How teenagers would fix education

We talk a lot about fixing education. We adults. We disagree on where to put the money, how to motivate teachers and students, how to make things fair.

Have you ever wondered what the teenagers would do, the really smart ones, the ones who give these kinds of questions serious thought? I had three such teenagers on a special edition of “A Woman’s View,” three extraordinary young women, two juniors and one sophomore in high school, all three taking various AP classes. The question I posed was — what would you do to improve education?

The three had varying opinions on the topic, but they all agreed with enthusiasm on one thing. They hated, and hate is not too strong a word, No Child Left Behind.

“It makes them teach to the lowest common denominator,” Sarah Hawkes explained. “We’re basically being graded on presence. There needs to be a standard for students to get into certain classes, and there are no such standards to get into honors or AP.”

“The college board who runs AP feels like anyone who wants AP should be able to take it, which makes the experience less for everyone,” Allison Olligschlaeger added. “Grade inflation is rampant. You can go clean blackboards and improve your grade. It’s easy to get a 4.0 these days.”

Really?

“There would be so much more benefit from school if people learned to learn instead of learning for the grade,” Carolyn Cooke explained.

Yes. But that has always been a challenge, in one way or another, hasn’t it? I asked Carolyn how she would fix it.

“In parts of Asia, teachers are practically gods because education is a big thing. We should pay teachers more. And class sizes should be smaller. The classes I’m in are bigger than ever, like 45 students per class.”

I asked Carolyn and the other girls if they believed their teachers felt disrespected because of what they were paid. “Yes,” all three replied in unison.

“We have such a chronic inability to see the long game,” Allison said. “We’ve got to bring the rewards closer to the students. I saw this documentary about giving cash rewards to low income students for good grades. The state funded it. It was controversial.”