Kim’s late post- good article!
March 12, 2007Bill Gates has been upfront about his concern for our current educational system in the United States. Unlike a lot of others, Gates has put or at least is putting his money where his mouth is. It seems people on all sides or at least most of them are in agreement that there is something wrong with our current educational system. We are hearing all of this about high schools that are failing at the same time we are graduating top students who are entering top schools and military academies. Where then is the disconnect? Why is it that all we hear about is how our country is failing?
While I do not agree with all of the testing ideas that Gates supports I do agree with the idea that we are not preparing for the global economy. International business students all over along with many other people are reading the book “The World is Flat.” Agree or disagree with the information in the book it is hard to argue that the world is indeed becoming flat. This means that we are not always going to have the most educated kids in the world. Education is a competition and the world is more than eagar to beat us at education along with anything else.
“Too often, we lack the political will to take the steps necessay to ensure that America remains a technology and innovation leader. In too many areas, we are content to live off the investments that previous generations made for us – in education, in health care, in basic scientific research- but are unwilling to invest equal energy and resources into building on this legacy to ensure that America’s future is as bright and prosperous as its present.”
Innovation is seeing what the country is going to need and planning for it so that when the time comes we have a workforce prepared to be competitive. For a long time, in my opinion, our country had a diversification of our labor force. I really liked the way Gates in the video we watched in class spoke of a family wage. We no longer have a diversified family wage. It is very difficult for an eighteen year old kid to make enough money to support a family that does not significantly lack that of the educated. For a while families could make choices to both seek employment in order to make up for these differences. This option is less and less of a solution. The difference between the haves and the have nots is as large as ever.
The problem that I feel is not being addressed is the class difference that is being created. Those who are not college bound know it early on and feel the social stigma that comes with it. This only furthers the divide. We spoke of this in class in terms of tracking. Gates talks about personalizing learning to make it “more relevant and engaging for students, therby to ensure no child is left behind.” It is not relevant for students who are struggling to be placed in lower level courses and pushed to study subjects that do not interest them and are not put into a context that would. When we do not consider what students are interested in, it makes it all the harder to have them engage in a subject they should master.
This makes me consider the social networking and gaming that our students are clearly interested in. We should know from past experiences that it is what people are interested in that they will excel at. We do not always know what interests children. Maybe we are not asking or accepting value in what they are.
Oprah recently spent some unspeakable amount of money to build a school in Africa. Now do not get me wrong, Oprah is awesome and while she got some bad press for this move I am not in a million years going to slam someone who is helping people. We are all people and if whoever she helps, good for her. At the same time I heard that one of the arguments for not building a school in America, where education is hurting was that kids here only want ipods and shoes or other material items.
I can’t help but wonder why. Our kids see it everyday. Has anyone read the O list? What does she give away on the Christmas show? What do we all want? Our kids are interested in technology, maybe we are not making what they are interested in part of what we are teaching and therefore not fostering an education that is relevant for them. So our schools are working for kids who are inindated with the importance of their studies at home but not for the kids who are less motivated but many just as smart.
Gates also speaks to the Early College high schools of which “there are 125 in operation in over 20 states.” This is a great idea because kids want to get on with their lives. They want to leave home and be independent and the faster they think they can do this the more eager most kids are. My daughter is currently on track to complete two college Spanish courses by the time she graduates from high school. The thought of this is very exciting for the kids, especially those like her that are planning on a career or at least a degree in foreign language. What I see happening is that the more they are taken seriously at school the more the take themselves seriously. For her and most of the other girls in this class getting less than an A is a problem. Nobody has to tell them this. They are just proud of what they are doing.
We do need as a country to look at the careers that are innovative and then pump money into fostering them. I think education and writing for that matter is not a ton different than Field of Dreams. Kids are interesting people and most all of them, even kids from low income families are interested in something. Much of Hollywood exists due to low income kids. If we build it they will come. Kids do want a future, many of them are just unsure what they are being pushed to test well on in high school has anything to do with this future. In all honesty how can we blame them when we are struggling with the same questions.
