| The educational system in the United States is a mess. | | | | field. |
| Pretty much everyone knows it, but what to do about | | | | The educational system has more problems than just |
| it is a huge problem. | | | | how to best teach children. Many of the problems in |
| It's easy to point to various symptoms and declare | | | | the schools relate to students' home life. Uninvolved |
| them the problem. High dropout rates, as high as 50% | | | | parents are an issue as well, but not one that the |
| for some cities or 1/3 for some states, are often | | | | schools themselves can easily address. |
| pointed out as the problem, but really they're more | | | | Perhaps the greatest challenge comes from figuring |
| symptomatic of the issue. | | | | out how to route children appropriately in school. At |
| The problem in many ways is that the schools aren't | | | | what age do children know what they want from |
| addressing the needs of the students. There is a huge | | | | school, much less their lives? How can the system be |
| emphasis on sending kids to college, no matter their | | | | flexible enough to cope with uncertain and changing |
| aptitudes or interests. | | | | interests. |
| A college education is a wonderful thing for many | | | | Sound impossible? |
| people. It makes great jobs available to them and on | | | | Absolutely it's impossible as the schools are now, and |
| average increases their income. But it is not the road | | | | changing them won't be easy. It will take a long time to |
| to every job, and not every child wishes for a job that | | | | figure out how to implement a workable solution. |
| requires a college education. | | | | Figuring this out doesn't mean changing everything at |
| Don't get me wrong. Every child should have the | | | | once. Better would be to try changing things carefully. |
| opportunity to choose to go to college. But if their | | | | The focus on making college education available to all |
| interests and aptitudes are elsewhere, shouldn't that be | | | | has driven us to focus almost to exclusion on getting |
| encouraged? | | | | children to the point where they can go to college. But |
| This can be tough. The trades and vocational skills lack | | | | this ignores the needs of many students who are not |
| the status of a college education. I doubt there are | | | | well served by such a focus. To improve our schools |
| many people who expect that to change. This is true | | | | we need to work on serving the needs of all of the |
| even though these are vital skills and those who have | | | | children, not just the ones heading to college. |
| them can have good careers and be experts in their | | | | |