A way to solve the curriculum controversy: Ask students what to change

My favorite course in high school was U.S. history, taught by a remarkable man named Al Ladendorff. He was demanding, sarcastic, playful and, most importantly, imaginative: He suggested we criticize our textbook. I had never heard that before. I did not hear it again until late in college.

I wonder during our feverish national education debate if encouraging high school students to criticize their textbooks and even their schools might be worth a try.

Many parents are full of ideas about what’s wrong with our schools. It has become a hot political issue in some states. Parents are flummoxed that they may not know much about what their children are doing in class. They often have to take the word of journalists like me about what is happening.

High school students, on the other hand, know firsthand what is going on. Why not have them write about some aspect of their education — the textbooks, the assignments, the examinations, the grading systems, the extracurricular activities — that they think should be improved?

Sadly, for most of our students, classes don’t demand much writing. Few high schools require the completion of a research paper for graduation. An essay on something wrong with their school would give students a chance to practice how to make a reasoned argument and on a topic they care about.

It might be best to try this out first with advanced students. Perhaps the country’s most successful writing programs, such as Advanced Placement’s Capstone courses, could add to their options a well-researched critique by students of something going on in their own schools.

The essay I wrote for Ladendorff’s class wasn’t great. But it was fun. I felt like a good boy being naughty. What a thrill it was to try to correct the distinguished scholars whose names were on that book.

I focused on my textbook’s long discussions of agriculture changes and their political consequences. I pointed out only 5 percent of Americans lived on farms. Why were they devoting so much space to that topic? The real America, I said, was in rapidly expanding suburbs like mine — San Mateo, Calif. Why weren’t we learning more about highway construction, air pollution and the rapid growth of public education?

Despite my essay’s flaws, it was a big step for me. I was eventually drawn to journalism in part because I noticed reporters often dealt with problems that needed fixing.

High schools have debate teams where students learn to argue on their feet. This is different. Good essays are written not to beat opponents but to illuminate an issue with facts and analysis that will provoke more reasoned discussion.

Teachers can’t be taking sides. That would be disastrous. I bet Ladendorff was conservative, but I never heard him share his personal political views. I want students, not teachers, to decide what point they wish to make. Then they would research, write and rewrite their essay to achieve clarity and depth.

Teachers could show them how to be respectful of people who don’t share their views, with references to the strengths and weaknesses of arguments on all sides. Their teachers and their parents could direct them to useful sources, including local people with experience in the issue being examined.

Ideally, teaching students how to evaluate our schools would reduce, rather than aggravate, the angry shouting we are hearing at some school board meetings. Students would learn that nobody has a lock on the truth. Whatever their argument, they would have to support it with facts and hopefully concede at some point that they might be wrong. It is sad that in our public debates we rarely do that.

Al Ladendorff died in 2015 at the age of 93. Many of his former students exchanged emails about what he taught us. Here is a project two students did in his class: “Pose a change in our federal system of government that, if included in the original framing of the Constitution, would have resulted in consequences more favorable to the country. Illustrate with two examples demonstrating how this change would have accomplished that goal.”

That is the kind of assignment we need. But make the project about a change in the school rather than a change in the federal system. Essays would not have to be any longer than this column, although length would be up to the student. The best ones might even be worthy of a reading at the next school board meeting.