Let’s imagine that you could voluntarily transfer your child from the public elementary school he now attends to another public school in your same school district where he would get a traditional, no-nonsense, basic education. Let’s call this imaginary elementary school the Basic Fundamentals School (the B.F. School).
We’re not talking about vouchers or tuition tax credits to make it financially practical to transfer to a private school. We’re talking about a public elementary school, financed by the taxpayers, located in your own school district, which your child could attend without paying any tuition.
At this B.F. School, parents are treated with friendliness, not hostility. Their recommendations about curriculum, textbook and library book selections, school rules, and disciplinary policies are welcomed, not scorned. They are treated as part of the educational experience, not labeled with epithets.
At this B.F. School, first graders are taught to read by the pure phonics method so that they learn the building blocks of the English language and become good readers.
Along with reading, the children are taught spelling, writing, penmanship, and how to express themselves precisely on paper, with exactness in grammar and punctuation.
Literature selections emphasize the classics which challenge the students with a larger vocabulary, interesting stories, and factual information. This contrasts with most elementary school readers which are filled with boring, dumbed-down stories and a repetitious vocabulary designed for poor readers who have been deprived of phonics.
In social studies, B.F. students learn the essentials of history and geography. Time is not wasted in discussions of controversial issues or political indoctrination because the elementary grades should teach the knowledge and facts needed which form the basis of independent judgment as they grow older.
Mathematics is important in the B.F. School. The students learn both the traditional measurements and skills and how to solve story problems. There is no “gifted” program at the B.F. School because the students rank above district, state, and national norms in all categories.
The main goals of the B.F. School are to promote the intellectual development of the child and to teach a solid foundation in academic skills. The school is characterized by orderly classrooms, discipline, a strict dress code, and mandatory homework.
Report cards are given every six weeks, six times a year, which is 50% more than most other schools. Teachers are evaluated annually.
Such a wonderful school is not just a dream. It really exists in Mesa, Arizona.
B.F. stands for the Benjamin Franklin School, and it’s been functioning with spectacular success since 1978.
The B.F. School in Mesa, Arizona was conceived, fought for, and shaped by parents who started as an ad hoc group called People for Basic Education. Parents demanded a choice and they got it. They built a quality school that turns out educated youngsters.
One of my sons has a favorite technique for selecting restaurants. He walks around in a restaurant district and chooses the one with the longest line of people waiting to be served. It must have good food if people are willing to stand in line.
Likewise with the Benjamin Franklin School. It always has at least 400 on the waiting list. When new applications are taken, parents line up outside for as long as 72 hours, equipped with camp stools and sleeping bags to keep their place in line overnight.
The biggest problem in education today is lack of competition and lack of alternatives. Unless parents want to assume the double burden of paying private-school tuition, they are coerced (yes, coerced under pain of criminal arrest for violating truancy laws) into sending their little children to one particular school selected by the education establishment (even if it means an hour’s ride across town each way in an unsafe, unsupervised bus).
Why can’t every one of the 15,500 school districts in the United States have one B.F. School and offer parents the opportunity to give their children a traditional, basic education instead of the anti-parent mish-mash of social-problems discussion that fills many public school classroom hours today? Ask your local School Board to provide this freedom of choice in your district.
