Back to school but not (just) back to basics
Jefferson High School, WestSide Delegation Show Choir (Photo by David Chung)
You can smell it in the air, RAGBRAI is over and it’s State Fair time, we are starting to have some cool days punctuate the summer heat. It’s back to school time! It’s time to finish up shopping for school clothes, schedule athletic physicals and start thinking about two-a-day practices, play tryouts and band camps.
You might say that teaching is our family business. My parents were teachers, two of my siblings and their spouses have been in education and two of my sons and their wives are teachers. I have been an instructor at Kirkwood and I dabble as a substitute teacher. My wife and I have eight children and spent twenty years as Jefferson High School parents, so we know the circadian rhythms of the school year.
This is an election year and education has become a hot-button issue in both local and national political campaigns. The topics under the education umbrella are vast and diverse, touching every corner of the educational landscape. There are concerns about public funding for private schools, debates rage over discipline, and there’s controversy about inclusion of LGBTQ+ content in the curriculum, and here in Cedar Rapids, we are talking about nearly half a billion dollars in bond referendums over the next few years.
While several educational issues dominate current discussions, there’s another debate I’d like to spotlight. It concerns the “back to basics” movement, which is rapidly gaining traction across the nation. The essence of this movement is a call for schools to zero in on the core subjects, commonly known as the three R’s: reading, writing, and arithmetic. Closely related are movements for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) or even STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics).
I recognize the merits of all these movements. Strengthening our core curriculum is essential. However, where these movements and I diverge is in determining what should constitute our core offerings. My issue with all of these “back to basics” movements is that once they have identified core subjects, they tend to de-emphasize other topics. I find it interesting that while art makes the STEAM list, history is notably absent.
Having earned degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science, and having spent my career in technology, engineering, and mathematics, I deeply appreciate the significance of these subjects. However, reflecting on my school years, I recognize that there were other subjects equally important to my personal and professional journey.
I see the same thing in the lives of my adult children. Most of them were high academic achievers but they all took classes outside the core curriculum and participated in extracurricular activities, and these were just as important to shaping them into the adults they are today as the three Rs.
All of my children are musical, and we were Jefferson High School show choir parents for 20 years. I was even a ‘sewing mom’, helping to hand make costumes for competition. My kids learned so much more than music in show choir. They learned to work hard as part of a team. They had the opportunity to experience successes and failures and learn how to persevere through it all. As an added benefit, whenever we get together as a family, we sing around the piano.
Most of our kids studied foreign languages. One went on to major in French, another studied in China and worked in France for a year and yet another spent a few days with us in France last week. Languages helped to open the world for our kids and were a crucial part of their education.
Some of my kids were athletes. I still have fond memories of waking up teenagers at 4:30 in the morning to drive them to early morning swim practices. I cannot even count the number of times I have been rained on in bleachers watching games or races. From sports my kids learned to problem solve, challenge themselves and work toward achieving goals. One of my sons recently told me that it was his coaches who encouraged him to apply himself to academics. That son is a teacher today!