What are the worst problems in the United States? Some would say crime, some healthcare, Number one on my list, is education. All societal problems can be linked to the faulty foundation of American citizens, better known as, Public Education. Let's reflect for a moment, we start elementary school, then proceed to middle school(Junior High) then high school, then off to college, where we earn degrees and become well paid, highly productive citizens right? In most cases, wrong. This seems to be the overrall goal but in most cases, these are not the results. What is the major difference between our education and the education in other countries? We are only taught how to work for someone else, entrepeneurship is only introduced at a college level. Even then only with certain majors. Why? Most of our private school counterparts have curriculum that teaches about economy and how to make your money work for you, not to mention in-home examples(watching dad do payroll at his company) A great number of public school attendees however walk across the stage earning a diploma, never having heard of such.
Why isn't public school curriculum more practical? You know, news students can use.
High schools and even junior high teaches Trigonometry, Calculus, Physics. Why? These are highly specialized subjects that only people going into very specific fields will ever have any use for. Which is why they teach them, in COLLEGE. Don't get me wrong every student needs a solid foundation in math, Algebra, Percentages, basic Statistics, Basic Geometry. That's it, concentrate on a strong knowledge of these and move on to that which can actually be used in the real world. Like TAXES! It makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE THAT STUDENTS GRADUATE FROM HIGH SCHOOL NOT KNOWING HOW TO FILE OUR OWN TAXES. We pay these low budget, inexperienced "Fast Tax"
businesses millions of dollars a year to do our taxes when it takes all of 20 minutes to DO IT YOURSELF. Why would we learn this in school?
It's a tool that we'll need for the rest of our lives. Instead bore a student to death with high level trigonometry he'll most likely never see
again. Pointless.
Why don't we know anything about investing our money? Again these are the ingredients to a productive citizen. No teacher of mine ever mentioned(at any length) about the stock market, money market accounts, certificates of deposit. Nothing. Why is that? Is our money only good for being spent at the mall? Or is it only good for spending on the uncertainty of a college education?
College is a great idea and it's wonderful that we're encouraged to attend but what's the use, if we're sent there unequipped. Aptitude tests should be given freshman year of high school to help students determine what exactly they're working towards. If not college will become a
bottomless pit of unmotivated adding and dropping of classes until a student is so far in debt it doesn't matter what job he gets afterwards,
all proceeds for the next 10 years will be Loan Payback. Going to college Undecided, is ridiculous, and highly Counterproductive. Why do
High schools push college so much? What's the real reason? Is it for their own benefit, for funding? "This many students from our school
went to college." Yes but how many graduated? How many are working in their field? Very different answers I'm sure.
Why let students have study halls and timewasting courses when there are many more useful subjects to be learned? Use this time to teach students how to be self reliant, how to work for themselves, how to navigate the economy, how to budget. Who's idea of education is being
taught anyway?
Just a little food for thought to chew on, I'd love to hear your opinion? After all, I'm just TheWomanAskingQuestions.
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What I find interesting is when I was working for an Alternative High-School in the Special Ed department, we did teach those practical courses. I think the mindset is High-School is to prepare for college, but the students I was working with were not college bound, so we prepared them for survival.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that has always bothered me is the dumbing down of college. The emphasis to attend has driven people to college that realistically should have never gone. To ensure everyone has to opportunity to attend the course work has been made accessible to the masses, but that was not the intent of college. University was to create thinkers, now it appears to be more of an advanced trade school. You know you can get a Master's in Social Media now...really? Really?
Sorry I am rambling...good points, as always.
Thank you so much Eric, I always love to hear ur opinion! I agree with you that college isn't for everyone. I think it's for me but I wish someone wouldve told me to wait until I was sure why. I see so many teens in that same predicament, misguided and unaware. It took me 4 yrs to even get on the right track!
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