It’s time for Oklahoma lawmakers to stop micromanaging what goes on in our schools and focus on what really matters.
Because it’s become clear that at least some of our Republican legislators don’t actually have a good grasp of what’s happening in our schools each day, how little time educators already have to teach or the importance of integrating technology.
Rather than doing the hard work of focusing on legislative financial investments and strategies that legitimately boost educational outcomes, some of our lawmakers this session have decided the best path forward is obsessing over guns, eliminating the opportunities for elementary children to learn robotics and other computer skills and prioritizing certain school specials over others.
The utter insanity of these bizarre distractions makes me want to rip my hair out.
For instance, why on earth should our schools waste precious instructional time teaching children about gun safety? And why is it a good use of our tax dollars to require the state Department of Education to develop a curriculum of how to teach safe gun storage and what to do if you see a firearm?
This is a state agency that couldn’t even complete the basic task of developing constitutional social studies standards governing what topics must be taught in our classrooms. Forgive me if I don’t want them deciding how to teach my children about gun rights.
As a gun owner, it is my responsibility as a parent to teach my children what to do when they find a firearm and how to secure it. The measure would require gun lessons to be “viewpoint neutral on political topics,” including the Second Amendment and gun rights and violence. I don’t want a school or Republican Rep. Ryan Eaves setting “viewpoint neutral” policies that determine my family’s values or how we’re teaching this.
And, if we really have so much extra time in school, why not teach children an actual useful life skill, such as budgeting, civics 101, how to resolve conflicts, resilience when they’ve failed an assignment or even digital literacy.
But digital literacy isn’t apparently on lawmakers’ agenda this year, judging by the crazy Republican-authored bill that would create a blanket, one-hour restriction on the amount of screen time for elementary students. How Rep. Anthony Moore landed on the cap is beyond me.
“We know that our kids are most successful when they are in front, face-to-face with our well, well-trained educators in Oklahoma,” Moore said last week during a committee meeting. “We want to make sure we’re getting as much time face-to-face as possible.”
He’s absolutely right. But what are lawmakers doing to get us and retain these “well, well-trained educators.”
Not enough since we’re having to rely on thousands of emergency-certified educators. In fact, we’re so desperate, legislators are theoretically permitting people who don’t have a high school diploma to teach.
While I agree that schools shouldn’t use tablets or movies as defacto babysitters, let me be the first to say the quiet part out loud.
Tablets may be a better teacher than some of the adults who have been plunked into their classrooms due to districts’ inability to find someone qualified. If that’s how a child needs to learn how to read, so be it.
Tablets are not the end-all, be-all for education, but when used effectively, they help supplement the skills children are learning. My children use tablets with engaging games at school to practice basic addition and subtraction, multiplication and to read books. They look forward to that time, and teachers use tablet time to work in small groups with children who are falling behind to try to get them caught up.
Also, my elementary-aged daughter just completed a robotics course held on a weekend at a private school as part of a program to increase children’s interest in science, technology, engineering and math. In order to program a robot, guess what she had to use? A tablet. And guess what? It took more than an hour of hands-on instruction, screen time and experimentation for her to learn.
I will be incensed if lawmakers pass a law that inhibits her ability to participate in STEM activities during the school day because of some ridiculous and arbitrary cap.
I also want my children, as they get into upper elementary grades, to learn how to put together computer presentations, to do research online and to continue to have access to computerized supplemental educational materials that help strengthen the skills they’re learning.
But computer science class might be the casualty of Republican Rep. Cynthia Roe’s measure that seeks to more than double the amount of physical education time a student must complete each week. Her bill proposes raising the minimum from 60 to 150 minutes, excluding recess time.
On the surface, this sounds great. After all, our state has a high obesity rate and physical activity is great for the body and mind. But where does Roe expect schools to get that extra time during the school day?
I assume she doesn’t want to lengthen the school day and increase districts’ costs – or to cut down on core instructional time.
So which of my children’s specials should get axed?
Library time, where they get to pick out a book to practice their literacy skills at home? Music, which in addition to psychological benefits also enhances memory? Art, which helps develop creative thinking skills and reduces stress? Computer science, which offers training in skills that are in high demand?
It’s high time that lawmakers implement some of their critical thinking skills before they file these sorts of bills. And, if they don’t have kids in school, talk to someone who does.
Because I suspect what both our children, parents and businesses need most from schools right now align.
And it’s not more PE, gun safety education and hard limits on screen time. We need comprehensive change and financial investments, not a bunch of fluff that desperately seeks to distract from the underlying problems that plague our schools.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.