Once upon a time there was a cattle rancher. He had hundreds of cows of all ages and sizes. Some were really smart, some were not. Some grazed really fast, some were very slow, picky eaters. He had thousands of acres of land, with fences criss-crossing back and forth into lots of small pastures. Some of the pastures had really good grass that tasted wonderful. Some of them had little more than dirt.
The rancher couldn’t sleep one night and spent the night thinking about all his cattle. He wanted better ways to make them eat and grow fat for market. And just putting them all out in the pasture seemed boring. What he wanted was a new, exciting, more involved approach to raising his cattle.
This is the solution the rancher came up with:
Starting at 6:30 each morning he would wake his cattle up, even if they were still sleepy. He would go honk his truck horn at them and say over and over how they had to get up. After all, the early bird gets the worm and he needed his cattle up and growing!
Once the cattle were moving he would let them eat a quick bite of grass, or hay. But they would have to eat fast because the rancher had more plans for them.
By 7:30 each morning the rancher had separated all of his cattle by size. All the wee baby calves together, all the little bit bigger calves together, then some a bit bigger than that. Some year old calves in one group, then a group of mommas. And finally the group of bulls, the biggest cattle he had.
The rancher couldn’t keep up with all the groups at once so he hired a few cowboys to stay with each group. Then he went back to the ranch house and set up a huge horn that could be heard all over his ranch. Every time the cowboys heard the horn they were supposed to move the cattle in their group to the next pasture. It didn’t matter if the cowboys thought the cattle needed more time to eat in one field, or if any of the cattle might need a drink, or even if the wee baby calves wanted their mommas; when the cowboys heard the horn they had to move the cattle. And they had to move them fast because they would only have a few minutes before the horn would toot a shorter blast telling them they had better be in place.
At 8:25am the cowboys heard the first loud honk that meant it was time to move the cattle. They quickly rounded them up and shooed them out the gate and down the alley to the next pasture. Some of the cattle were still eating, some of them hadn’t even started yet because they had been exploring their new field. At 8:30 the second toot of the horn told the cowboys to close the gate and make a note of any cattle that were not in the pasture on time.
At 9:25 another loud blast of the horn rang out. The cattle had barely even circled their pasture. Very few of them had found any grass in the almost bare field. The cowboys knew the cattle were hungry so they rounded them up and shooed them away to the next field. Again they heard the horn toot and marked down any of their cattle that were late to the field.
This continued all day with the horn going off every 25 minutes telling the cowboys to move the cattle; and then another short toot 5 minutes after that telling them to write down who was late. Finally at 3pm the horn blasted one last time and the rancher came out to tell the cowboys to turn all the cattle back out together. At the end of the day the cattle were exhausted, hungry, thirsty; and most importantly none of them had gained any weight!
Surely the cattle just needed time to adjust to this new plan. The rancher knew this must be the answer he’d been looking for on his cattle operation. So the next day the cowboys came back and they started all over. They did the same routine as before. Still no weight gain. Still a lot of tired, hungry, thirsty cattle.
This went on for weeks…then for months. The cowboys were tired and felt so bad for the poor cattle. But they were helpless in the situation. The rancher had made it clear their job was just to move cattle not to try to find better solutions. Soon the cowboys grew tired of the constraints, and the constant turmoil and they began to quit. The rancher hired new cowboys. They soon burned out too. The cowboys wanted to care for the animals not force them through this silly routine! They felt helpless and unheard by the rancher.
After months of this crazy routine the rancher studied his record books only to see that most of his cattle hadn’t gained weight like they needed to. Each time he had weighed them the cattle just didn’t show much growth. Sure, a few of them had thrived in this system. They had grown a lot, but the rest had not. But on seeing the progress of the few the rancher decided to continue with his new method. Every day the cattle were sorted into groups by size. Every day they were herded from pasture to pasture. Everyday the cowboys wrote down who moved too slow. If the same cattle moved too slow for too long they were sent down to another pen of special cattle to move in a different routine… The cattle, the cowboys, and even the rancher were generally miserable but this was the plan and there was no going back now.
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Did any of that sound vaguely familiar? Did it sound anything like a real life situation? Public school perhaps?
***FULL DISCLOSURE: I was raised in home school. My children are home schooled. My husband was home schooled after 3rd grade. I realize I have no working knowledge of the typical school system. I also realize not every school is alike and many may be working hard to break this old mold. I realize not every family can or even wants to home school. But hear me out anyway. (You’ve read this far, you might as well finish now.)
America’s schools are in disarray. I have many friends who went to college planning to be teachers. Many of them are already burned out and have already moved on to other careers. I’ve only been out of college for less than 9 years, so these are not people who spent years and years in the system before they needed a break. Most of them spent less than 5 years before they were ready for a change. These were not people who just didn’t like teaching. I spoke with one recently who actually feels guilty to not be teaching right now. This individual felt called to teach, but he needed out.
American schools do not rank well. One article I read placed the U.S. at a ranking of 38 out of 71 countries in math; and 24 out of 71 science (based on 2015 test results.) “Why should you care how schools rank? You just said you’re kids don’t go there.” I know. But I only have 4 kids. My family alone can’t keep the nation running — we need doctors, scientists, engineers, etc, etc. We should all care how our nation’s schools rank whether or not we have children who attend them.
Moms I’m begging you, care enough about the school to demand change. I don’t know what the solutions are. But I do know taking wee little babies away and swirling them through halls, and lunch rooms, fast potty break and very little recess is not going to work for the long term. I know most teachers want something better for your children; and they are doing their best. But teachers, like the cowboys in the story have very little freedom to fix this broken system.
My heart breaks for children left behind by a busy, rushed school day that they can’t comprehend or thrive in. I know each family must make it’s own choices; and I know that will be public school for most. So, please, let’s all demand change. Your kiddos deserve better.
***If your child’s school does not look at all like this I’m grateful to know that. Like I said, I’m sure many schools are trying to do better. But, this is my observation after talking to many moms/teachers who are fed up with the system. This is the school day they described. This is the schedule those moms’ children were accustomed to.***
Mom of Monkeys 