TEACHING RAINBOWS (Part 14)

The following continues the serialization of Chapter 3 on education from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity. The title of this chapter is Teaching Rainbows.

Teaching Rainbows: the 7 R’s

There are, of course, the 3 R’s: Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmetic. Motivational speaker John Blaydes promotes Resiliency, Renewal and Reflection for educators. The Democratic Party, setting the foundation for a new educational philosophy, came up with the Public Education Reinvestment, Reinvention and Responsibility Act. These R’s are all important to support the student.

As we all know, the students we are currently producing, first, cannot compete with those from other countries, at least in how to read, rite, do rithmetic and science, and solve problems. Businesses complain that recruits can’t read nor communicate.

Furthermore, I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: through the first 18 years of our life, education teaches us, mostly, to look out for ourself. The educational system provides rewards only for grades, graduating and getting into the college or job of your choice. Sure, there will be team projects, but these you will manage to get by with minimal effort without incurring the animosity of members. The academically gifted, especially, will prioritize their studies, for what better way is there to attain your goals? Some will nevertheless become class officers, newspaper reporters, whatever. The less driven will turn to sports and extracurricular activities. This latter group could well become more successful in life, but chances are, if you do both--study hard and balance your life with team sports and social pursuits--you will be even more prosperous.

Let’s follow a typical child from K-12, with some going on to college. You toil in school, year after year, take tests, study, play, then, finally, one day, find yourself, hooray, most of you, anyway, a graduate, whether with a high school degree or PhD. You enter society, get a job and continue doing what you always did. You keep looking out for #1, you, as that is all you know.

You don’t realize that it is not how successful you are in what you personally do, but, more, how people around you flourish. Success is attained not by hogging the limelight or taking credit for everything that happens. In fact, just the opposite happens. You alienate yourself from your colleagues and wonder what went wrong. You haven’t yet learned that it is in how well you sacrifice, sell and give credit that work best. Of course, many of us eventually learn the true game, some faster than others, but many not at all.

So we have this sub-optimal educational system where we score worse than most developed nations, end up working with the wrong attitude and where teachers, employees and parents are not very happy. Yet, we are doing quite well economically and continue to be, by far, the most powerful nation, ever. How come? What went right?

Maybe the 3 R’s are not that important, after all. Maybe that credit we get for teaching creativity over rote learning should be explored more carefully. Perhaps the smart alecks we produce are the keys to real success. We are doing something right, and not realizing it, or at least, not optimizing from it.

So let’s go back to square one in education. Yes, do teach the 3 R’s. They are fundamentally necessary. With computer/information technology, it should be easier and faster to inculcate the basics. I’ve always felt, for example, that any engineering course can be taught in half the time, with the now extra sessions available to go into what good this information is and how best to apply it to the real world. Thus, there is now more time for analysis, problem solving and the all important 4 extra R’s. (Next: what are these additional R's?)

-

The Dow Jones Industrials keep going up, +96 to 10092. Is this rally as big a hoax as that of the Heene family? Well, companies have not only been meeting, but exceeding, projected earnings. Gold is up $11/toz to another all time high of $1065. Crude oil is at $79/barrel and ready to climb into the 80's.

-

Previously Super Typhoon Lupit, now at 130 MPH, will lose more strength, but still slam into Northern Luzon on Thursday as a Category 2 storm.

Hurricane Rick is also weakening, and is heading for Cabo San Lucas. It was just about a year ago when a couple of friends were with us on a cruise ship moored here, on our way to the Panama Canal.

Closer to Hawaii's shores, Tropical Storm Neki will become a hurricane by mid-week, strengthen, and ease away from Kauai, we hope.

-