its past time to shake up public education

My dear friend, you and I go down the same road regarding education.  Maybe some places we could pause and debate some minor differences, but mostly it's time we take our public education by the scruff of the neck and give it a good shaking. 

What you outline is not unlike that which is working in other nations.  And they are beginning to leave Americans in the chalk dust. 

Why we ever allowed a fine Trade School System as once existed in the Seattle area to be turned into community colleges, I'll never know.  But one by one these schools closed or morphed into what I call extended high school. 

Of course Trade Schools do need something called Trades in order to justify their existence.  How can we turn out thousands of blue collar skilled tradespersons into a jobless nation?  Perhaps instead of a certificate of graduation we could present them with a one way ticket to India?  Or wherever trades jobs are happening. 

So now we also have to fix our sagging manufacturing and industrial businesses. 

And at the same time, and perhaps just as important in this new American Education, is our approach to education itself. 

Ann touched on this in talking about how she would structure this new system.  But I believe that we must train our teachers to be honest evaluators and insightful advisors and guidance counselors.  These new teachers must break from the traditional patterns of teaching children that education is a pyramid with the few very bright children climbing up through college to the top of the heap.  A PHD or at the very least a Masters is the sign of having won a brass ring.  The rest of the young, the vast majority, are seen as ho hum losers and ne'er do wells. 

Rather than do the hard work of finding a place for their skills and talents and directing them toward success, our lack of skills as teachers pushes them into believing that they are failures and rejects.  And then we go about wondering why our inner cities are crumbling into war zones? 

It's time to stop blaming the victims and come up to the line and take responsibility and roll up our sleeves and care enough about our fellow Americans to do the hard work. 

 

Curious Carl