Here's my second draft...
10 Problems with American Education & How Schools Can Fix Them
1. Too Much Emphasis on Literary Analysis, Not Enough Career Research and Analysis
The typical four-year high school English curriculum consists almost entirely of studying fictional literature as a means by which to improve reading comprehension, improve writing ability and develop analytical thinking ability. While reading and analyzing literature is a critical part of a well-rounded education, it is overemphasized. Furthermore, this overemphasis within the high school English curriculum has failed to achieve its primary goal: inspiring a love of fine literature in its students. This particular issue will be addressed in a later section, but back to the matter at hand.
I would replace the standard fiction-focused syllabus of a college bound or honors freshman English class with a Career Research and Analysis class in which students improve their reading comprehension, improve their writing ability and develop analytical thinking ability while learning about different career fields and job opportunities. Different career fields and job opportunities that students could study include:
1. Engineering: Project Engineer, Civil Engineer, Structural Engineer, Environmental Engineer, Biomedical Engineer
2. Health Care: Physician, Nurse, Physical Therapist, Physician Assistant
3. Technology Sector: Software Architect, Systems Engineer, Software Engineer, IT Analyst
4. Business Administration: Entrepreneur, CEO, CIO, CMO
5. Finance & Accounting: Accountant, Actuary, Financial Adviser
6. Psychology: Counselor, Psychiatrist, Forensic Psychologist, Cognitive Neuroscientist
7. Natural Sciences: Biologist, Chemist, Physicist, Botanist, Virologist, Forensic Scientist
8. Social Sciences: Anthropologist, Economist, Sociologist, Lawyer
Over the course of six months, students would take tests and write essays regarding a variety of different career fields, job opportunities and educational pathways. The class would also include inviting guest speakers from every different career field to discuss their experiences in the industry, what is necessary to succeed in their industry, what it is like working in the industry and what level of education is necessary to get different types of jobs in said industry. These guest speakers — most of whom would be students' parents — would be asked to have a few talking points prepared for their presentation. Naturally, this presentation would then be followed by a question and answer period. The teacher would also incorporate some of the guest speaker's points into the next test. Ideally, at least one guest speaker would be brought in every other week and there would be at least one from every different career field.
After 6 months of career and analysis, the class would begin 2 months of college research and analysis. Students would research different colleges, would compare and contrast them in their essays, learn about their different admission requirements and visit a few different local colleges. Former students who are now attending college, as well as a few professors, would be brought in as guest speakers.
As a result of taking this course, students will be able to conduct the rest of their high school career with a sense of purpose. They will also have three more years to conduct further independent research, to reflect on their interests and to arrive at a final decision before they choose what college to attend and what subject they will major in. Similarly, I would like to see colleges replace most first semester freshman English courses with a Career Research and Analysis course.
2. Students Are Not Asked to Study Current Events
The typical High School Social Studies curriculum consists entirely of studying history. The question arises; why aren't students studying, analyzing and discussing both historical events and current events during their social studies classes? The whole point of studying history is that we apply it's lessons to contemporary issues. Otherwise, we are doomed to repeat our past mistakes. However, high school students — and even the overwhelming majority of college students — are NEVER asked to compare and contrast current events with past events, current political issues with past political issues, current economic conditions with past economic conditions, current wars with past wars and so on. In other words, while the purpose of studying history is that we applies its lessons to contemporary issues, students are not being asked to do this; they are simply made to memorize and then regurgitate historical facts without ever putting them to practical use.
"Practical application is the only mordant which will set things in the memory. Study without it is gymnastics, and not work, which alone will get intellectual bread." - James Russel Lowell
Why do many students find history boring? Well, what causes something to be boring? Among other things, irrelevancy. Unless students are able to relate historical wisdom to something that can affect their lives in the world today, history is entirely irrelevant. It may contain a few interesting stories but without application, historical knowledge is nothing more than trivia.
"Whatever study tends neither directly nor indirectly to make us better men and citizens is at best but a specious and ingenious sort of idleness; and the knowledge we acquire by it only a creditable kind of ignorance, nothing more." - 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, Henry St. John
Students should never be asked to study history without simultaneously spending an equal amount of time studying and researching the modern world. Aspects of the modern world that students should be asked to research MUST include multiple opposing viewpoints regarding contemporary politics at the local, state and federal level. Otherwise, how are we to expect them to be informed voters by the time they turn eighteen? Students should also be asked to study opposing viewpoints regarding modern U.S. economic conditions, global economic conditions, public policy issues, foreign governments, terrorism, national security and so on.
