I thought it would be interesting to write a post about my own opinions on the current education system here in the United States. I like to think my views aren’t too outrageous and hopefully there’s at least some portion that you guys can agree with. Definitely feel free to leave some comments about what you guys think. I think education is one of those topics everyone can relate to.
What’s the Most Important Reason for Schooling?
It seems like a pretty simple question with a pretty simple answer: it helps make us smarter; it helps reduce the type of ignorance that leads to various kinds of hostilities or conflicts; it gives early structure to the lives of our children; it helps prepare our children for the future and getting a job. The perhaps liberal bias is somewhat apparent in my listing, but the point I’m trying to make is that perhaps the answer isn’t so simple as it seems at first glance. If you presented the prompt to a dozen different people, I think it would be fair to say that you would get a dozen different answers. For each person, the most important reason for education would arguably be the complex product of experience, socioeconomics, personality, personal history, etc. For the unemployed underachieving college graduate, the reason of preparation for future employment might be viewed with a more cynical eye than the college graduate in a high-managerial position. Whatever the view, the point is that there is a multitude of possible answers.
The “Acceptable” Reason
Despite the numerous possible reasons for schooling, there is one that has seemed to emerge as the de facto motive: the one reason that seems to take much high precedent over all other possible reasons. It’s the reason concluding my initial listing in the preceding paragraph, with perhaps a little more decisiveness: to get a job. It has become almost an anthem for the education system in this country of the USA. How many times have we heard “if you want a good job, you have to go to college”? Or how about the almost socially acceptable degradation of those who have ended up at the bottom of the economic ladder? It’s the bogeyman of the middle-class world: that if you don’t go to school or get a college degree you’ll end up working at McDonald’s. The attachment of occupation to an arbitrary personal worth is seen there lurking under a guise of caution, but that’s for another post.
What I Think Is Wrong
This is a topic that I’ll admit is in no way covered adequately by my post; there’s just too much to cover here and too many different views and ideas that can be crammed into one post. The issue is complex and without any single or right solution. And I know that there are certain unfortunate realities and economic considerations that complicate the matter even further. What I can and do want to say though is that I think it’s wrong that education seems to have become the measurement tool by which a person’s value as a citizen and even person is assessed. I think it’s wrong that we’ve come to accept the equation of not finishing school or attending university with some kind of personal failure or flaw. I think it’s wrong that we use low-skill, low-pay jobs as some kind of cautionary tale for what will happen if you don’t go to school, or even if you don’t attend the most “prestigious” school. I think it’s wrong that the trades have acquired some kind of implicit inferiority compared to white-collar professions. And I think it’s wrong that we’ve created an environment in which our children are competing against each other instead of working with each other.
Yea, I placed a lot of time into playing guitar as I was growing up and didn't focus on all that 'get a job' stuff I'd inevitably be facing later on in life. Don't really regret it. Life is what you make it when you get through all of that. It was a great way to learn the basics, but I really found that my curiosity for the world only took off after I finished school. Ever since then, I've just learnt things from doing jobs, taking up courses to get jobs, surfing google and learning about stuff from friends. Glad an opportunity like Steemit has arisen in that case. We can write whatever we want, and someone else all the way over the other side of the world can give support instantly. So rad!
These are some of the experiences our schooling system isnt going to teach people, but are just as important. My dad once gave me $500 and let me trade on the stock market and I learned more with that 500 than I learned in some of my other classes.
Thank you for this article, @calaber24p! Very important and interesting topic.
In my opinion, this theme is wonderful revealed by Robert Kiyosaki in his best-sellers. The modern system of education in the United States and in other countries built by the industrialists of the 20th century. They were just looking for good workers for their factories. However, the world has changed. The labour market has become global. Even if you got a good academic education, you're competing for a job with the whole world.
Moreover, the technologies have changed. And the industry has gone by the wayside, replaced by IT companies. People are now replaced by robots. But the modern education system no longer meets the requirements of the time. Children are still preparing to live in an industrial society. Thus the education system should be reformed as soon as possible. Otherwise the middle class will disappear in a few years.
Yeah I completely agree. Maybe ill make a post about it in the future, but I feel like the US school system is setup to spit out complacent workers like the Army is setup to spit out soldiers who don't question orders. We definitely need to think out strategies on how to remedy this problem. The US has always stayed competitive economically because of our contributions to technology and if that goes away so will our economic power.
