We see a lot of people blaming schools for doing things businesses and/or communities asked them to do. It is appropriate to continue to refine our ideas of what public education should look like. It’s not appropriate to relentlessly criticize school administrators and school boards as they navigate societal/academic/technological changes or to disregard action they’re already taking.

From Public School Apologist

“We criticize schools for looking too much like they did 30 years ago while criticizing almost every way they’ve changed in the last 30 years.

Everyone said kids shouldn’t spend all day sitting in rows listening to a teacher talk, so classrooms added more collaboration, small-group instruction, and project-based learning.

Experts and parents said every kid shouldn’t be taught exactly the same way, so schools expanded differentiation, accommodations, and individualized support.

We said education shouldn’t just be about memorizing facts, so teachers put more emphasis on problem solving, application, and critical thinking.

Then we started wondering why kids weren’t sitting quietly and working anymore. Folks complained that some kids were getting different accommodations or expectations than others. Society became worried that kids weren’t memorizing enough.

We said schools needed to prepare students for a technological world, put computers in their hands, and then started worrying that they were looking at screens too much.

We asked for more career preparation, expanded CTE, dual enrollment, and industry certifications, and then wondered why schools weren’t just focusing on reading, writing, and math.

The history of our profession is full of overcorrection. Schools aren’t immune from chasing trends, and sometimes we’ve replaced something that worked with something that simply sounded better. We’ve also spent decades trying to respond to what parents, policymakers, and the public told us schools needed to become.

It’s just hard to argue that schools haven’t changed in 30 years while complaining about everything that’s different. The school you remember has changed quite a bit.

We’ve just spent most of the last 30 years complaining about the changes too.”

Originally posted on facebook on October 10, 2026