Some ideas for compare/contrast papers that students could write include:
The Iraq War and the Vietnam War
The War on Terror and the Cold War
The United States and the Roman Republic
The Great Recession and the Great Depression
President Obama and Any Former President
One's Current Governor and Any Former Governor
The Advent of Wireless Electricity and the Advent of Wireless Internet
3. Students are Not Studying Opposing Viewpoints
As it stands today, there does not seem to be a single high school, college or university in the world that asks students to study opposing viewpoints on both contemporary and historical issues as an integral part of their social studies and social science programs. Rather, students are asked to simply regurgitate the biases of their textbooks, teachers and professors. This would be a perfect system for people living under a monarchy, in which citizens are to simply do as they are told, but as we live in a Republic, this makes absolutely no sense. Having students simply regurgitate what they are told not only biases students towards a rigid political ideology (whether conservative or liberal), but it is inherently boring and fails to prepare students for the real world.
"The only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject is by hearing what can be said about it be persons of every variety of opinion and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by ever character of mind. No wise man has ever acquired his wisdom in any mode but this." - John Stuart Mill
"Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry to truth." - Thomas Jefferson
First, let's address high school and college history courses. While there are historical facts we can all agree on, every history textbook is, to some extent, politically biased. For example, most history textbooks paint Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a savior who helped Americans survive the Great Depression. However, seldom will you find any reference to the Depression of 1920 in which the immediate response was to cut the federal budget in half, reduce the national debt by one-third and slash taxes for all income levels. Why isn't this mentioned? In my opinion, it is because the economy recovered in eighteen months and what followed was the economic prosperity that defined the Roaring Twenties. For those who advocate huge increases in government spending during economic downturns, this makes absolutely no sense. So they skip over it. Meanwhile, Herbert Hoover's response to the Great Depression was not to avoid government intervention but to take it to an unprecedented level. Herbert Hoover’s response to the market crash of 1929 was was to increase federal spending by over 50% between 1929 and 1932, undertake huge public works projects and raise tariffs at an unprecedented rate with the Smoot-Hawley Tariff act, a piece of legislation Henry Ford told Harding was “economic stupidity” . Then, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected and increased government spending even more. In my opinion, this is why the Great Depression lasted ten years. (For more on this, check out FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression by Jim Powell.)
But while I feel confident in my assessment, I would never want to indoctrinate students with my own personal political, economic and social viewpoints. Rather, high school and college students should be be allowed to study multiple opposing viewpoints, apply some critical thinking, evaluate the evidence, discuss the issue with their peers and come to their own evidence-based conclusions. Beginning in freshman year of high school, every student should learn how to identify their social studies textbook's point of view and begin studying contentious issues regarding U.S. History, World History and current events. Again, the Opposing Viewpoints series provides us with a good starting point.
Opposing Viewpoints in American History Volumes I and II,
Opposing Viewpoints in World History I and II as well as a number of other entries in the Opposing Viewpoints series can serve as vital resources in helping students pick issues to study and begin their research. However, students should not be restricted to only considering the arguments presented by the editors of the Opposing Viewpoints series; it is merely a good foundation and starting point for further research and analysis.
"In our media-intensive culture it is not difficult to find differing opinions. Thousands of newspapers and magazines and dozens of radio and television talk shows resound with differing points of view. The difficulty lies in deciding which opinion to agree with and which 'experts' seem the most credible. The more inundated we become with differing opinions and claims, the more essential it is to hone critical reading and thinking skills to evaluate these ideas. Opposing Viewpoints books address this problem by directly by presenting stimulating debates that can be used to enhance and teach these skills. The varied opinions contained in each book examine many difference aspects of a single issue. While examining these conveniently editing opposing viewpoints, readers can develop critical thinking skills such as the ability to compare and contrast authors' credibility, facts, argumentation styles, use of persuasive techniques, and other stylistic tools. In short, the Opposing Viewpoints Series is an ideal way to attain the higher-level thinking and reading skills so essential in a culture of diverse and contradictory opinions." - Mitchell Young
As for high school and college social science courses, whether the subject is economics, political science, global studies, sociology or social psychology, there is some level of political bias both in the textbooks and in the lectures. The consideration of opposing viewpoints should be integrated into all of these courses so that again, students can apply some critical thinking, thoroughly evaluate the evidence, discuss contentious issues with their peers and come to their own evidence-based — not ideology-based — conclusions.
