Authority Issues - Establishment

A previous post about authority issues discussed parents, how they relate to the authority of the established mass education system, and their lack of enthusiasm for change, even if the change would bring them more freedom. This post will mention a few other stakeholders with authority issues around the right way to educate the masses: Those who are in a position of authority.

It is not surprising that the establishment is against it: An established organization's first precept is to keep its size and power. But there are also people - humans - who are against free choice, and they are more interesting to me. There are those who have a major stake in the establishment, and they want to preserve their own position. It's hard to expect a minister of education to voluntarily give up power. There are those who see themselves as part of the establishment, such as schoolteachers. They enjoy a position of authority over schoolchildren, and a position of authority is again something we like to keep.

This is a good place to state that I am not here to speak ill of teachers. If I were in their position, I might very well have behaved the same way. I also suffer from the affliction of human nature.

Back to schoolteachers. Their situation is more complex than that of the minister. The teachers are also the victims of the lack of choice: They usually have very little authority over what to teach, when, how, to whom exactly, etc. Their own lack of control over their work-life makes them part of the oppressed, and should make them supporters of change. And indeed a few teachers I know yearn for serious change, while others either reject the very idea of change, or are looking for minor changes rather than revolutionary changes. I believe that for many of them the fear of real change overrides their hope for a better existence.

There is another group of authority figures:  Those with academic authority.  Scholars in education, psychology, education economics, etc.  The premise of this post, like the previous one, is that the mass education system is seriously flawed and obsolete, and that it doesn't take uncommon expertise to see that.  The real experts who have academic authority usually see this very clearly.  But scholars in general are very good at articulating ideas and producing brilliant papers to publish rather than perish.  They are less inclined to act in the netherworld of politicians, labor unions, public fears, the details and the devils that reside in them.  They may support change, and have fascinating ideas about alternative education systems, but most of them are just not interested in the practicalities of change.  Many of them also enjoy the fact that a centralized education system keeps coming to them for sage advice, and are reluctant to support significant change that may make their expertise and status less important.  Again, just as with the teachers, I am not here to speak ill of the brilliant scholars I have met.  If I were as brilliant as they are, and as scholarly, I may have behaved in a similar way.

There is also an inherent problem with being a scholar or a practitioner of many years in any field - being an expert: One is in serious danger of being overly versed in the way things have always been, the way things are, the failures of past attempts at change, the complexities and difficulties, all the objective reasons why things are the way they are.  Experts spend so much time and thinking on the inside of their field, that they fall into a danger zone:  The danger of thinking they really know how education works; the danger of forgetting that the world outside their field is a changing place that should affect their field; the danger of thinking that what failed yesterday (making a change) will necessarily fail tomorrow; etc.  I try not to become an expert.  Being an outsider has its advantages.

One last group worth mentioning with regards to authority issues around education, is the "Do as I say, not as I do" group.  I know of several passionate opponents of freedom of choice in education who personally made the choice to have their children educated outside the mass education establishment.  Experts in the legal and pedagogic aspects of education; officials whose job is to prevent the independence of alternative schools; extreme left-wing social activists.  They are torn between their ideas on one hand, and their commitment to the well-being of their children on the other hand.  I believe they made the right choice for their children (and in some cases - grandchildren).  I just wish they wouldn't work so hard preventing the rest of us from making the right choice for ours.