Public Education's BIG BRAIN DRAIN

The Mirror of Truth in American Society has all but vanished….what you see and hear on the surface does not reflect the reality of what is going on under the bright and shiny images of progress reflected by the media and their special interest cadres.

No better analogy of the “Emperor Without Clothes” proudly walking in the midst of the cheering public as they express the beauty of his/her raiment is the present snapshot of Education in America Today.

So on the surface all seems calm but a silent revolution is under way…..one not of words….for words are dangerous to the health of your family in 2021 America….it is a revolution of feet…an exodus from the public system and also from private colleges who both are in needs of serious systemic reform.

Yet the reckoning is coming as the tipping point of the dynamic gathers a greater silent majority of consensus….for remember the mirror of truth is dangerous in 2021 America….yes even one word….will earn you an instant label if it strays from the Orthodoxy of those desperately protecting a failing system.

Such honesty is left for older people like me, uber educated, decades of loyal service to the public system with an enormous written portfolio of work…such a lifetime of hard work creates such vision and with that great responsibility.

The Covid Operating environment has only accelerated the dysfunctional relationships within public education. My hearts goes out to the teachers that are exhausted after a year of creativity, flexibility, and constant criticism of their most sincere effort. The Students…our children and these teachers are victims of inflexible power structure that has more to do with control than education.

The first great brain drain are educators that will be retiring early or leaving the profession as the current conditions are impacting their health. In every organization the Human Capital …people…are the greatest preforming asset that serve to advance the quality of the product that your collectively create.

These educators are the front-line purveyors of what John Dewey so expressively stated ..the Normative Environment of public education. I was educated in the Golden Age of this space where diverse children of every race and creed came to classroom and through that formation possessed a shared mindset which was further expanded in our university education. So, when we all were hired into our various professions it was natural for us to be able to work with anyone. In fact, folks like me are completely blinded to differences that have been weaponized with such intensity in American Society for political purposes.

The replacements for these experienced educators are a new generation who are not adherents to the Normative Concept but to one that possess an entirely different perspective.

Yet these new teachers will face a public system where the unhealthy relationship of the public bureaucracy, big business curriculum industry and the uber powerful teacher’s unions will constrict and constrain their ability to be independently creative and nurturing to their students. This three-part toxic cocktail has made the public system too unstable for many families.

Thirty years ago, these families went to school board meetings and waged the battles ..many epic in their community proportions…after years of failure …fewer came as the system was so unresponsive.

Where once was a trickle now is a quite sizable exodus of families leaving the system for private, parochial and charter venues. The decades of results of this exodus have produced a new generation of young successful professional adults who serve as trophies of recruitment for the non-public system.

Covid has further jump-started this movement where many school districts had a ten to fifteen percent decrease in enrollment who silently without a word placed their children in the safe environment of the non-public system.

The entire dynamic is an accelerating cycle..a brain drain from Public Education.

In most businesses such a circumstances would warrant discussion but as I noted earlier this is not allowed in 2021 America for the politically protected are always correct and those that would dare speak the truth ..even as St Paul said ..In love; will be silenced.

Yet the winds of change are coming, and I dare say no one will be able to stop them as the greater majority of families no longer have confidence in the public system.

This is most disconcerting as the Public System is the crucible of American Democracy….that normative place…the public square where we all come with our diverse gifted differences to learn from each other. This peer learning aspect is the greatest victim of current situation as the educational philosophies of the Greeks and Confucianism…it is essentially significant in producing a well-balanced individual.

 It is little wonder why we see such a proliferation of anxiety and emotional illness in our young people.

So, the politically correct with their identity agenda have done irreparable harm to our national culture but more importantly to the health of entire generation of our children.

Smart parents know this and make the best of a bad situation in selecting alternatives where the diversity is limited but the cognitive and emotional formation is outstanding.

While the Mirror of Truth may be dimmed the Memory of it is not forgotten and the days are numbered for the present public system and the private colleges as market forces will create the economics circumstances where change will be inevitable.

Its not a matter of if this will occur…but only a matter of when.