V-Grams

V-Gram 14

March 28, 1996


In plain English

No disrespect to our Governors or our President, but education is not really a puzzling, new challenge. It is an old, simple process whereby people who possess knowledge pass it on to those who do not. Only two components are necessary: a group of people who know things ("teachers") and a group of people who don't know things, who know that they don't know things, and who understand that they are there to acquire knowledge ("students").

Prerequisites which need to be funded include compensation for the group which possesses knowledge, and a venue where they pass it on. Preferably, the venue should be a permanent building with seating, lighting and heating. Desks, a blackboard, and chalk should be provided. Everything else is an optional extra, as demonstrated by the several thousand years directly preceding the 1960s.

As for motivation, one might look to the same period. Evaluation of the student's achievement or lack thereof was made public, and unacceptable conduct was punished. That's motivation enough. Neither politicians nor business, neither fancy tools nor money can do much good until such time that the teaching community resumes the proper discharge of its basic professional obligations. This means imparting the time-tested fundamentals, preferably in plain English.