Our Education System Must Change

Is the goal of our education system to prepare our children to enter the job market? Does our current system meet those goals? An argument can be made that our education system fails to meet these goals and changes are dearly needed.

Our education system has become outdated and too expensive. From the time a child enters kindergarten, the learning process is to get them ready for college. In reality only a small percentage of students will ever attend a college or university. However, our system is to force every student to learn curricula that is required for college entry. We do this in an effort to be fair, so that all students have the same opportunities. What this has really created is an unfair system that does not address the needs of the majority of our students.

Education must become tailored to the student's needs. All students must be taught basic reading, writing and math skills, which should be accomplished before they reach high school. By the time a student reaches high school they should be tested to determine a track for continued education. Unfortunately our education system has stigmatized any form of education that does not include college. This is where the system is unfair as most students would be better off attending a trade school rather than being forced to take classes they are not capable of learning. Students who are not academically inclined should be diverted to schools that teach them job skills. Aptitude tests should be used to determine a students natural abilities. The type of education a student receives should be based solely on testing.

In addition, our colleges and universities must also change. Even this education must become more like a trade school and be narrowly targeted to the career the student has elected. Students are graduating from colleges with degrees that do not prepare them for the job they will enter. Our college education system is so broad that it often takes five years to get a four-year degree. This is not necessary and entirely too costly for the student and the country. If a student attends college to become a doctor then teach them what they need to know to be a doctor. Broader areas of education that do not need to be learned to perform the job skill should not be required. Surely half of the currently required classes could be eliminated if our education system was more narrowly tailored to the area of profession chosen by the student. The broad system we currently employ leads to students being saddled with thousands of dollars of debt. This would seem to put the emphasis on funding schools rather than teaching students. Students would be better prepared for the work force if the education system concentrated on the education they needed rather than the broad area of learning we have now.

An example of waste in higher education is the requirement to learn a second language. Learning a second language is a worthy part of either lower or higher education. However, students are required to take two years of language courses and a large majority cannot speak the language at the end. If the goal is to teach a second language, then our school system is failing miserably. What should be adopted is one of the commercially available language software programs that teaches you to read and actually speak a language. If students were required to do this for one year, they would become proficient in speaking a second language and the goal would actually be met.

With the advent of the Internet the possibilities for teaching our students is endless. The need for brick and mortar schools will become obsolete. Parents will have more options than the current public school system. Schools, colleges and universities will have to adapt in order to exist. Preparing our students to enter the work force should be the goal. Parents can no longer afford the cost of tuition and it is criminal to saddle our students with thousands of dollars of debt before they even enter the work force.

Most job creation in this country is done by small businesses. A lot of very successful small business owners do not have college degrees and don't consider having one to be a great asset to them. Especially when the degree is not tailored to their business. If a college degree is going to be the student's highest achievement on their resume, shouldn't it be specific to the job they are seeking?

Change is coming whether our educators and government want it or not. We should embrace this change and make educating our children about preparing them for the job market.

Could You Benefit From This Education System?

The Benefits of Other Education Systems

Is the North American system of education a world model? Can they possibly learn and borrow from other countries and cultures to further improve their way of doing things?

While doing some unrelated research this past week, I came across some very interesting information that piqued my interest in the current state of affairs in North American education. The author of the report, Bill Costello, is a US educational researcher who believes that cultures should borrow the best practices from each other. He wanted to find out if the Taiwanese education system uses practices from which schools in the US could benefit.

I would add here that US schools could easily be expanded to cover most schools in North America. Having gone through the US education system myself and seeing my step-daughters now in the Canadian education system, for the purpose of this article I've concluded that the US/Canadian methods are very closely related, if not entirely similar.

Mr. Costello notes that the Taiwanese education system produces students with some of the highest test scores in the world in science and math. He goes on to support his case by citing the various international assessments used to obtain performance rankings in different disciplines of study, such as math, science and reading. The actual assessment results show that the Taiwanese education system produces overall performances significantly higher than the international average.

