I wrote in earlier posts about the World Question and what my response would be to last years question of what i believe to be true even though i cannot prove it. I promised that i would write about this year's question "What is my dangerous idea?", so here it is.
My dangerous idea is that our modern public educational system is almost completely failing today's youth. If the purpose of the education system is to prepare young people for adulthood and to give them what they need to succeed in life, than it is failing miserably. More and more education above and beyond the basic 12th grade is required to have anything more than a minimum wage job. And oftentimes even that is not enough. I currently have my Masters Degree and am preparing myself to get my Doctorate, but even with all of that education, it was very little preparation for the real world.
The public school system does not prepare people to work and hold down a job, it teaches them to be students. For those people who are not very good at academics (even though they may be great at other things), forcing them to fit into the education system and attempting to force them into a mold that they may not fit simply teaches them to see themselves as a failure instead of building the strengths that they have to help them to be productive.
I do not blame the teachers and educators for this as they often do their jobs very well. Oftentimes they do this at their own personal expense of time, finances, and other potential gain. I believe that the flaw is in the system itself.
In order to explain this properly i need to go over some historical background. Prior to the industrial revolution much of what would have been considered the education of a child was done either through working in the family business, working in the fields, working in the home, and/or doing an apprenticeship/journeyman work. When a child was old enough to be able to do any work,....
Well, that's better, but still not finished...
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2 comments:
I don't think it is the educational system's job to totally prepare its students for the outside world. I think it involves more people then that. Parents are one of the best models a child can have. How about your religious leaders? Shouldn't pastors and Sunday School teachers also be a part of educating children for the future. How about the baseball coach or the soccer coach? Don't you think they take a part of educating children about life and its sociatal rules. If you put all those expectactions on the educational system, of course, you are going to be greatly disappointed.
Wow that is really interesting. I haven't really thought about it that way. I see you haven't written in this for a long time but hopefully when you read this again you will check out my blog and maybe write back to me.
Things are going good. The baby is due any day and we are just enjoying having our last few days to eachother in quiet bliss. hehe
I don't think that we do put all of our expectations on the educational systems. You are right the parents and the religious leaders should and alot of them are putting alot into our childrens future. I get really excited when I see the children at our church. Some of them are more spirit filled then their parents and elders. God is really moving in this area and I pray that other areas of the US are as well.
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