Glenn: A Question of Justice

A conversation with Dr. Charles L Glenn of Boston University, an expert on schools and education

By GIANNI MEREGHETTI

How can school vouchers be a factor for change for the entire school system? I discussed this topic with Charles L Glenn, a teacher at Boston University, after the session at the Meeting in Rimini, Italy, in which the question of school parity in Italy was approached by starting from a reflection on the American system. Glenn immediately went to the heart of the matter when he clarified that “while school vouchers are a question of freedom and justice, they will not be the way to change the entire American school system.” He offered the example of a boxer who, while he is keeping his adversary busy with his right hand, prepares the knock-out punch with his left. This knock-out punch, for Dr Glenn, is charter schools, which are constituted by a group of teachers and parents and are financed by the government if they can show they have reached the levels of education demanded by the system of evaluation. Thirty-six states have already adopted this law, and in Arizona, for example, there are already four hundred charter schools.

Glenn, growing excited about this topic, which is light years away from the Italian school system, pointed out how charter schools have changed the very definition of public school. By moving in this direction, finally “schools which originate in society and a government institution with the task of financing them” can be attained.

That the school system may be totally made up of charter schools is Glenn’s hope. I asked him to discuss briefly the differences or analogies between the American and the Italian school systems. “Both systems,” he answered without hesitation, “are probably unfair: the Italian system has no flexibility; the American system has too much.” He cited first the example of teachers: “In Italy it is not possible to choose the teachers; in the United States the reverse is true.” About the curricula: “In Italy there are national standards; in America there are more than 15,000 school districts and each one uses its own curriculum, and for this reason there are schools with very high standards and schools with low standards.”

At this point, Dr Glenn threw out one last provocation, almost as though there were a responsibility that unites Italians and Americans moving toward school reform: “In the United States,” he said, “we are working to posit minimal, but common, referents. In Italy, if the government establishes parity, be careful, because it could make it rigid! The schools have to be reformed as such; both systems, the Italian and the American ones, have to become free schools, with standards of reference and a general system of evaluation.”

It is an extremely interesting challenge to find the courage to take the schools in hand and to bring about not partial adjustments but a real change of direction, to the point of enacting an overall reform under the banners of freedom, culture, and education.