A Few Simple Changes to Greatly Benefit Our Education System

The most interesting part of Mr. Costello's report is that he admits there are too many factors involved to correctly pinpoint the reason(s) why the Taiwanese appear to lead the world in educational performance. However, he did make these observations and wonders - as I now do, and hope you will too - if the following six excellent practices just might have something to do with their superior rankings among global education systems. Here is a brief summary of what Mr. Costello observed:

• Nutrition: The Taiwanese serve veggies, rice, soup and meat as opposed to the high fat and sugar content processed food of their North American counterparts. Studies prove that good nutrition improves scholastic achievement.
• Activity Levels Increased: The Taiwanese incorporate more weekly physical education and daily recesses than do North Americans. In fact, the growing trend in North America is to cut required physical activity out altogether, making it an elective. Once again, independent studies show that an increase in regular exercise improves school performance results.
• Uniforms: With peer pressure being a large cause of negative influence in school, uniforms are proven to lower incidents of violence and theft. Children who feel safe and relaxed do far better than those who are constantly stressed and fearful. Uniforms are the norm in Taiwan, while only 15% of North American schools require them.
• Utilization of a more hands-on approach: While the majority of North American schools tend to limit learning from books and other multi-media, the Taiwanese lean more towards hands-on learning, preferring to use compasses and rulers rather than computers and calculators as one example. Hands-on learning leads to more direct application of learned skills, making the lessons that much more real and valuable to students.
• Multi-task learning: The Taiwanese try to show how things are related by teaching two or three disciplines at a time. For example, art meets science as students draw or construct models based on what they learn. Again, this allows students additional ways to apply what they know across multiple disciplines, making each area that much stronger.
• Instill personal responsibility: Taiwanese school systems do not employ janitors. Rather, cleanup is part of the daily regimen taken up by all students where they are assigned to clean the building, take care of trash and keep the school grounds clean and tidy. Academic performance improves as students become more responsible.

Not Perfect, But a Better Education System

While the Taiwanese education system is excellent, it's not perfect. For example, critics say it favors rote memorization over critical and creative thought, puts too much pressure on students to pass entrance exams and relies too much on buxibans - or cram schools - for educating students.

Nonetheless, North American education systems could improve by adopting some of the excellent practices used in Taiwanese schools.

While I like all of the observations, I absolutely love #6 as I see personal responsibility sorely lacking in our youth today. In North America we strive so hard to 'give our kids the life we wish we had' when we were growing up, we literally rob them of opportunities to grow, especially in the area of personal responsibility.

In my own home, it seems to be a never-ending task for Maggie and I to make sure the girls pick up after themselves. I'm all for having the students pick up after themselves in school. I see only benefits coming from this practice.

In any case, it's an interesting debate - can simple changes like adopting the best practices of other cultures' education systems actually improve our own childrens' learning capacity?

Our Educational System Has It All Wrong

Before we can say what is wrong with our educational system, we should define the term.The purpose of the educational system is to:

Pass on Knowledge

Relate relevant issues to each other

Prepare individuals and groups for future situations

The passing on of knowledge is one of the oldest civilized functions. The passing on of knowledge was originally done in the form of stories told when people got together. Once languages were written, then came libraries which were repositories for knowledge.

The passion to record and relate all knowledge has remained a goal of scholars since the invention of libraries.There is no better example of that than the World Wide Web. It's original intended purpose was provide a central access site where all knowledge could be retained and for related items to be linked to each other.

The need for cross transfer of information has long been recognized as a needed but thorny issue.The issue is thorny because of the difficulty in execution of a noble idea.

As was mentioned earlier, large well organized enterprises have developed systems, involving SMEs (subject matter experts), which are specifically designed to enhance cross transfer of new ideas and concepts within and without their organizations. As in all such situations, this is not a perfect solution, but it is practical.

The preparation of individuals and groups for future situations is the single most extensive function of our educational system This is as it should be. This preparation process has three components. The first is the educational system as a whole. The second component is technical education/training. The third component is vocational education/training.

The functions identified as numbers two and three can arguably be included in the first category. Because their more specialized characteristics, they have differences which need to be identified. The above classification was chosen as the way to do that.

Our Educational System also has three distinct components. They are University Educational Systems,
High School Educational Systems and Grade School
Educational Systems.

The University Educational System has several components. These are Graduate School, Undergraduate School and two year Associate Degree Programs.