Also, those pushing the "you must go to college if you want a good job" line always fail to mention what the unemployment rate of college graduates is, and how much higher salaries skilled trade workers get, without one day of college.
This is so true @hoopatang , I have a few friends who spent 4-5 yrs in college and still no luck finding work in the field they studied for. My son wants to learn to be an engineer. I cross my fingers that 5 years will not be sent down the drain. Told him he may be better off seeing if there is a Tech school for it
Someone just copied and pasted your post. https://steemit.com/@ivangav5/posts - this account.
thanks for the heads up I just flagged them.
Excellent post.
I would offer a thought from my own blog post on this subject.
Education makes the brain larger and more flexible. A larger and more flexible brain can learn faster, learn more varied things and learn for a much greater percentage of the person's life. Therefore education creates a shield against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and freedom to live the sort of life you want to live with the least possible cost in things you like to have.
But it goes beyond that. Education staves off the mental effects of ageing and gives you the means to stave off the physical effects as well. Just as poor education increases the odds of errors in life choices that could cost you potentially up to 40 years, good education increases the odds of genius in life choices that could give you potentially up to 40 years.
It is never an error to live the way you want, it is an error when you don't. However, genius is to know how to live the way the way you want in a way that works the best.
The issue of employment is, to me, nowhere near as significant as all that. Roughly 360,000 people in the United States have the same intelligence as Ruth Lawrence. Probably about the same number again have the same level of natural born talent as Alma Deutscher. Modern-day talents that would not look out of place on a list of geniuses throughout history - and would deserve very respectable placement on such lists. If America wanted to employ such people, it would be producing vast numbers of them. It isn't and that can only be taken as a conscious choice.
It's also putting the cart before the horse. 360,000 science/engineering/mathematics geniuses would completely re-invent the material side of the fabric of society. Annually. With or without getting "proper jobs". There would be no "proper jobs", there would be no more "average days", everyone would have adventures in the style of their choosing. It would be self-sustaining, because it has utility. It. Not the people, the dynamic.
Those without exceptional abilities become exceptional because they're on the outside. That's the most privileged viewpoint of all and that makes them valuable because they can trade in sanity. When your survival depends on knowing whether the Emperor has clothes or not, your ability to sanity-check and evaluate has greater value than those who can easily get caught up in their own cleverness.
You now have a complete, flourishing ecosystem based on getting not only education right but the purpose right.
Once employment is re-defined (or removed as a concept) then we'll begin to see massive changes in our education systems. But that change is so massive that it'll take a catastrophe to really start seeing real initiatives from the people in power.
Personally, I think the current system is alright. It didn't really matter much but it's part of who I am today. But I can understand though that it's not a funny matter for those who are totally "gripped" by the system seeing no way beyond the constructs..
:-)
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” A. Einstein
And if you can't do it as well as the student next to you, it's clearly the teachers fault.
Great cartoon. One of my favorites. I'm a special education teacher so this sums up my students' lives every day.
It's awful. Our system of education is anti-education really.
Check up my video underneath, posted in this thead. With Alfie Kohn.
It should make you feel better :-)
Finland are killing it on this front. I think the US and really, the rest of the world, should copy what the Scandinavian countries are doing.
A lot of the tests that compare Finland to the U.S. doesn't take into account how individual states do. Massachusetts does a great job educating their kids, and is ranked very well, only a few points behind Finland. But when we look at the average we have several states that completely drag us down.
This has pros and cons. It's great that individual states are in charge of their education system and we've seen the push-back against common core when the fed tries to unite everyone under one roof. But, this does mean that individual states get to put education at their own pace and value it as so.
I am convinced the proper purpose of education is to cultivate a thinking mind. I will recommend this book on the topic called:
Teaching Johnny to Think: A Philosophy of Education Based on the Principles of Ayn Rand's Objectivism
by Leonard Peikoff
Math teacher checking in. I've taught high school for the past decade plus. I'm in the trenches. The largest problem by FAR is the de-professionalization of education. No one wants to be a teacher. I love what I do, but some days I even question my own sanity. And why? Because we have impossible moving targets set by politicians that could give two shits less about what is really going on. Kids doing poorly? You suck. Kids doing well? It's because of us.
