Veiwpoint: Denial and the Suburban Mind

by Bruno Behrend

One of the psychological concepts most of us understand is that of denial. For example, we all know that before an alcoholic can begin to cure himself, he needs to admit that there is a problem. We canít start to solve a problem until we admit there is one. Another psychological concept that we all know, although we’re much less comfortable with it, is that we’re very capable of pointing out ? denial? and others while ignoring it in our own lives. This is true for large social groups, as well as for individuals.

One large social group that is living in a state of denial right now is that of suburban parents. Most of them simply will not permit themselves to believe that the quality of education in their suburb is lower than it should be. The recent ISAT scores are a perfect example. They showed that in almost every district of Illinois, from Chicago to the suburbs to downstate, students scored lower than expected.

The truly fascinating phenomenon is that when you speak to many parents about the test results, you are met with the most self-serving responses you could imagine. The Chicago Sun -Times article that reported on the low test scores featured a suburban parent who commented that ?we really don’t put much stock in test scores.? One wonders whether he would have been so nonchalant had the scores shown how well the school had performed, rather than how badly.

The excuses that pour fourth when pointing out the educational shortcomings of our public schools is nothing short of amazing. ?Well I don’t care what you say,? responds one mother, ?my kid seems to like school and she’s getting good grades.? Another might say ?well, I know they’re having problems in the city, but here our school is above average.?

One would think that with news of poor test scores in the face of large increases in spending, a rational parent might question the quality of the schools. But then, the phenomenon of denial has little to do with rationality. It has more to do with evading or ignoring the truth, rather than discovering it.

If one were to seek to truth, one might start by asking how it is that every school district can be ?above-average?. Possibly, they might actually open their child’s textbook to check on its facts. For example, a recent 20/20 expose highlighted the poor quality of many textbooks used in public schools. The focus of the report was on the large number of factual errors.

Perhaps, while reading their child’s textbook, this hypothetical parent might consider the level of knowledge they held at a comparable age. They might even go to their parentís house, rummage around in the attic, and compare their childís textbook with ones that they used. They might discover a wide gap in the level of knowledge covered.

But that takes effort. On top of that, the results of that effort might force one to discover facts that will make them very uncomfortable, or possibly even angry. We can’t have that. We’re too busy convincing ourselves that everything is fine. Some of us, anyway.

The fact of the matter is that the public schools in the suburbs are performing very poorly, particularly given the massive level of spending. When confronted with a statement such as this, the typical suburban parent might point out some nebulous ?school quality index? figure from some real estate Web Site or rattle off the ranking of their school in the most recent Chicago Tribune article tracking test scores. According to these test scores, the suburbs come in with many of the highest scores.

But high compared to what? New Trier High School is always at the top of the list, with a high score of 347. The sounds great until you realize that this is 347 out of 500, which is just under 70 percent. In the old days, just under 70 percent meant just under a ìCî.

I’m sure that some Ph.D. with an education degree will be more than happy to point out the complexities of testing, the meaning of the 500 point figure, and how I am over simplifying things. They will then go on to tout recent improvements in test scores relative to the early 1990s.

My response would be the these improvements are far too little bang for far too much of a buck. This is even more obvious when you consider how many parents feel compelled (for either status or educational reasons) to enroll their children and supplementary programs such as tutoring, or purchasing a program such as Hooked on Phonics.

Rather than slavishly defending your local public school, ask yourself how much of your child’s education is due to your own efforts outside of the school. One of the benefits of living in the suburbs is that you’re in an environment that generally respects the idea of getting a good education. If you correct for that environment, (as many studies have done) you might slowly start to realize that your children should be receiving a far better education than they are.

Once you come to that realization, you might be ready to ask yourself what you can do about changing the current state of affairs. As your psychologist might say, ?That’s when we’ll begin to do some real work?. I think we’ll save that for the next session.

In the meantime, don’t focus on the emotional pain of confronting your mistaken beliefs about our public education system. Rather, focus on the costs, in terms of the loss of human potential, that will be incurred if you don’t confront them. Then focus on the fact that your children will be the ones to pay that cost. Not you.

Contact: Bruno Behrend by davinci@voyager.net