The Hubble Space Telescope took over 13 years to build and cost about 200 million dollars. The engineers who built the telescope took the term “meticulous” meticulously. Everything needed to be right. Everything needed to be perfect. And when the the first pictures were sent back from the telescope, while press cameras rolled and the world waited anxiously to peer farther into space than we had ever done before, these engineers knew something was wrong. The pictures were “fuzzy”. To the untrained eye, certainly to the waiting public, this distortion was not as clear as it was to the scientists and engineers. They knew that this would not do. The pictures were not good enough.
Three years, millions of dollars, and countless work hours later, the crew of the space shuttle attached to the Hubble while in orbit and fixed the problem. An amazing accomplishment, indeed. It turned out that the biggest problem was a lens that was not quite bent enough to capture sharp images as the telescope had been intended to. The bend was off by less than the thickness of a human hair. But it simply wasn’t good enough.
I could never have been on the team that built or fixed the telescope. Credentials, training, and overall intelligence aside “although any of the three disqualifies me,” I just could not be that meticulous. I could not focus on the millions of tiny details that had to be in place in order for the thing to work. And if, after all that time and effort, it still did not work? My solution would most likely be to have the army send a missile up there and destroy it. Stupid thing. I have a great amount of respect for people who can do that type of work: scientists, engineers, researchers, surgeons, even many mechanics – people with the skill to pay attention to detail. People who have infinite patience, and take their time on a task so that when it is done, it is usually done right.
Luckily for me, I have found other ways to make a few dollars that do not involve such attention to detail. But regardless of what any of us does for a living, I am becoming more and more concerned about the tendency to say “Good Enough”. I certainly don’t want the people building our bridges and houses and schools taking this attitude. I also hope my dentist, or surgeon, or the man making sure the wheels will stay on my car does his very best and takes all the time he needs to ensure my family’s safety. And, for the most part, these people do.
One disturbing area where I have seen the growing tendency to say “Good Enough” is in issues involving our children. Their schools, their entertainment, their role models, their use of technology, their internal moral compasses – all seem to be falling victim to this attitude. When it comes to issues about public education, do yourself an eye opening favor and rent the movie “Waiting for Superman”. It is about the public school crisis in America. And it will bring you to tears. It is absolutely unbelievable, yet it is happening – every school year, every school day, all across our country. In my short time as an elementary school teacher, I have seen other teachers, excellent teachers, teachers with decades of experience, put in classroom situations in which there is simply no way to provide meaningful education – especially to those children at the higher end of the learning curve that are starving for knowledge and challenges in their education. This is happening because of money. The less money, the less teachers, and teachers aides, and special education teachers to provide one on one services to children with special needs, most of which are at the lower end of the learning curve, and many with severe behavioral issues. The days of the one room school house are returning – all students are put together regardless of their skills or abilities – no money to provide any of the students with what they really need. Less, and less, and less. The only things increasing are the populations of the classrooms, the amount of differentiated learning styles, and the need for more disciplinary and classroom management time every single day. And all of this is on the shoulders of one person – the teacher. Oh, and I almost forgot – the teachers also need to make sure every child is able to score well on the yearly standardized tests, most of which are created by people who have not been in an actual classroom in many years, if they ever were. Is it any wonder that President Obama recently encouraged all of the Americans who are unemployed to go back to school for teaching? “Please read this last sentence with a tone of ironic sarcasm”.
But many people will tell you that the schools are “Good Enough”. I honestly think that the parents who say this just do not want to think about it. To REALLY think about it. They chose wonderful, comfortable denial instead. And this choice is not confined to education. Let’s think now about how our young people are making use of their time outside of school. Video games, social networking, and the mostly widely used childhood opiate of our society – television. “Sure,” parents think, “there are a few problems that go along with complete reliance and total lack of supervision on computers, cell phones, and television, but my kids would never get into any serious trouble!” It’s “Good Enough” to let our youth develop daily habits and dependencies on these things. After all, kids today are different. They don’t need things like sunshine, fresh air, or face to face interactions with their families. They certainly don’t need to learn strong character building, or the importance of a good work ethic, or the modeled behavior of always doing your best – they’ll pick those things up in school or through the shows they watch. Providing these things at home is no longer necessary, right? That idea went out with the concept of one phone in the house, and one television set in the family living room, and saying a prayer of thanks and gratitude at all meals – family meals – eaten together around a table with all technical devices turned off and with the rule that the phone is not answered during this precious time. We don’t need to go back to any of those “basics” of character education and bonding as a family because the other way, the path of passing the buck on these issues to our overworked teachers and to the people creating t.v. shows, video games, and new ways for our youth to stay transfixed staring into a monitor screen is working so well. No problems here! All is well!
