Summary: Many teachers mistakenly think they have the same interests and goals as the Education Establishment. Not at all, explains Bruce Price, founder of Improve-Education.org.

“It’s startling,” notes Bruce Price, founder of Improve-Education.org. “Many classroom teachers feel they are part of the Education Establishment, that small clique at the top making policy. I’m constantly surprised by this.”

When people speak of the Military Establishment, they mean the generals in the Pentagon. When people speak of the Banking Establishment, they mean CEOs at Chase and Bank of America. When we speak of the Education Establishment, we typically mean professors at Harvard Graduate School of Education and such elite places.

“I have to confess,” Price admits, “I was slow to understand what was going on. I might write an article criticizing the Education Establishment. A teacher would send me a letter asking, why you picking on me?? I’d have to explain, sorry, I’m not thinking about you at all. Do you make policy? Are you responsible for all the bad ideas in public schools? I certainly don’t think so. I don’t blame any of our problems on teachers.”

Somebody, Price suspects, has been playing mind-games. Teachers have been tricked into thinking they have the same agenda as the Education Establishment.

“On the contrary,” Price argues. “Many policies pushed by the Education Establishment are bad for teachers. For one very large example, teachers were forced to use Whole Word to teach reading. But it doesn’t work. It’s a very inferior method that damages children.”

Long story short, Price decided to meet the situation head-on. He adopted the slogan “A Teacher’s Best Friend” for his intellectual/educational site.

The site, Price explains, provides three services of great value to teachers. First, a wide selection of smart, interesting articles that teachers, parents and students can equally enjoy. Articles, for example, about Latin, sophistry, design, poetry, history, reading, science, etc. Second, there is a lot of analysis of common pedagogical feds, such as Constructivism, sight-words, Reform Math, and so on. Teachers often have to to use bad methods without understanding the flaws or the negative impact on students.

Third, the site provides political and ideological clarity. Price always maintains that the Education Establishment has created three sets of victims: students; parents; and teachers.

“It seems to me,” Price sums it up, “far from having identical interests, teachers and the Education Establishment are far apart. Naturally, the Education Establishment wants to keep teachers on the plantation, so to speak. But my guess is that for us to have reform in this country, the teachers need to understand that their best interest will often lie in opposing what the Education Establishment wants to do.”

Price writes a great deal (on many sites) about all the bad ideas used throughout the public school system. He puts particular blame on Whole Word, Reform Math, Constructivism, Self-esteem, No Memorization, Cooperative Learning, Authentic Assessment, 21st-Century Skills, and many more. It’s a long long list for the simple reason that the Education Establishment is obsessed by social engineering, with only a little interest left over for intellectual engineering. And that’s our problem stated in a few words.

Price urges teachers to start with “31: Teacher Liberation Front.” For more general explanation of what we need to change, consider “38: Saving Public Schools.” For teachers concerned with reading, a good starting place is “42: Reading Resources.”

The site now has about 60 articles. Visitors can use the site-search feature to find topics they are interested in.

Improve-Education.org was founded in 2005.

Author Bio: Bruce Deitrick Price is the founder of Improve-Education.org, an outspoken education and intellectual site. One focus is reading; see “42: Reading Resources.” Another focus is education reform; see “38: Saving Public Schools.” Price is an author, artist and poet. His fifth book is “THE EDUCATION ENIGMA–What Happened to American Education.”

Category: Education
Keywords: K-12, public schools, standards, knowledge, learning, teach, constructivism,