08.09.07
What Is Wrong With Education?
I recently wrote about the political campaign. This has the potential to be a series of small articles.
Look, there are a lot of major problems in the educational system. There are far too many for me to list, and even if I did, some would disagree with nearly every point.
Tonight, I want to focus on one problem only: unrealistic goals.
First of all, school is supposed to give you the general background needed to learn a job on the job. Our school system is not supposed to train the workforce to walk in the door and immediately be competent engineers. Anyone who expects something different is lying to himself. It has never been that way, and it will never be that way.
Secondly, I have read that nearly fifty percent of all U.S. employees say their first job was in fast food. Yet, we constantly hear about the poor quality of our graduates. Don’t get me wrong: dealing with customers and incompetent managers is challenging and takes an amazing level of skill. Still, when I worked in fast food, I said I could teach a ten year-old to do most of my job within thirty to sixty days. The whole design of the business is to take away the latitude to make decisions, and therefore the necessity to do any thinking whatsoever.
The one thing that I do wish schools taught kids is how to count back change instead of depending on the computerized register. That skill that is even more valuable as a customer, because it will clue you in to possible theft by an employee.
Still, if we do not have the challenging jobs available, why do we need to give kids so-called entry-level skills in a particular field?
What is wrong with schools? Schools need SLOBs to absorb many of their graduates and give them the on-the-job training that will help them for the rest of their lives. Schools need the owners of OMBs to come and help the kids get acquainted with the kinds of jobs that they are likely to be doing once they graduate. Schools need some major organizational structure-type changes, but these two changes are doable NOW. Get involved.