Luckily, one thing in all of this mess has not changed. It is the nature of children. I have not seen any evidence to support the claim that kids, especially elementary kids, are much different than they have ever been. Want proof? Go and pick up a large cardboard box or two at the local Home Depot – a washing machine or refrigerator box works nicely. Than wait for the first nice day and throw them all out in the back yard with the box, some water based paints, markers, tape, etc… Within an hour you’ll see that not much has changed – except the opportunity for our kids to use their own imaginations and skills to entertain themselves and to interact and work cooperatively with each other. Remember, in order to perform the experiment I just described, someone is going to have to provide the box – and the other supplies, and the yard, and the adult supervision, and the assistance with clean up afterwards. Does it sound like a lot of work? Maybe. And maybe an impossibility for many parents due to work schedules, or other priorities, or maybe, just maybe, the sad truth is that it is often just easier for parents to provide them with the glut of passive entertainment that we have bought into. Here are a few examples: I recently heard a group of boys – 4th or 5th graders, talking about what an “awesome” video game “Call to Duty” is. One of the boys was brave enough to say “I’ve never played it, my parents won’t let me.” Now here comes the shocker- the other boys replied “No wonder!” It is sooo violent!” “My parents have no idea!” In another recent conversation I was talking to a parent who was completely surprised to find out that the DS she had given to her 2nd grader could be used to communicate with other kids who have a DS. Anyone with a DS can go into various “chat rooms” as long as they are in range of each other. She was even more surprised to find out that cyber bullying is a pretty common occurrence on a DS because of this, and that the bullying is usually focused on the kids who do not have the DS’s. My last example involves the show “Family Guy”. I regularly hear children in the elementary grades talking about what an entertaining and funny show this is. When I ask them if their parents know they are watching it, some say “No,” and most of the rest say “Yes, but they have no idea how bad it is!” The kids know they should not be watching it! I have an ongoing test with this show “which, regardless what you think, is on at ALL times of the day”. I will turn it on randomly and start my stopwatch for a 5 minute interval. In that five minutes, I have yet to a show that does not glamorize drug use, contain nudity, degrade women, and use profane language. In one of these 5 minute slots a main character was bragging about giving women a date rape drug and then taking them to a place in his house where he raped them – funny stuff. It is time for parents to pay attention. To be vigilant. To work harder. To say “no” more often and to care much less about what all the other kids have, or do, or watch. It’s just not a “Good Enough” excuse.
O.K. I’m treading that fine line between challenging my readers and pointing fingers. In truth, I think I crossed the line a few sentences ago. But I’m starting to feel that subtle writing is not going to foster change – and I also want to make it blatantly obvious that when it come to our kids – to your kids – we need to stop saying “Good Enough”! So now to the challenge(s). The first is to keep saying “Good Enough” – just change the things you are saying it about. Take a look at your priorities. Ask yourself “What are the three most important things in my life?” Now think about the daily or weekly amount of time you spend nurturing, strengthening, and caring for those things. Here are some things you might want to start saying “Good Enough” about: your car, your house, your job, the clothes you wear, and the amount of channels you get along with the size of the t.v. that you watch them on. That is just a start, but I hope you get the idea – it’s all “stuff”. Meaningless, emotionless stuff. If any of these items was on the list of your top three priorities – it’s time to review your priorities.
Here’s my next suggestion. Get involved with your kids. Make a difference.
Take time off from your job and go a school event that is important to your kid. Volunteer in a school, or in an after school event, or in any club or sport that your kid is interested in. All indications are that volunteering in public schools might be the only way to ensure that all kids get what they need academically. Make the time. If you don’t have kids, or if your kids are grown, or if you are retired – do it anyway. Make a difference in one kid’s life. You will not believe how good, how fulfilling it will be.
At home, if you have multiple televisions, get rid of at least one – start with the one in your bedroom. Read to your kids or have them read to you instead. Or talk, or sleep. Kids don’t sleep enough anymore. They are over stimulated. Limit the amount of time ANYONE in the house is watching television. In the same way, be vigilant of what your kids are doing on the computer and on their phones. At night, ALL laptops and cell phones should be plugged into one power strip that is in an adult’s bedroom. There is no reason for a kid of any age to need a phone or computer after bedtime “F.Y.I. – statistics show that these are the times when most middle school and high school aged students are going to places that would never be allowed by their parents. They are also sexting, bullying, and in general dialing into unsafe territory during these times”. Take the video games, and computers and phones away at night – be the parent.
I wonder if it was hard for the people who built the Hubble Telescope to say “That’s not right – something’s broken – it’s not good enough.” I wonder if they wanted to just keep their mouths shut and let the world deal with the fuzzy pictures. After all, the pictures were better than nothing at all, right? I truly believe that we are more well equipped now than ever before to raise a nation of leaders, and problem solvers, and successful men and women who will impact the world for the better. But I do not think it will ever happen unless some serious changes are made by the current leaders, and problem solvers, and successful men and women who need to speak up and step up now! If you don’t, I fear we will all see that the current environment for our youth is nowhere near “Good Enough”…
Amen!!
Brian, That was a fine article. I fear it was a voice in the wilderness at the present. Perhaps some time in the future people will begin to modify their sense of values to reflect the point of view that you have expressed. Thanks, Al, Zimmermann