IV. EDUCATION
Education is generally the number one item on everyone’s mind in this country, with good reason I might add. Why is the educational system in such a mess these days? That question has so many answers its mind boggling. Mostly it is a finger pointing exercise at best. Too often when one begins to research cause and effect of any far reaching subject matter such as the debacle we call our educational system the initial answers are mostly accusatory in nature ("its not my/our fault”; "we don’t have enough funding”; "well if the parents would just get involved”, etc., etc., etc.). The only result anyone can get from that type of feedback is derailment. So let us put these types of "answers” in a lock box (and not give it to a Pandora type person for safe keeping) so they can’t interrupt the flow of ideas to both identify and correct a failing education system.
Investigation shows the origins may actually have started within the group of citizens commissioned by President Woodrow Wilson to setup this country’s "public educational system”. The basic caveat those folks were given, by the President himself, was to not make it too good because we will always need laborers for menial jobs such as street sweepers and the like. There is no evidence to indicate the President wanted to bring about harm or set limits for any single person as well as a group or groups of citizens of this great country. Nevertheless that seed appears to have been planted just the same and its growth through out the many generations since is truly far reaching.
Perhaps the easiest thing to do when something out of control reaches a nuclear level is to throw money at it and hope it goes away or at least quits ticking for a while. Unfortunately the timer doesn’t stop; the sound is only masked by the noise of those "lock box answers” mentioned above. History has shown more money alone has never been the cure for such an out of control complex issue. One thing history has on its side though is: "facts are stubborn things”. Looking back the more our federal government has become involved at the local level in day to day operations of our schools the worst the overall picture has become.
The original concept for our school districts was to be self contained answering to a duly elected board as well as the state in which each school district resides. What happened? Politics that’s what! Each and every time too many politicians demand oversight the more we can expect a future disaster. There in lies the answer why true education at our primary and secondary level schools are producing an under educated and under achiving student population.
Even our colleges and universities are seeing this tragic byproduct because they now must offer remedial classes to bring students up to speed so they can qualify for accredited college courses. Which means each student (or their parents) must pay an additional fee for non accredited courses that were not offered in our public schools. Simply said higher education costs are increasing due to the poor preparatory education at the previous level.
This increased costs in education directly translates to higher taxes (due to waste) which in turn removes those dollars from their normal flow in our economy. Anyone can easily see how far reaching years of misapplied funding results in any politician’s nightmarish anthem: "the law of unintended consequences”.
There are more questions than answers to identify how we got here and what it will take to get back on track. Most educators believe more money is the answer. Teacher unions claim smaller classroom sizes are all that is needed. Parents are being duped into believing because their student(s) get good grades everything is rocking along fine. However when the annual achievement test results are revealed the finger pointing, name calling, excuse making and anything else that will take the spotlight off the local, state and federal officials raise their ugly heads.
What is the answer (if there is one) to this mess we are in or are we doomed to continue our downhill slide? It has been my experience that when things go wrong the first thing one should do is look around to see if someone (or group) is getting better results in the same field and find out what they are doing. Some will say "too simple”. I think not.
There are two groups getting great results with their students: private schools and home schooling. In fact for the past several years the national spelling bee has been won by a home schooled student. That, my friends, is what I would characterize as outstanding results. Once again entrepreneurs (business) rides to the rescue. (Yes, to be successful home schooling must be set-up like a business.)
What do these two groups have in common and what are they doing that is different than our government (public) schools are currently omitting from their programs.
First and foremost the power of the federal government must be removed from their self appointed role of the overall watchdog of our local school programs. In fact the group now over seeing education at the federal level should be eliminated and the monies transferred to the states, with no strings attached. Next teacher’s unions should not be given any say so about the academic programs being used and/or developed for the schools of any district or state, period! In line with just plain good common sense all students need to be strongly encouraged to begin awareness for career development at a much younger age than in the past (my recommendation is at the start of the fifth grade). This process should continue through to high school graduation. Even if a student changes their mind about a career path choice multiple times encouragement must be at the highest of levels.
We all will have a number of interests and passions in life as well as a vision about what we see ourselves doing in the near or distance future. Some of us are what may be referred to as "late bloomers” as well. Those folks generally were never given the understanding that education, in all of its forms, is the secret to life’s fulfillment. Now what does that last statement mean? Education is the accumulation of all the knowledge we absorb during our life times, in and out the classroom. Simply said classroom discipline is the everlasting foundation by which we all will base our learning skills for the rest of our lives. The higher the level of order in a classroom will always yield the greater results. Students are looking to be given the opportunity to excel and show off their knowledge whenever possible.
Continuing to wander down the same road of declining results will only make it harder to turn it all around and bring about the improvement in education we all desire. After all, "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” is the truest definition of insanity.
Click for: Comments/Feedback orBack to Categories
