Public Education Pledge of Allegiance

I recently saw the documentary The Lottery about a lottery to get kids into charter schools in Harlem. The movie was well done but slick.

The filmmakers focused on how the charter schools could motivate kids to go to college. They would drive this point home with students over and over again. Since everyone can't go to college it may not, in the long run, be a solution for a majority of people.

But the effort to motivate kids is an important issue. Former Secretary of Labor under Jimmy Carter, Ray Marshall, once wrote a book about how a high percentage of kids who are not on the college path get neglected in schools, ignored to the point that they felt they didn't mean anything and were next to useless and would end up in low wage service sector job where they would be a few paychecks away from, if not already in, poverty.

One very low-cost reform public schools might implement would be a Pledge of Allegiance to Public Education to motivate students. Lester Thurow, Dean of MIT's business school and a noted economist, once said, "public education is the greatest social invention in the history of the world."

He went on to explain how since the beginning of time knowledge and work had been passed on from generation to generation almost always exclusively through the family until the invention of public education. What your parent knew was pretty much the universe of knowledge you would be limited to knowing.

We could develop a Pledge of Alliance to Public Education that students could make one or two times a week . Who knows, this could turn into an important motivator. Teachers or schools could develop their own version of the pledge. My own would be something like this:

"I pledge allegiance to public education, the greatest social invention in the history of the world. The invention that created thousand of schools throughout our country and millions throughout the world. The invention that freed people from the education process where from the beginning of time, most knowledge was only passed on from generation to generation through the family. Where work was almost always passed on mother to daughter and father to son. Where oftentimes, especially in slavery, children received no education at all.

"I pledge of allegiance to the system of education which gives the poorest child the chance to become a world leader in many fields through studying hard and making use of their talent. Public education has in a hundred years transformed the world into an advanced society with millions of scientists, doctors and other skilled workers. Where I, along with my classmates, can have a free education and develop into a responsible adult, and make the world a better place for my family, community, country and planet."

Granted, its a little longer than the current Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, but it could be read by the students. Some of the great achievements and opportunities of education might be worth reminding our children about.

Maybe our San Leandro school board could take up this issue. Trying it in a few schools might be a giant step in seeing if its worthwhile.