Symbol versus Substance

Recently a mayoral candidate in the community where I live mailed out a flyer informing voters that he had been instrumental in convincing the community that we needed to build a new public elementary school. Clearly, he felt that this activity demonstrated his ability to lead an entire community and indicated his commitment to education.

I immediately saw two immediate problems with such assumptions. First of all, a building in and of itself does not make an education. What is far more important is the way the building will be used to foster learning. Our ancestors generally learned in schools so small that they were called "schoolhouses", lacking the technically advanced equipment so prominent in classrooms today, and yet standards in the past were arguably higher than today. Nowhere in the flyer was there any description of what our would-be mayor had done to make sure the children of our community received a solid foundation in history, geography, fine arts, foreign languages, reading, English, mathematics or any other subject. However, we had a new building, and for that he felt he should be rewarded.

Secondly, our candidate had concluded that success in having a building erected somehow made him fit to govern and guide an entire community. The only thing I felt we could conclude was that we would see some new public buildings constructed if we turned over the reins of leadership to such a man. We could not know what he envisioned would take place within those buildings.

One of the saddest hallmarks of society today is our acceptance of symbol over substance and quantity over quality. Yes, buildings are important, especially schools. But what goes on within the walls of a public building is what we should first be concerned about. Educational reform will never take place until we acquire a fresh understanding of education itself, not its trappings. We must decide, as individuals and as a society, what we want our students to learn, and what it takes to achieve true learning. Educational talk is simply talk, or jargon. Knowledge--the awareness of facts and ideas, and the ability to understand them, apply them and make reasoned decisions based upon such awareness--should be our primary goal.

Thanks,
Gary