-copy cost, and if shared electronically in an effort to reduce the amount of paper and ink used, then increased time spent sending and receiving emails, or reading through Google Docs.

Transition time into, and out of, the meeting may consume another 15 minutes on either end, adding another $2000 to the overall expense.

If one considers biweekly faculty meetings at Huron, Skyline, and Pioneer High Schools - on average, two per month - costing $10,000 each, then $180,000 is not an unreasonable estimate for the yearly cost of those gatherings.

But biweekly faculty meetings are merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Consider the Professional Development days, also known as 'inservice' or 'continuing education' days. A thousand teachers across the Ann Arbor Public Schools might spend eight hours in meetings, amounting to $320,000 for that one day, not counting the price of presenters, often paid consultants whose fees include airfare and lodging.

Add to this departmental meetings, meetings at smaller schools - elementary and middle schools - and 'icebreaker' and 'team building' sessions, and it's not beyond imagination to speculate that several million dollars per year are spent on meetings.

The question, then, to be posed is this: what do we get in return?

If millions of taxpayer dollars are spent on these conferences, can we then find measurable increases in student academic achievement resulting from these meetings? Are SAT and ACT scores going up? Or is student behavior and discipline better?

Meetings are expensive. What are we getting for our money?

[Andrew Smith is a German teacher at both Huron High School and Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor. During the 2015/2016 academic year, Andrew Smith teaches two hours of German daily at Pioneer High School and three hours daily at Huron High School, in Ann Arbor.]

Educational Data Points: Paper and Electronic

An amazing number of measurements can take place over the course of a school year in an ordinary classroom.

If we consider a high school teacher who instructs five classes per day, averaging thirty students per class, over the course of a 185-day school year, that’s 27,750 student contact hours.

If the teacher asks three questions, or answers three questions, or gives three instructions to individuals students - aside from the questions, answers, and instructions given to the entire class at once - that’d be 83,250 spoken interactions.

Let’s imagine that homework is assigned on 150 of the 185 instructional days. This would yield 22,500 pieces of work. Before the advent of the paperless work, that meant 22,500 pieces of paper.

Even with paperless assignments, it’s still 22,500 data points, which usually translates into keystrokes, data entry, and spreadsheets.

Beyond homework, there are in-class assignments and worksheets, quizzes, tests, and other forms of practice and assessment. If a teacher gives two small quizzes per week, assuming a 36-week academic year, that’s 10,800 quizzes to be graded, and 10,800 scores for keystrokes and data entry.

The number of data points is quite large, both relatively and absolutely. These quantities point to a need to create and maintain efficient data systems, and to free a teacher’s time up for grading assignments and record-keeping.

Teachers have an significant responsibility for data management, and require time to do it well. This fact needs to be weighed in considerations of how much time teachers are required to spend on other duties.