National Education

I suppose I shall start out this post by apologizing for what might be slightly incoherent. Maybe, maybe not. I have addressed this topic briefly in my college German classes, and my personal opinions on reform generally stem from my views on such European educational structures.

I am going to discuss the primary and secondary educational systems and why I think there should be a more national viewpoint towards education than a state one. Currently states can set their own curriculum; there are some national guidelines, but they are dangled in front of state school systems by offering funds for complying. At least that's how I view it. But I think education is one of the things that should be a national issue; if we are going to formulate a competitive, intelligent educational system that prepares students for making their way in the world, should the system not be standard across the country, while allowing for states to include some geographical material and history? It makes more sense to me than watching what the Texas School Board will decide about their curriculum and analyzing how it might affect the country.

More specifically, I think our educational system is broken in directing everyone towards the path of college. Sure, high school would quote how people could do other things after high school, but the emphasis was always on college. And here is where I really found myself liking the German system. While there are some schools that are becoming more general like the United States, mostly secondary schools are divided into those who are looking towards the college track and those that are going to more trade and vocational type professions. I am generally aware that other European countries have systems that are similar to that, but I do not know many details. Doing so would allow less people to go to college, a college degree feel more important, and clear up a clogged system. I have talked to people who have mentioned how they needed a degree to get a job that they knew how to do, but needed the degree to prove - I'm not sure, but it felt pointless and a waste of their time and money. When a degree and not experience can earn a person a high wage, it is sad. Or at least, I think it is sad.

And although I think that creating high schools that focused on trade and vocational professions would be extremely useful in improving our educational system, I do not think it will happen any time soon. Standing in the face of such change, as with many European systems are American cultural values. The American Dream, letting anyone be who they want to be, would not want such a divided system. And I think that is why we push everyone towards college, because we do not want to be seen as pushing anyway towards being second best.

But here's the thing; when we are promoting everyone to be future mathematicians and scientists and problem solvers, we are leaving behind the people that have to do everything else. I think our problems lie at a more administrative level than an educational one. I think we are still capable of coming up with new and better ways to teach, but it is the bureaucracy, the emphasis on showing skills a certain way, that will be our downfall.

I sit here and I am not sure what to say. I know I think that solving our higher level educational problems starts at examining how our primary education is run, and what exactly to we emphasis. But on some level I also think we are doing fine on our own, we are out there developing new teaching techniques. Ideas about the classroom are constantly evolving. I just worry the system is too slow to catch up. So perhaps at the heart of it, the way I feel is summed up by national control of our educational system. Not streamlining, but making the system more efficient so there is more time to focus on preparing people for a realistic future. My hope for the other side of education - the actual teaching is summed up better by this video by 60 Minutes. Perhaps it will work; perhaps it will not. I do believe on some level teaching will never be perfect because we are not all the same, but I did enjoy this video the first time I saw it on CBS. And it proves to me that people are always trying to work towards a solution.



I also say watch this Sunday's 60 Minutes, which is to have an interview, of the preview that I have embedded below, on an alternative to college.