Why Our Education System is Failing Us

Today’s school system is built upon a foundation that was created over 100 years ago. Unfortunately, it has changed very little since being formed during the Industrial Age.

We still hold millions of kids hostage for approximately 35 hours a week. Students are ushered from room to room by the sound of an annoying bell and worst of all, students and teachers are working around an outdated system that was designed to produce industrial workers.

Today’s current form of compulsory schooling is an invention of the state of Massachusetts around 1850. At that time, it was resisted - sometimes with guns - by approximately 80% of the Massachusetts population. Barnstable on Cape Cod did not surrender until the 1880’s when the area was siezed by militia and children marched to school under gaurd.

Here is another interesting thought to consider. Senator Ted Kennedy’s office released a paper showing that prior to compulsory education, the state literacy rate was 98%. After compulsory education was enforced, the figure never again reached above 91%.

Another interesting point to make is the fact that children schooled at home seem to be five to even ten years ahead of their public shool counterparts in their ability to think.

However, the numbers don’t stop there. In the United States, our children’s reading and math skills regularly fall within the bottom 25 percent of developed countries. We place an inordinate amount of time and attention on standardized tests that have never been shown to predict success in later life and our school textbooks have shown to be fairly inaccurate. You can discover just a few of the inaccuracies in a revealing book called, “The Lies My Teacher Told Me“.

Haven’t you ever found it a bit strange that kids are told to eat healthy and are then fed unwholesome and fattening foods everyay for lunch?

Today’s schools cater towards left-brained students who learn best by lectures and auditory learning. This leaves many right-brained students struggling. In fact, many right-brained students are put on Ritalin and told to calm down. Unfortunately, little thought has been given to the harmful side effects of Ritalin. As said by Mike Adams of NewsTarget.com, “these children don’t need drugs, they need nutritional support and the elimination of toxic chemicals from their foods.”

“I find it astounding that in our public schools, which claim to be ‘drug free zones,’ teachers and school administrators have become drug pushers who urge parents to put their children on psychotropic drugs that would be called ’speed’ on the street,”

We are giving students drugs for ADHD in the United States that have been banned in other countries. Adderall, the number one drug prescribed for ADHD, was taken off the market by Health Canada (the Canadian equivalent of the FDA). Unfortuantely, the FDA has yet to follow suit even after reports of sudden deaths, strokes, and heart complications.

Ritalin is simply an authority drug. It alters brain chemistry and forces students to stay in line and obey orders. Mike Adams adds, “It makes teachers feel less stress and parents feel less guilt.”

Unfortunately, we have never looked for the real cause of the problem, which is often a poor “Americanized” diet that is high in carbohydrates and refined sugars. Instead, we put a huge bandaid on the problem and serve up narcotics.

To find out more about the mythical disease known as ADHD, go to ADHDfraud.org.

We live in a world where more than 6 million children are taking psychoactive drugs.

Instantly, creativity is stifled. Today’s global economy demands more creative workers. We must foster creativity or die a slow death to countries that are quickly cetching up with us.

However, this is just the beginning of the many problems found in public education.

Our lack or reform has caused schools to become grossly outdated.

Walk in any classroom and it’s obvious that we are not preparing our kids for today’s high tech society. Instead, you’ll see the desk littered with books, loose-leaf paper, and pencils.

Why should every kid carry around 5-6 books, when all of this information could be stored much more effectively on a personalized laptop? This may sound expensive, but it’s actually a much more economical solution. This is especially true for the college student who pays about $400 per semester for books. Let’s digitize all of this material and make it available for the entire campus. Schools are NOT a business. Unfortunately, most schools (and especially colleges) are run much like a business.

There are a number of changes that need to occur in order to prepare kids for the society they will be entering. Our schools are acting as a daycare when they should be preparing our young people for today’s modern world of technology. Education that is restricted to the classroom, the blackboard, and the text book is highly detatched from the real world.

Here are the changes I propose:

Incorporating Technology and Web-Based Learning Materials Internships & Apprenticeships Self-Directed & Independent Learning Community Service

Technology & Web-Based Learning Materials

Schools have forced us to follow a core curriculum when students really need a highly personalized course load.We must give each student their own customized learning experience. Force feeding students exactly the same material stunts their intellectual growth. Why should we impose a standardized curriculum on individuals who have a wide variety of interests, passions, and talents? This is not good for the student or the society as a whole. Instead, let’s allow children to follow their passions.

Why should a student have to listen hour long lectures about cell divsion when they really want to learn how to start their own business. Yes, some things must simply be taught, but most everything is force-fed, even in your college years.

Learning isn’t just for the classroom. The use of web based materials can change the nature of teaching and learning itself. To engrain a love for learning in students, we must implement a more experiential, hands-on focus. Boring lectures just won’t cut it for today’s tech-savvy students.

Let’s apply what we teach in the classroom to what they might actually experience in real life. Otherwise, it doesn’t seem to have much relevance or importance to their young lives.

Let them interact with the material. Teach them to set up their own blog and chronicle their own learning experiences. A blog gives students a worldwide audience that extends far beyond their classmates and instructor.

These blogs offer each student an e-portfolio where they can write and publish articles, links, digital images, audio and video clips. All information would also be tagged and classified to create a network of content that is easily accessible to all students and teachers.

This tagging system could be much like what delicious does online.

What information could be shared in this online portfolio? Here are just a few of the possibilities…

• lecture notes
• personal stories
• research information
• reading lists
• coursework
• recorded lectures
• personal goals and plans

This online portfolio would follow a student through their entire education and could then be used as a reference in their future resume.

To learn more about e-portfolios, go to:

http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/03/10/electronic_portfolios_what_are_they.htm.

To find out more about educational blogging, go to
http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0450.asp?bhcp=1

Learning is such a great adventure. I don’t know why our education system makes it a dreaded, dull experience.

Community Service

Community service has shown to have a major impact on the lives of students. The values they learn from helping others can rarely be learned in the classroom. Let’s make community service a requirement. The simple act of helping someone else allows students to see the world from a new and different perspective and to rethink their own goals and values. Let’s give our students experiences instead of forcing them to read about the experiences of others.

Mentors & Internships

Let’s give our students older mentors who can share a bit of their own wisdom. Let’s set them up with an apprenticeship to learn to master a skill. An apprenticeship is a very low-cost way to offer a multitude of golden opportunities to our students today. A single apprenticeship can unlock a hidden passion, open up a window of opportunity, and set a kid on a new and rewarding career path.

Independent Study and Self-Directed Learning Opportunities

The vast world of education is NOT locked up inside schools and universities. In fact, most of the knowledge lies outside of the school system. It’s found in the vast libraries of the world, podcasts, blogs, websites, and our own discoveries that come from experimenting with our surroundings.

Today’s generation of students are naturally drawn to a more independent learning style. They grew up with Google and most are very familiar with seeking and retrieving information from the Internet. This marks a stark contract to previous generations of students who aquired information much more passively from authority figures.

Today’s students need a shared curriculum set up on a technology platform that allows them to learn anywhere, anyplace, anytime.

It’s time for our school systems to get a major overhaul. We must liberate students from the assembly line model of learning that we call public education.

Let’s take the focus off of rote memorization and start creating interactive learning experiences that fosters curiosity as well as creativity.

Today’s schools must teach students how to learn and not just what to learn.