Scientia, Pietas, Fides

"If you look at U.S. performance on various international metrics, depending on which one you use, we come out something like 24th or 25th in the world. A lot of people might argue: “Well, who cares? It’s just science.” The only problem with that theory is we’re moving into a time in the development of the world economy when innovation and the formation of novel approaches will clearly come from countries best situated to create a population that can innovate in science and technology."  --Dr. James S. Gates, University of Maryland

 The proprietors of Big Myrtle's place never in a million years pictured ourselves as the type of people who would abandon the public school system in favor of a private institution.  Yet here we are -- next year, our daughter will attend St. Michael's Episcopal School, an expensive-ish institution of classical learning that can be described as anything but typical of contemporary American public education.
 

Our experiences this past school year finally convinced us that this country, and the state of Texas in particular, are just not serious about providing a high quality educational experience.  The World Bank's 2009 report on rank of nations in terms of expenditures on public education makes plain where this nation's priorities lay -- or rather, don't lay.  The United States spends less per child on education than 47 other countries, including Tunisia, Barbados, Cyprus, Estonia, Slovenia, India etc. etc. etc.

Depending on which survey you believe, the United States ranks somewhere around 25th in terms of science and math technology, in spite of having a larger literate population than practically every other country in the survey.  We are sending our children to school more than anyone else, but what they are doing there is a mystery.  They certainly aren't learning to think.

In Texas, in particular, Myrtle has made comment before on the utter insipidity of the curriculum.  The Texas Board of Education recently voted to gut the history textbooks of commentary on the Civil Rights movement, among other things.  This we find egregious.  However, we find it outright crippling that the Theory of Evolution, though it is perfectly demonstrable in a classroom -- few things are easier to demonstrate, in fact -- is not taught as a validated scientific theory, it is taught (if at all) as a sideshow myth that needs to be hushed because it might contradict someone's religious beliefs.

The straw that broke the camel's back this year came when our daughter informed us that her science teacher (and we use the term loosely) argued with her students about whether an orangutan is a monkey or an ape.  She insisted it was a monkey.  And would not entertain the idea that homo sapiens sapiens was a fellow primate to the orangutans, monkeys, et al.  She also denied global warming, which might be excusable in a Fox News editor's meeting, but not in a science classroom.  The Argo Float data alone provides all the evidence of warming you need -- the oceans are warmer than they were ten years ago; they contain 30,000 more times heat-retention ability than the atmosphere; the Earth is warming, QED.  This is hardly a proof, it's almost a tautology -- the ocean is warmer, therefore the Earth is warmer.

Enter friend of Myrtle, Dr. Kathryn Lucchese.   At Myrtle's place, we usually just call her "Kate So Great".  She has been a tremendous friend of our family for the past few years, and is one of the most interesting people we have met.  In addition to being a geographer and a classicist, she writes a pretty fascinating travel blog.  She also makes some wicked-good cinnamon popcorn, but that's a story for another time.

Kate was, for many years, a Latin teacher at St. Michael's, and this past winter, when the position of Head of School came open, decided almost instantly to apply.  We were strongly in her corner, hoping she would get the post, because, frankly, she is the most like Albus Dumbledore or Minerva McGonnigal of anyone we have ever met.  She seems like she was born to be a Head of School.  So when she got the job, we were thrilled for her.  We still, however, had no intention of enrolling our children -- public school had always been the great equalizer, the pathway to social justice, the place where everyone starts on an equal plane.

Then Kate invited us to her first open house ("Domus Aperta" quoth the fliers), and we went, merely to support her in her new role, and she casually suggested we ought to fill out an application.  For no particular reason, naturally.

We start in August.  Our reasons are pretty simple:

• Our 6th grader will be learning Latin and Physics this year.  Most public schools don't offer Latin; few offer Physics; none are trustworthy, given the state of the textbooks and the anti-science attitude of those who vote for the State Board of Education
• St. Michael's as a private school does not have to use the State of Texas mandated textbooks; they shop around for the best available textbooks for the subjects in question.  At the open house, we made note of the fact that they have something on the order of a dozen different Calculus texts on hand ("We still haven't found one that's quite up to snuff," says the new Head of School, "but we're trying.")
• There is no TAKS testing in private schools; what standardized testing they do really is limited to purely metrical testing (do students improve in a given area over the course of the year, did they learn core concepts).  In public school, half the year is given over to teaching to the test, and the tests are, let's be honest, incredibly stupid.
• Science classes do include subjects like evolution ("Of course we teach evolution.  We're teaching science, aren't we?")
• Climate change is subject to the same critical scrutiny as any other scientific theory.  The fact that the evidence shows climate change is occurring will not be ignored for political convenience.  ("We're teaching science, aren't we?")
• Literature and science start from early grade levels
• Math is taught at the student's level (high or low)
• French and Spanish are taught from Pre-K through 12th grade
• 100% of the most recent graduating class were accepted to their first choice of universities

We find it particularly curious that in an age when fundamentalist christians are having their way with the public school curriculum, we are sending our child to a private Episcopal school, replete with daily chapel meetings, to get her away from the dark side of religious bigotry.  Ignorance is not bliss; maybe by the time our youngest is ready for school the Texas education system will remember that.  But we aren't holding our breath.

Go Saints!  And...

Happy farming!