"I think if there is one thing I have learned… it's that cooperation, collaboration and consensus-building are way overrated."
- Michelle Rhee, former superintendent of Washington DC Public Schools
Let us all admit it – we talk about "fixing schools" ad nauseum. The blame game rains down with finger pointing from parents, teachers, government, and more. Rarely do the kids ever speak up.
What is the PURPOSE of education? Enrichment. No. Building creativity. No. Sending EVERY kid to college. Jeez, No. Creating a baseline education for work ready society and allowing others with increased ambition for additional learning the ability to move into a college setting. Why HELL yes!
Our job is to PREPARE children for work capable productivity within our society. Some will move onto careers immediately after high school, some will go onto college. Regardless, they will become members of society, expected to pay taxes, hold jobs, producing towards the collective betterment within a community. So, what should they learn?
2 DEGREE SUCCESS STEP:
The reality is that our school system is NOT designed for baseline preparation of modern work force. Instead, we have the illustrious FANTASY that every child should go to college. We think every kid, Timmy and Tonya, should become doctors or lawyers.
If we want all of our kids to go to medical school, why do we teach them History? Why not force kids to learn Latin as opposed to other foreign languages? Skip Drama ENTIRELY and take Physics. Remove Art and force Calculus on every student. We know math and science equal success, right?
Why not do that? Because we KNOW that every child will not go to college, nor they be guaranteed success even if they do (as many go then come out overeducated and under-motivated). We know that STUDENT success is as much about the child's desire to learn as it is about a school systems finances.
You disagree with this perspective? Of course you do. There are also teachers to consider and parents, and more. Yet, I will save my thoughts on teachers until Monday…
Cheers,
Zach
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1 comment:
Somewhere in the time since I graduated from high school in 1972, a mindset that every student should go to college became popular.
We should prepare every student for the future whether thats means entering the workforce, attending a vocational technical college, or going to a university. If everyone obtained college degrees, who would work in all the vital blue collar positions in our society?
The key is that the students SHOULD BE the focus of the education, and I believe we've had a blurred outlook for too many years.
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