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American schools don't fail our children. No doubt there is still much to be done to bring them to a point where they serve all children equitably. Teachers can and should develop more dynamic and interactive curricula; buildings should be clean, safe and equipped with the latest technology;

But in looking at the big picture, we need to understand the historical role of schools and how that has changed; take a good look at who the children are and where they come from; and put our money where our mouths are.

Historically, schools were intended for all, but there was an understanding that a certain percentage would not take advantage of all there is offered. In 1940, for instance, only 8 percent of the Black population in the United States earned or was on track to earn a high school diploma. Sixty, years - or three generations -later, however, we expect to have turned around a situation that was four centuries - or 20 generations - in the making. We expect to instill in people with no legacy of education a respect for education and a 95 percent graduation rate. That will take more than three generations.

Interestingly, when Abraham Shortridge became superintendent of the Indianapolis Public Schools in the 1850s, the issues of the day were professional development of the teachers, appropriate facilities in which to teach and the integration of the Negro student into the school population. A century and a half later, the issues are proper and complete training of teachers, maintenance and replacement of ailing buildings and integrating diverse themes into curricula.

In essence, not so much has changed. What has changed, however, is the philosophy and support of the outside world to education. In the past, there was an explicit separation between education and business. Today, business leaders insist on participation, often not through the democratic process but through personal meetings and executive reports. They expect to lead schools without having been elected to the board.

Much of what has changed is the student - and by extension, the family. We don't want to admit it, but we're keeping alive children who in the past would have died. But in the process of keeping them alive, we're also changing the face of students. For instance, there are many more preemies, and they're kept alive ever earlier. If that baby is born three months early, it isn't physically or cognitively where it would have been at full term. In essence, the child will always be three months behind its age. Yet because the child is 6 by a certain date, we still place him in first grade and expect him to function as a first grader. When he can't live up to the expectation, we place him in special education, setting off a whole other series of issues.

We also have many more children who are born to parents with serious substance abuse problems. Yet as we tally overall test scores for a school, we don't make allowances for the number or percentage of students born with fetal alcohol syndrome.

One of the greatest downfalls of American public education is its own teaching. When we teach history and civics, we cut off our noses to spite our faces. We proudly teach about the Boston Tea Party and the First Amendment. But these two things together, without context, is simply teaching our students why and how to defeat school tax initiatives. In teaching the democratic ideal, we are creating tax protesters, people who grow up refusing to pass tax initiatives for smaller classrooms and adequate facilities.

Yes, American education has a long way to go, but not all in the ways we think.

Learn more about this author, Rebecca Bibbs.
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