Fear

The day after Halloween is probably a good day to write about fear.

I just finished reading The Culture of Fear by Barry Glassner. In this highly-acclaimed book, Glassner points out that Americans spend vast amounts of time, energy, and mental space fearing the wrong things. For example, airline accidents (22 deaths last year) receive much more media attention than the dangers of everyday driving (43,443 deaths last year) (see NTSB, 2006). We spend billions of dollars trying to curb illegal drug use but spend less than 1 percent of the nation’s antidrug budget on curbing prescription drug abuse, which accounts for over half of drug-related medical issues and deaths (Glassner, 1999, pp. 131–132). Teen pregnancies are labeled as America’s “most serious social problem” despite the fact that teenage birth rates are declining and that the highest teenage birth rates were in the 1950s (p. 93). We are more alarmed about homicides (11th-ranked cause of death) than about heart disease (leading cause of death) (pp. xx-xxi). We spend enormous sums of money responding to public panics over low-frequency incidents like operating table fires or flesh-eating bacteria or the dangers of vaccines or sexual abuse by daycare providers or razor blades in Halloween apples while poverty and low levels of education and unhealthy diets continue to have significantly greater impacts on our daily lives. We worry about road rage rather than drunk drivers. And so on.

In education, we too are often ruled by fear.

In education, we focus on the dangers of online child predators rather than on dropout rates.

In education, we require urban schools to spend money on Internet filtering but not on decaying, unsafe school facilities.

Because of a few isolated incidents, we succumb to the siren song of school safety alarmists and pay for metal detectors and drug-sniffing dogs and networked video cameras and drug testing of students in extracurricular activities instead of preschool education.

We would be much better off as a society if we spent less money and attention on sensationalist issues and instead focused on what matters: improving high school dropout and college completion rates, increasing the number of children who arrive at school ready to learn, reducing the growing segregation of students of color and poverty in urban school districts, more equitable school funding, educating children for their future rather then their past…

How much money do we waste on low-frequency, low-impact (but high-profile) issues? I wish that in education, and in America, we were more brave.

This post is also available at the TechLearning blog.

Comments

[Laura B. Fogle]

1.

Wow! I always read the TechLearning blog, but didn't really see where you were going with this. I couldn't agree more that we as a society misdirect public resources. Dollars spent in prevention are more well spent than those we spend on patching the problem after the fact. However, projects that capture the public's attention are the ones that are going to be funded. I think we need to become better advocates for education initiatives. We should be telling stories of preschool success and technology innovation in a way that capture's the imagination of the public. We must become coalition builders and be willing to step out of our own classrooms to impact the larger system.

[Tim Wilson]

2.

Scott, Bruce Schneier is posting along the same lines. I'm a huge Schneier fan as you know so I think you'll like his post:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/11/perceived_risk_1.html

[Poppy Bednorz]

3.

Amazing post. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

[Pam Overstreet]

4.

I agree with the need for early intervention and addressing prevention in all of the areas you mentioned. Unfortunately, I still see the need for the rehabilitation of those who didn't receive the early resources. I work in an intensive program for youths, ages 12-17. The backgrounds of these kids are horrific and so many resources are needed for these troubled students. Hopefully, with more preventions and early interventions, I will be out of a job one day. Thank you for your insightfullness.

[Scott McLeod]

5.

Pam, I taught 8th grade in a very impoverished urban middle school. I know the kids to which you're referring. I, too, hope you're out of a job one day but don't hold out hope for that anytime soon. We have yet to exhibit the societal will to adequately address the dismay of our urban centers.

[Tina]

6.

Fear gets the attention, the money,and often the vote. Decisions in life and education need to be made out of courage and not out of fear.

[Lauren Loper]

7.

Thank you so much for your words. This is bold and eye-opening which is exactly what society needs. I am a future Pre-K Special Education teacher; I am currently in Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class. I am so grateful to teachers like you and Dr. Strange who get useful technological information out there for us future teachers, and infrom us how to use it safely and correctly.

I enjoy reading your posts; thank you SO much!

[Paula Casallo]

8.

No one can understand fear better than a parent. I spend a lot of time worrying about the things that could happen to my children and it is exhausting. I recognize that my fearfulness is affecting my children. My son is afraid of so many things. Shame on me. My fear comes from a place of love though. I don't want anything bad to happen to my children. I think the schools share that parenting fear. It comes from a place of love for the students. We just need to recognize that our fears may be doing more harm than good. Money is wasted on the what if's that could be used on the problems that already exist.

[Michelle Jackson]

9.

I agree that the media tends to focus too much of their time on "scare tactics". America is "the land of the free and home of the brave"....unfortunately we do not always display these characteristics. You are certainly an inspiration to myself and my EDM310 professor, Dr. Strange, at the Univ. of South Alabama. Thanks for your insight.