Ask yourself this: When you go to the doctor, who do you want to see? Someone just out of college, or someone that has been experienced in that profession for many years?
Guess what? In teaching, your kids are most likely to have a hobbyist for their teacher. Maybe someone two years out of college, if you are lucky.
Why? Because your state has relaxed the guidelines for someone looking to become a teacher. Anyone looking to teach has to know nothing about the psychology of the teenage brain, nor effective strategies to help students learn.
"Did you read 'The Great Gatsby?' You're hired!"
Teaching used to be a valued profession. Something respected. When I tell someone I am a teacher, I usually get a pregnant pause followed by a "that must suck". I don't know what will fix it, but if this culture continues, I sincerely worry for our future.
Just enrol every student to steemit. They will learn more in a month than an entire year in school!! cheers!! :)
My wife and I are happily sending our child to waldorf when she is old enough for kindergarten. Public education is an engineered mess.
This is fantastic... If you can afford it. But I believe public education is a civic duty. We need to fix our schools so all students have access to a curriculum that promotes creativity and imagination.
Education is not a civic duty at all. It is a parental and community duty. If we lived with a better sense of family and community responsibility and less civic and governemental dependence we wouldn't find ourselves in these messes so often.
I'm fine with "community" responsibility as well. As long as we are on the same page that a community has an obligation to educate ALL children I'm cool calling it anything you'd like.
It's more about authority. The first authority lies with the parents and that is supplemented by community/church. But, never government. Bad things happen when government gets involved in education. It's not their job and they have no authority.
Ive heard good things about waldorf I have found where I live a lot of European immigrants who come to the US seem to like it as an alternative.
They really promote a child's creativity and imagination, something that a normal education robs children of
👍great post
I love this post, but it feels a lot more like your opinions on how we view the those who are or aren't educated, not on the system itself.
Taking the feds out of education is the first necessary step to a solution. While we're at it, we need to take them out of a whole bunch of things.
I think most important what school give us its base of social relationship, not a knwoledges about sciences.
Well, I'm wasn't raised in the US but I can tell you something about the educational system here in Germany. I learned a lot and useful things for sure, but I haven learned the important things for life. What are credits, how do I pay my taxes? I think these basic things are important. Anyway I am pretty happy to about quantum mechanics :)
I think Ron Paul has a home school course you can buy if you want to home school your children, its worth looking into
demonstrate with facts that sometimes people can't with words
Current schooling system, let's just say, we better off without them...
I think the US is in a weird position since investors considered it a "Mature Economy," if US spends money to fix the schools then we will have smarter people entering the workforce when there are no jobs. So instead the US is spending that money for more prisons to house those that failed in finding work and resorted to crime or slandering the US.
Government schools are better called "public indoctrination camps". Private schools are rarely much better as they have the same state "teachings". Unschooling is the only way to go in my opinion.
You submitted an interesting perspective.
I, myself support the ideas presented by Alfie Kohn.
They directly correspond to the issues, you have mentioned.
Please, have a watch. It's super interesting and not very long:
Same problem. You really should to know about education system in Ukraine. One word terrible!
Thank you for post :)
I disagree. I believe that people can be judged as individuals, and there are good qualities outside of education such as friendliness and work ethic. But I also think Einstein was a more valuable human being than John Smith the unskilled laborer,there are a billion John Smiths and one albert Einstein. There are far more average humans than genius humans, so I think the genius's are more important. Everyone has different criteria when judging others, but I give out points for people with plans. Its not the college degree that makes me look highly on a person, its the knowledge that person has learned. If you want to be praised you need to do something. Like what has the macdonalds worker done for me to single him out from the hurd. Is he a aspiring author or singer? What's he bring to the table?
OK, how on earth has this earned $2800? This point has been expressed a lot in the last 8 years or so and there are numerous TED talks on this exact subject, especially by Sir Ken Robinson. Here's a link for those interested:
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms?gclid=CjwKEAjwlZa9BRCw7cS66eTxlCkSJAC-ddmw-8b3gC1ys-iZFNenthRQo-O0qNcgHU1fHvMj_fFUchoCjSjw_wcB
@calaber24p great post unfortunately I read the copied one first and upvoted and commented there. Got it right this time!