Graduate Schools are responsible for the preparation of scholars who will perpetuate the present customs. They are responsible for basic research in both general and technical areas. They are responsible for technical qualification and training and for general managerial training and qualifications.

Undergraduate Schools are responsible for entry level technical and general training. This includes managerial training. Let us not forget the original reason for the establishment of Universities which is to spread the knowledge of social and philosophical disciplines.These are the "liberal arts".

The "Junior" Colleges serve two purposes. The first is prepare students to enter Undergraduate Schools. The second purpose is to provide training for entry level positions in our enterprise system. This often includes vocational training.

High Schools are responsible to complete the basic educational training skills of math, reading, writing, science and history. They are responsible to make their graduates employable in the enterprise system.

Grade Schools are responsible for to teach the basic knowledge skills and to prepare its graduates for High School.

As is evident from the above description of the responsibilities of the various levels of education,its mission is both diverse and complex. Compounding the diversity issue, is the fact that both Graduate Schools and Undergraduate Schools are curriculum driven to train the next generation. These schools often do not look at all of their functional responsibilities in a balanced manner. Commonly, the matter of qualifying graduates for employment in our enterprise system is not given sufficient emphasis.

Certain disciplines are not covered in sufficient breadth and depth. For example courses in Production Management do not explain that all systems, production and administrative, are best modeled as an analog hydraulic system.This fact is of great impact for those entering the enterprise system. Because they would know that in hydraulic systems constraints limit throughput and that their elimination improves the flow. This then prepares the graduate to make improvements on the ways in which things are done within the organization for which they work.

A similar situation exists with the discipline of work measurement standards. The discipline was developed in the early part of the 20th century yet wide spread knowledge of its benefits do not exist. This is a problem of both the enterprise system and the educational system.

Simply stated, productivity improvement is key to our future economic growth. Increased productivity is achieved only by improved methods and procedures (better ways of doing things).The majority of enterprises have opportunities for systems and procedural improvements within their own organizations. Employees who have the proper knowledge can find and recommend improvements for those systems.

Knowing how to accomplish these programs makes an employee more valuable to the enterprise. The addition of the production facts and work measurement to a broader audience can be of great importance to our enterprise system in general.

At four levels of the educational system, the function of preparing graduates for employment was mentioned as existing. These levels are Graduate School, Undergraduate School, Junior College and High School.

Graduate schools often need to be more proactive with the members of the enterprise system to learn what employee requirements are for a Phd or a Masters Degree candidate.
They can also determine the blend of skills needed.

Undergraduate Schools can also benefit from being more proactive with members of the enterprise system. In this way, they can also determine the blend of skills most wanted by the enterprise system.

Because Junior Colleges often provide vocational training, they are often more aware of the realities of the work place than are other educational groupings. One of the needs of the Junior Colleges is to find out such information as how literate is computer literate? Does every one need to know how to use spread sheets? The source of this type of information is of course, the enterprise community.

High Schools are last educational institution which most students ever see. This makes their role in our educational process a critical one. More students will have the need to know how to get a job and keep a job than will go to another higher educational level. If retention levels increase, the above will be even more the case. High Schools need to provide students with training which employers want to be present in their employees.In order to know what these requirements are, contacts with the enterprise system are needed.

Here are some thoughts about the drop out situation. Many of those out do so because they see no reason to continue school. Their belief is that school provides them with no skills which can get them a job. Further they have little knowledge of the importance of keeping a job. This says that it is super important for the High School to know what is expected of an enterprise system job applicant and teach those skills. This requires both the school board and the educators to become aware to the real student needs and to also know how the local enterprise system works.

Remember the Proactive approach taken by the large and well organized businesses. Similar systems need to be set up with in the academic community. The educational system needs to look at its responsibilities from a functional point of view. This includes taking the needs of the student into account as well as the needs of employers.

More emphasis has to be placed at all levels from High Schools on up to make graduates more employable. Such efforts at the High School level will tend to lower the dropout rates of the High Schools which participate.

The subject matter relating to improving productivity, is not presently being given enough emphasis in any part of the educational system. This is to the detriment of the potential employee.

Management in most enterprises is not aware of the productivity improvements which can and should be employed within the organization. The value and uses of the tools discussed here need to be brought to the attention of senior management at all levels of activity.