The US isn’t perusing its own energy resources but, worse yet, it isn’t developing its intellectual capacity. Public schools, in an effort to be all things to all people, no longer fulfill their primary mission. Our universities, on the other hand, do a great job – a great job of educating people from other countries. Thank goodness we have students from other countries to fill the technology void created by our public school system.
Let’s start with the student’s choices after they leave high school. If you want to go to college, don’t waste your time on a degree in art appreciation. Art is wonderful and important, don’t make me out to be a philistine, but if you can’t make a living, you’re never going to own any art to appreciate. Study something that will empower you to make a contribution to society’s health, comfort, and wellbeing and, making useful contributions, to be suitably rewarded. Work hard for four or five years, take the hard courses, and set yourself up for life.
If you don’t want to go to college, don’t go anyway and take up space studying something essentially useless, consider the skilled trades instead – electrician, plumber, pipe fitter, lineman, diesel mechanic, and others. These careers pay more than most liberal arts degrees, are on a par with engineering, and your work cannot usually be moved to another country. For a secure and interesting career, carefully consider the skilled trades.
I recently read Poll: Education Not Adding Up in the Peoria Journal Star. It seems from the poll that parents would like to see their children exposed to a little more math. Parents and officials love to say that, it sounds wise and concerned but what are they actually doing about it? Not much.
The students who are smart enough to study math and science often don’t pursue technical careers; they think it will be too hard. This isn’t a new phenomenon, I was interviewing good math students who were college-bound twenty years ago and heard the same story – “…too hard, can’t get good grades.” Grades were everything to these high achievers; grades were more important than knowledge.
The students who don’t do well in math and science in high school often are skilled in many other ways but they get pushed into college anyway and added to the tens of thousands of graduates with obscure non-technical degrees who, as you read this, are still searching for a good job. Had they entered the skilled trades they would be making as much as a graduate engineer and no one could move their job to India.
A poll that recommends a little more math in our public schools is a lot like suggesting we should use more vegetables to offset the oil shortage – too little too late. I looked at the survey results in the article. There was only one question about subject matter, the rest were about discipline, facilities, and expectations.
I was with the Detroit Board of Education many years ago (350 schools). We would build a new school and it would be trashed in a matter of weeks. New facilities are not the answer. There is no point in talking about discipline. The lawyers took away the teacher’s authority decades ago. It is a wonder the system continues to function at all. So we are left with expectations. The question is whose expectations? It can’t be the parents or we’d have a completely knew Congress. All that is left is an appeal to the students. Students need better encouragement than constant pressure to get good grades. We are asking them to take it on faith that getting good grades is a good idea. Let’s show these kids why they need good grades (which are just a measure, not an objective), why they should seek knowledge, and why they should strive to succeed. Why do we dumb down the classroom and make millionaires out of the best of the best athletes? If you can’t make it on the Basketball team, they cut you. If you can’t make it in class what happens?
We are dealing with the country’s most important asset as we face world competition so maybe the enforcers of political correctness will look the other way when I tell you what every successful person knows - you are judged by your ability to communicate and your ability to do something that needs to be done. If you are well spoken and can write a grammatically correct paragraph, you will be perceived as intelligent and you will do well. Communication is how the world works. Do you think America would have backed England in WWI if we were a German speaking country? Not likely; we had fought a war with the British – but we understood what the English said. Why do you think India is becoming such an active trading partner with the US? Answer: They speak English.
Let’s consider Spanish-speaking immigrants, those not born to the English language. I see in them conservative values and the strong work ethic that should take a person as far as they want to go but if they don’t learn to speak English, the American dream will elude them. If the schools don’t teach them to communicate artfully in English, the schools are cheating them. So let’s cut the excuses and put reading and writing back on top. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are still the basics that will support you all your life. If you are not coming out of High School with those skills – you were robbed no matter how socially adjusted you are.
But wait, a note to high school councilors, America graduates a paltry 70,000 engineers a year. India does three to four times that many and China even more. Now ask yourself why the technical work is going overseas. It isn’t for price anymore, it is for talent. My company does engineering right here in Peoria but 80% of the employees are from another country. Engineering is hard. Let me tell you the basic secret of success, if you want to do well, do what others won’t or can’t do. The secret of failure is to do what makes you happy; hang out for a few more years followed by a lifetime of drudgery.
Shouldn’t the school system exist to serve the public good? Don’t they know they are responsible for producing the country’s most important asset? Next to the education mess, the oil shortage is nothing but another example of America’s inability to plan anything or stick with any plan – I served on a Federal Coal Gasification Committee to guarantee us freedom from imported oil 30 years ago! Don’t worry about having gas to drive to work, if we don’t recapture our intellectual leadership there aren’t going to be all that many jobs to drive to.
My father was a non-English speaking immigrant who lived through two major wars and he told me he noticed one thing after a disaster – if you could work with the tools, you ate. If you couldn’t, you didn’t. Learn to do something. Engineering will take you far and science and engineering is the direction I would erg you to go, but the skilled trades are not to be ignored and they have the advantage that your work generally can’t be exported.
Maybe it is time for a different model. What if a student could request a career outcome and the school would train her accordingly? What if a company could order a student with the exact qualifications to rise to the top and the school with provide him? More to follow.
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