MASS President (and Taunton Superintendent) Julie Hackett at MASS/MASC

I was going to pull from this to write something up myself, but, really, you should read the whole thing. Remarks delivered by Superintendent Julie Hackett last Wednesday at MASS/MASC's Annual Conference:

When I was a kid, I loved F. Scott Fitzgerald. I loved the way he could string a phrase together to evoke an image from words. I loved the heartfelt letters he and his mother exchanged, and I loved his books that helped me imagine and dream. I even named my yellow lab “Gatsby” after the main character in – you guessed it – The Great Gatsby.

 And I especially loved his quotes. F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” It’s a quote that’s stuck with me through the years, and I think it’s quite fitting for this time and this place, and for all those who care about education in Massachusetts.

As you all know, there’s a great deal of tension in public education right now. It strikes me that part of this stress comes from the increasing pressure to hold multiple points of view in mind all at once, without ever really having had an opportunity to hash things out together. I think a lack of organized, collective public discourse about our beliefs tends to impair our ability to function in some ways.
 And this pressure is particularly hard on leaders like you - superintendents and school committee members in this room – whose job it is to help your school community sort things out and make sense of the world.

It occurs to me that this “sorting out of ideas” has never really happened in a big way in Massachusetts. Yes, we’ve all probably talked about the direction of our State Department of Education and of our own district’s mission, but when I think about it, I’ve never even asked my School Committee members or Leadership Team, for example, to share their ideas about the purpose of public education. And to my knowledge, it’s not a discussion that's been had by MASS, MASC or the DESE. And so it seems we jump from one idea to the next without ever truly discussing the fundamental question at hand that gets at the heart of our belief systems, and that is: “What is the purpose of public education?”

And so, never having the opportunity to sort things out creates this kind cognitive dissonance for us, which makes us feel uncomfortable. For instance – we are Massachusetts, and while we may appreciate being the best in the nation, we may bristle at the measurements used to prove it’s so. Another incongruent reality we face is that we may fundamentally believe the purpose of public education is to teach students how to live – not how to make a living. However, our new Next Generation MCAS test (or MCAS 2.0) is designed to measure college and career readiness, and not what it means to be a contributing member of society, which also matters to many of us.

And so I think there is a sense that there’s a fundamental disconnect in what we believe and what we do. Education is filled with these internal inconsistencies, and the Greek even invented a word for this – they call it “oxymoronic” or said another way – “pointedly foolish.”

But I, for one don’t think it’s pointedly foolish – or even a little intentionally silly – to simultaneously believe in ideas that may, on the surface, seem incompatible. In fact, I believe that with more intentional public conversation by all stakeholders in Massachusetts – together in the same room – there’s a great opportunity for us to redefine the purpose of public education, bridge the gap, and gain some momentum. And we all know who that’s going to help in the long run.

So, as a first step in this effort, I thought it would be interesting to reach out to some of you with a question tonight, and possibly even encourage some of you to go back to your school communities and do the same. I wanted to sort out what I believe to be the purpose of public education, what you believe, and perhaps more importantly, what we believe together.

Borrowing from a National School Board Association survey based on an informal survey a teacher did back in 2010, I asked a number of you to answer this question in 30 words or less: “What is the purpose of public education?”

I contacted the MASS and MASC Executive Officers, and I posed the question to the sixty or so superintendents and school committee members who attended the Legislative Breakfast we hosted yesterday in Taunton. And finally, I reached out to my “tweeps” – and for the social media neophytes in the room, “tweeps” means “twitter peeps,” which is a term of endearment used to reference one’s followers on Twitter. (And I see the students in the room nodding, and they all know what a tweep is!). I was pleasantly surprised to get more responses to this question than I expected, and here are some that I thought you might find interesting:

• One of my parents said (and I quote), “The purpose of education is to help my child prepare to be a contributor to society. That’s all I want for her! Go Woodchucks!" (Only the Tauntonians will understand this inside joke - where are my Taunton School Committee members? Woodchucks are from where? That's right - Martin Middle School!).
•  A former Taunton High graduate said, “I think my public school education made me well rounded. I was well-prepared for a competitive 4-year college, which then prepared me for continued success in both graduate school and now my career. I’ve always been proud of my TPS education.” (I must confess, this one melted my heart).
• And here's one from one of my current students who said, “The purpose of public education is to teach kids how to function with little sleep.” (Ms. Doherty, I think we'll recruit her to your Late Start Committee).
•  A retired principal and a son of immigrants said, “My parents shared the importance of caring for your family and community, and the way to do that is to be smarter than anyone else – and damn it – get an education.”
•  One of my twitter followers who just published a book said the purpose of education is, “to realize the full and complex human potential of each young person who steps through the schoolhouse door.”
•  A school committee member said, “Public education’s purpose is to educate children providing them the skills needed not only to become responsible citizens but also preparing them for success in whatever career they choose.”
•  Another school committee member quoted a passage from MGL, and when I asked her to summarize, she said the purpose of education is “for the preservation of their rights and liberties.” • A DESE employee said, “to prepare all students for success in the world that awaits them after high school.”
•  A superintendent of a regional vocational technical school said the purpose of education is “to prepare students for life and not just a graduation stage.”
•  And one of my personal favorites? A member of our illustrious MASS Executive Officers said, and I quote: “‘Knowledge is good.” Does anyone know the origin of this quote? That’s right; it’s the Faber College motto from Animal House! (I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about which one of the Executive Officers said this!)

