Education Reform

Well, on to the very first topic...

It is my opinion that one of the leading causes of the majority of problems in this nation is education, or a lack thereof. How can people reasonably make decisions regarding the wellbeing of themselves, let alone the country as a whole, if they don't have the intellectual resources to draw upon?

Obviously education is a hot button issue in politics right now. The Texas legislature is faced with developing a new education budget, the President has recently been working on his "No Child Left Behind" act, and current studies have shown our education system to be one of the most dismal in the world. This has left us forced to stare down the issue of "how do we fix this for our kids?", and everyone has a different answer.

Perhaps we should increase school funding, thereby increasing the number of programs offered, the number of elective courses provided, and the quality of teachers? Or maybe we should find a way to encourage teachers to promote learning? (You may recognize these from my opening post)

How about this for a novel concept? Increase the length of the school days. Increase the length of the school year. I mean, seriously, children have more recreation time than adults could hope for. They are in school for less hours a day, if they apply themselves properly then they have relatively little homework, and once that's over they get a few chores, and it's off to do whatever you want. In fact, quite a few parents make their children go play so they can have time to take care of things around the house.

So why not put some of that time to good use by supplementing their education? Schools rarely hold days more than 7 hours long, at least 45 minutes for lunch, and in the lower grades they have recess and in the upper gym (though, if I recall, gym is less fun). Then they get 3 months off in the summer, not to mention spring break, and numerous other holidays.

Take a page from the Japanese here. They have what is widely regarded as the best education system in the world, their children out-perform ours in intellectual pursuits, and they have have one of the best industrial and technological nations in the world. Surely they're not doing things wrong if they're so much better in this arena. They start school at an earlier age and complete it at an older one, work at school for more hours a day (10, if I recall correctly), attend school 6 days a week, and they score higher, on average, on standardized testing than our children. They have a more dedicated work ethic when they graduate, they have a higher post-secondary success rate, and they generally go on to be more successful in life.

In short, they're living the Japanese dream. The American dream, however, seems to be loafing, having everything handed to you on a silver platter, and generally enjoying our ignorance.

Education impacts everything in life. It develops a work ethic, it gives a broad variety of knowledge needed for general life (yes, even History... If you don't know it, you are doomed to repeat it), and it prepares you for post-secondary education (i.e. technical/trade school or college). It teaches that success comes to three types of people; the dedicated, the talented, and the lucky (sad, but true).

Opponents of this idea contend that if we drastically reshape the school systems the way I've suggested, then "our children will resent us". Perhaps, but when they grow up to be successful individuals I imagine that they would understand the need, and generations past this couldn't resent us; they will never know anything else. And personally, I would rather have a successful, contributing member of society that resents me as a child, rather than a lazy, co-dependent slacker still living at home. My job as a parent isn't to make my kids like me, but to ensure their success in the real world, and we've lost sight of that.

Second on my list of educational reform ideas, beyond longer school days, is state-funded post-secondary education. The need for a college education now is so great, that you can hardly succeed in life without it. If we want to regain our status as the industrial and technological leader of the world, we need to ensure that our workers have access to the training and education that will allow our markets to flourish and progress.

Too few people pursue an education beyond high school, if they finish that at all. I myself have yet to attend college (not a fact I'm proud of, but a fact nonetheless), but not for lack of desire. As I've hopefully demonstrated so far, I am a rather intellectual person, but my main problem is that between family, work, and trying to relax enough that I don't kill people, I have neither the time, nor the finances to make that a reality yet. But I digress...

Thirdly, and I would consider this to be the most important of all, would be to broaden the curriculum currently taught to our children. More focus on what it takes to be successful, i.e. speech, ethics, etc., than on "recreation". Expand the concepts taught in elective courses, such as music, art, and generally all the liberal arts courses, to include things like production and appreciation. Perhaps a nationwide educational curriculum standard?

Also, expanding the variety of elective choices. Secondary education is when our children should be experimenting with different fields of study, trying to find out what would appeal to them as a career choice. Most Americans have no idea what they want to do for a living after graduating high school. This results in most students changing their major and average of 7 times in the first year of college, and approximately 4 to 6 times more in the subsequent years. This wastes both time and money that could be put to a much better use.

Expanding the curriculum will most likely require a change at least similar to the one I proposed originally (expanding the amount of overall time spent on school) in order to allow enough time for the type of experimentation that would give a more focused career goal to our children.

I would like to thank my dear wife and one of our best friends for assisting me with this post. They gave me the type of conversation that I'm looking for on here; commenting on both the good and bad of my ideas, offering alternate thoughts, and expanding on what I've already presented. As always, I'm welcoming any comments pertaining to this topic, as I am dedicated to the exchange of ideas and knowledge for the betterment of myself, others, and the nation as a whole. Also, if any of you are particularly active in the political arena, feel free to present my ideas to the appropriate entities. I'm not so concerned about credit and fame as progress vs. stagnation. Unfortunately, in politics, if you aren't part of the solution, you're part of the problem, so keep on thinking people. Unless it's perfect, there's always room for improvement.