Never Sell Short Kids’ Learning Ability

It was only a news brief on CNN. But what a story it tells. In Little Rock, Ark., construction workers were prying into the ceiling of a 102-year-old elementary school. There, they found a treasure: 18 student essays, dated Oct. 24, 1910.

The essays discussed Shakespeare’s comedy, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The authors were in fifth grade.

Think about that. In 1910, back in the days when desktops had inkwells instead of operating systems, 11-year-olds had such an advanced level of literary skill that they could read and analyze one of the master poets of the English language.

Beavis and Butt-head, eat your heart out.

Today, Shakespeare’s intellectually demanding works of art usually do not appear in a public school curriculum until high school - if they appear at all. Today, top educators like the new provost at Washington State University sneer that Shakespeare and other literary masters are “dead white males” of little interest to modern academicians. Which says more about the academicians than the masters.

But times are beginning to change. People dissatisfied with decades of dumbing down in public education are dragging the system back toward higher ground. Others, who unfortunately have abandoned the public system, are making an impact as well - showing in rigorous new inner-city academies just how much children still are capable of doing if they are challenged and inspired. Marva Collins of Chicago was only the first to make that point.

Last week, Washington Gov. Gary Locke signed several bills that will keep on solid ground the funding for public schools and, more important, will enhance the statewide push toward higher levels of student achievement.

One bill aims to raise standards for science education - a weak spot in Spokane schools, for example, where middle school students can find accelerated classes in just about every subject except science.

Two discipline-related bills give schools additional authority to remove and deal with students who disrupt classrooms.

Another bill calls for student reading skills to be tested in second grade, so teachers, parents and the public will press early on for progress and remediation.

Locke went to his alma mater, Seattle’s Franklin High School, to sign these bills. There, he paid tribute to a few teachers who years ago had inspired him to a higher plane.

Right on, governor. Teachers hold the key. Without classroom innovators who leave the averages behind, who dare to promote content more advanced than the dumb-downers have been willing to seek, reform is just a glorified committee meeting.

Already, Washington state’s reform process is encouraging local teachers to find a better way, yielding higher student test scores in several leading districts like Kennewick’s. There, elementary schools are teaching a challenging “core knowledge” curriculum that progresses sequentially through the fascinating lore of human knowledge, from ancient Egypt to Michelangelo, from medieval Africa to the Underground Railroad, from haiku to the Bill of Rights, from geography to ecosystems.

Kids can learn more than we have been led to believe, and if the progress continues, the day may come, again, when fifth graders read Will Shakespeare and get the jokes.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board