Punchline of my original comment was whoever created "participation" trophies did our children no favors. Team work is important, but competition drives us to be better.
you are on the right path by zooming out and asking the most important question: "what is school for?" - fortunately this question was already researched in a manifesto which i'd highly recommend. it's called "stop stealing dreams" - http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/docs/stopstealingdreamsscreen.pdf
Here's the scorecard. Not looking good.
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/
It's all backwards. I think we should trust children to do what they find meaningful and give them the resources to make that happen. The modern school system is dehumanizing, authoritarian and destroys children's spirits.
We need to radically rethink the whole idea of school and education.
I study the theory of global governance
and I share it with people
you can join
Education system is always old-fashioned basically, almost in every country.
This is a very big failure- it is very important WHAT we will tell our kids in school right? They will get their knowledge in there, so we should carefully give them the truth, while letting them to consider why this outcome has happened.
I love this post. It's not popular to diss public education - but the system is broken because the premise is flawed.
I'm a firm believer that 1-on-1 experiential education is far superior to communal textbook learning: Like light years better.
You can't beat home education. Second best would be specifically tailored private tutoring. Every child learns differently and so it makes sense that teaching to the lowest common denominator in a group setting is not effective for ANY student (including the lowest common denominator).
I personally opted to do skilled apprenticeships over traditional college. Experience always trumps education. Business owners are starting to agree with me. What looks better on a resume? 4 years of theory or 4 years of on-the-ground experience. Most businesses will hire 4 years of experience these days.
Traditional education is dead.
My Daughter isn't school age yet but I've often thought about home schooling her. We have been at an early childhood education centre for the past 3 years and it is COMPLETELY CHILD LED. Which means if they want to spend an entire term searching for worms - then that's what we're doing. We don't have mat time, we don't have coloring in books, we don't ask them what they're painting - they're just painting. Living in the moment. Learning how to deal with emotions safely, learning how to interact with children of different ages, race & gender. This is LIFE and I think the school system has a lot to answer for. However, i KNOW there are great schools and teachers out there. I think 5 is way too young to be put in a class and have all that information shoved at them. But this is just based on my child. All children are different and I hope parents and teachers will act accordingly. Not everyone fits in to the same box.
Go to school and then get a good job isn't it ???
My children are going to the best school, our home school
Nice post @calaber24p
I know one of the sad things about our Education system is that not all teachers even want to teach anymore. They are told what to teach, and work with the students who will excel in life. My child's elementary teacher told me once during a conference, they focus on just what is covered on the state tests. In Washington state, they have the No child left behind act. The sad part about that is, if there are kids who fall behind academically, there is really no help for them. I hear more and more parents deciding to home school since the system is failing. Some teachers want to do more, but is out of their hands. Education is so important for many reasons.
I have 2 recommendations in the land of education. In my mind, and this is after much thought and researching on the subject, schooling is just if you want to be a better cog or if you want your children to fit neatly inside the boxes selected for them by those who feel they are in charge.
Run, don't walk, and listen to a wonderful man that everyone ought to know, John Taylor Gatto. He was 2 times New York state teacher of the year and 3 times New York City teacher of the year. The people at Tragedy and Hope sat down with him a few years back and they have a 5 hour video series on youtube, The Ultimate History Lesson with John Taylor Gatto, anyone who wonders what the hell is going on with the people on this planet could have a great deal of insight gained by listening to this wonderful old man who has read the dusty old books and is there to tell us about it and to direct us to find it for ourselves. His work is all over youtube, really, go find him.
The other suggestion I have for you all is to visit www.triviumeducation.com and begin. This, possibly more than anything else I've looked at, has made the difference in my world, it was the switch in my brain I believe. I have gained the power of critical thinking and it is such fun to use, I wish more people in the world would give it a try! haha
Really interesting text! I totally agree when you say, in the end, that our children should be thought to work with each other instead of against. I was reading those articles here:
-> https://steemit.com/freedom/@thomasmmaker/article-a-thought-about-freedom-and-education-03
-> https://steemit.com/policyofliberty/@policyofliberty/our-great-enemy-the-government-schools-of-the-northern-hemisphere
May I have your opinion on them? Thank you! :)