And so what does all of this talk about the purpose of public schools mean for us and why does it matter? Like F. Scott Fitzgerald said – smart, intelligent people like you understand that education doesn’t have to be about just one thing, it can and should be about many things to help give our young people every advantage in life. Drawing from your thoughtful comments in response to my question, it appears to me that public education here in the Commonwealth doesn’t have a singular focus, and that’s a good thing. If I had to define it based on my beliefs and your responses, I would say that the purpose of public education in Massachusetts is about college, careers, AND the common good – and not necessarily in that particular order.

As a first generation college student, I believe deeply that everyone deserves a college education. And probably like many of you, I’ve experienced how higher education changes lives. It teaches our young people to think critically, to be civic-minded, and to self-actualize. In addition to all that, a recent study from Georgetown University found that on average, college graduates earn $1 million more over their lifetimes. Now money isn’t everything and all those intrinsic rewards are just as important if not more so, but to me it is undeniable that every child in Massachusetts deserves a chance at a college education.

But here’s the reality: not every child is ready for a college education at the exact moment he or she graduates. So then what do we do? Do we say we’ve taught the young person to be a contributor to society and say our jobs are done? Of course not – the pathway to college and a better life can be through careers, too. We have an obligation to teach young people about career possibilities and prepare them for the jobs of the future. In my school system, 70% of our students take a Career Technical Education course, and I don’t think that’s good enough. It should be 100% - not just for my students, but for all students in Massachusetts. (As a quick aside, soon you’re going to see a white paper published by the Alliance for Vocational Technical Education that defines high-quality education that makes this same recommendation.)

Another important MASS movement involves computer science. In a departure from the top-down mandates that typically occur, MASS initiated a collaboration with the business community and education officials ensuring that all students in Massachusetts develop computational knowledge and skills and the ability – if they so choose – to explore their individual passions and develop the new literacies and foundational skills they are going to need in the future. Equity is an important part of this conversation, and MASS has insisted that all children have access, regardless of their zip codes and whether they live near Boston or in Western, Massachusetts where there’s limited broadband access and infrastructure.

The most compelling reason I believe that every student in Massachusetts should take career technical education courses is because of my conversations with young people. When I ask them what it is that needs to change in their public education, here’s what they tell me: they say that what they study has little or no applicability to their futures. And, truthfully, I have heard this from young people in every school system in which I’ve ever worked. I’ve heard it from students in rural, urban, suburban, less affluent or wealthy districts – you name it. I’ve heard it from the students who take more general courses, to the National Honor Society students who primarily enroll in Advanced Placement and dual enrollment classes. If you have a serious conversation with a young person, and you ask them how to improve their public education, they will tell you that there’s no connection between what they’re learning and what they will do in the future. And when they say this, what they’re really saying to you is they need and want contextualized learning opportunities so they can begin to imagine the possibilities for their lives, for their futures. All students in Massachusetts deserve to have more career technical education to help them dream and pursue their passions.

And finally, there is indeed no debate that one of the purposes of public education in Massachusetts is and must be for the common good. We recently heard from the Anti-Defamation League at an MASS meeting, and they reported hate crimes in Massachusetts public schools were said to be in the high 70s and counting in September – and those are just the ones that are known. And the Washington Post just reported that hate crimes in high schools are on the rise due to the national scene. Our young people deserve to grow up in a world where we look out for each other. A fundamental purpose of public education is to teach young people to care about one another, and I think we all can say that our young people deserve a better world tomorrow than the one they're living in today. They need to be active citizens who take collective action in politics and public service so we can preserve the common good.
And let me close by saying that I know with the caliber of superintendents and school committee members in this room, there’s nothing we can’t do together to create better opportunities and life outcomes for the young people we so cherish in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I thank you for your time.