On this foggy morning, I can’t help but to think in analogies: I am an English teacher, after all, and so much of my life is devoted to the symbolic nature of good literature. (What does the painting in Heart of Darkness represent? How are the two roads in “The Road Not Taken” symbolic…that’s an easy one, by the way. Most are not that obvious.)

It seems to me that the nation as a whole has gone into some sort of a mental fog about the success of America’s education system. The educational system is “failing” according to the “experts” who really don’t know much, and yet, if we account for poverty, our students rank with the best in the world.*

I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t be trying to improve…there’s definitely room for that.

However, there’s too much time and energy going into improving education without addressing the cracks in the foundation of education as a whole: and that is society, including parents and media.

We aren’t looking at the big picture.

Look at trivial things that our society values; look at the stratification of our society; look at the fact that one-third of our country’s children live in poverty. For a little bit of fun, consider this: what percentage of this country’s parents will watch the Superbowl today, and what percentage went to their child’s last “Parent Night” at school? Oh, heck, add in grandparents, too.

There’s nothing wrong with the Superbowl, by the way: it’s simply a convenient analogy to point out what we value the most. How do you think that the cumulative hours that the residents of this state spent on golf and football this weekend would compare to the cumulative hours that the residents of this state invested on education this entire school year?

Instead of looking at societal issues and values that may be impacting education, people are focusing solely on schools.

Solely. On. Schools.

We need to shift the focus. The society itself is broken: the schools are just a symptom of that.

Until we’re clear on that, everything will be foggy.