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Seniors are belatedly showing their own back-to-basics concern. Tod McConahay, who pumps gas five nights a week to save money for college, is taking English Lab, a brush-up grammar course, in addition to regular college prep courses. "Grammar—I just can't do it," he confesses. "Somewhere along the line, somebody screwed up." Classmate Jim Jordahl is also taking English Lab. "Deep down, most people feel that requirements should be stricter," he says. "If you leave what courses you take up to the school, you won't be that well off."
German Teacher Heidi Galer, considered one of the toughest teachers in West, agrees. She has an easy camaraderie with her students, some of whom are going with her to Germany this spring on a two-week trip. Galer believes students are more knowledgeable these days, but in only a superficial way, and is upset that so many cannot write and spell properly. "The kids ask me, Trau Galer, do you mark off for German spelling?' I say 'Of course I do.' But if they ask me if I count off for English spelling, I say 'Of course not; you'd all flunk.' " She criticizes the severity of her native German schools, but frets: "Next year, these kids are going to sit in lecture halls and it's going to be a big shock. Some have never even taken a semester test."
Tall, thin, bearded Principal Edwin Barker is popular with students and community alike. "He does a good job walking the tightrope of an innovative school system and a conservative backlash," observes one parent. Says Barker: "I'm a believer in basic skills, but I want to do it in a humanitarian environment." Discipline is fairly loose. Barker downplays such issues as drugs (ditch weed, the crude local variety of marijuana, is common), discipline, smoking and leaving school without permission. "We have a lot of people coming and going," admits Barker. "Keeping them in school is not one of our high priorities."
Some teachers complain bitterly about laxity—of both school and parents. They say that a student-first attitude undercuts their classes and that many students are pouring too much energy into jobs in order to support their affluent lifestyles. Fumes one teacher: "One kid told me today that he hadn't been in class for three days because 'Man, I just can't get up.' I offered to call him at home. That's our job? But we can't teach them if they're not here."
The Iowa City school board's determination to bring back "the basics" is shared by parents and school administrators across the U.S. Indeed back-to-basics is the latest rallying cry among U.S. educators, who are yet again attempting to define the purpose and direction of American public education. Some educators find it easy to agree on what has gone wrong with the schools. Says U.S.