In any case, the scary thing about my whole attempt to introduce additional R’s into the educational process, is that schools apparently aren’t doing all that well with only the existing 3 R’s. You can go into any business community and get scolded that their entry level employee can’t write nor communicate. Its worse where I’m from, as the National Association of Education Progress rated Hawaii #47 out of 50 in our report card.
There is also a disconnect on perceptions, as 77% of those who graduated and did not go to college seem to blame the high school for not demanding more of them. A comedy writer can live for years on just this theme.
Our schools are not perfect, but the larger question, really, has to do with what is wrong with our society today:
o The nuclear family has not disintegrated, but is not the same as before, and this is generally not good for education and life in general.
o The male half of our population is going to the dogs, as boys:
■ when I was going to college, accounted for nearly 60% of the students; we now are down to 44% of undergraduates;
■ are 33% more likely to drop out of high school than girls;
■ score 16% lower on reading tests; and
■ are 30% more apt to use cocaine.
o Television and video games have made it difficult to focus on homework.
o Unions have become counterproductive, but are necessary, for, as much as we tend to mouth the importance of education, were it not for their single-minded zeal to improve the lot of their constituency, teachers’ salaries would be even worse today.
o Of course, parents don’t care enough or are just too busy. There is some involvement in grammar school, but this totally disappears in high school.
o Yes, classrooms are inadequate, books are too expensive, drugs are prevalent, security is becoming a crisis and teachers are overworked.
This book is not going to solve these problems, so let me just say I mentioned them.
Regarding school itself, longer hours and more days/year are becoming a trend. Merit pay is gaining in support. Schools are being re-designed. But the reality is that some things just won’t happen in our lifetime, and many more to come, as for example:
o Teachers will be put on a pedestal and rewarded with double their current salaries because they have the critical responsible for guiding our future, the next generation. (See my previous posting about Finland's educational system to appreciate that this is possible.)
o We are the greatest, so American students will become #1 in science, math, reading and analysis in world-wide standardized tests. Can we possibly even hope for a top ten finish in anything academic, as we are still winning Olympic Gold Medals?
o Parents, business, government and political foes will, together, take on the challenge to make their school system the best in the nation. There will be, here and there, exceptions. Bless them and try to replicate the process.
I can go on, but you, again, get the point. I just hate to leave this section with a negative note, so would like to provide two simple solutions at this stage of the discussion: don’t overreact to the negatives and keep an open mind to more than teaching only reading, writing and arithmetic.
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