4. Students are Not Studying Public Policy
Every high school and college in America should have a required course regarding opposing viewpoints on public policy. Rather than studying a textbook, students could be provided with books from the opposing viewpoints series, videos of formal debates and similar resources so that they could dedicate their time to studying, researching, writing about and discussing the issues that every American should have an informed opinion about. For example:
1. The Middle East
2. The War on Terrorism
3. Gun Control
4. Welfare
5. Health Care
6. Genetic Engineering
7. Global Warming
8. Civil Liberties
9. Abortion
10. Criminal Justice
11. Government Spending
12. Global Resources
A course on public policy could be incorporated into any college curriculum. As part of a high school curriculum, I would make it the area of study in a Junior English Class. Thus:
Freshman English: Career Research and Analysis
Sophomore English: Literary Analysis
Junior English: Public Policy
Senior: Elective
5. Art Classes are Suppressing Students' Creativity with Rigid Curricula
One would think that in an art class, you would be able to dedicate your time to creative self-expression. If a student wants to learn how to paint portraits in art class, he or she could find a few books on the subject, agree on a set of projects with the teacher and then proceed to begin learning and perfecting his or her art work. If one week you feel like learning how to draw cars, you could pick up a book on it in the library and immediately start drawing cars. If you feel like painting a wedding scene, you can paint a wedding scene. If you want to paint something that represents the effect that your father's passing away had on you, you could spend some time figuring out how to represent it in a painting and then proceed to do so. But not so fast! In an art class you have to draw, paint, sculpt or graphically design what the teacher tells you to. If he or she wants everyone to draw flowers, you are all drawing flowers. If the teacher wants everyone painting landscapes this week, you are spending your week painting landscapes.
But why? What successful artist spends their time drawing, painting, graphically designing or sculpting things they do not want to? What is art without passion? A complete waste of time. In art classes, every student should have a self-directed curriculum based upon their areas of interest, their passions and their personal objectives. If a student wants to draw comic books, for God's sake, let him draw comic books! Then grade him based solely upon whether his artistic ability is steadily improving over time. In such a class setting, the art teacher could dedicate their time helping students decide on what their projects will be from week-to-week, providing specific feedback on completed projects and giving help to students who specifically ask for it. Furthermore, students would be able to teach each other how to draw certain things or how to draw with a certain style. In this way, the students' self-directed learning would also have a very positive and rewarding social aspect. I mean honestly, who wouldn't have enjoyed teaching their high school or college crush how to paint or draw something?
6. Students are Not Developing a Practical Life Philosophy
Every high school student should graduate with a comprehensive life philosophy, ideally one based on continually improving themselves and the world around them, and have the practical knowledge necessary to lead a successful life. A life philosophy course would be an interdisciplinary course that would address such questions as:
1. What is my ideal lifestyle?
2. What are my ambitions, my dreams and my goals?
3. What are my values?
4. How does one overcome social conflict?
5. How does one have a successful marriage?
6. What are my ethical principles?
7. How can I continually improve both myself and the world around me?
When students address the questions, sources would include their own personal experiences, self-improvement literature, positive psychology, relationship psychology, the field of ethics, sociology and so on.
For example, students might choose to read
The 7 Habits by Stephen Covey:
7. Education Majors are Not Learning From the Most Successful Teachers
If you want to learn how to be great at doing something, what is the first thing you do? I would say it is to find a few people that are well-known for being absolutely amazing at doing it and rigorously study their methods and ideas. This applies whether we're talking about playing a particular sport, running a business, playing music, practicing medicine, performing surgery, parenting and yes, teaching. However, very few, if any education majors are asked to study the methods and ideas of the the best teachers in recent history; teachers like Marva Collins, Dr. Lorraine Monroe, Rafe Esquith and Jaime Escalante. All of these teachers have received widespread acclaim for their their ability to take under-performing students from impoverished and crime-ridden areas and transform them into lifelong honors students who go on to become highly successful doctors, engineers, civil rights lawyers, business owners, professors, teachers and so on.
If you wish to see some of these teachers in action, go to Youtube and type in these keywords:
1. Jaime Escalante
2. Dr. Lorraine Monroe 60 minutes
3. 2. Marva Collins 60 minutes
What do all these teachers have in common? For one, they were more than just teachers! They were also leaders and marketers. As leaders, they totally and completely believed in every student's ability to succeed despite their surroundings and they communicated this belief to their students in sincere, charismatic and inspiring ways. Even though school officials, parents, other teachers and even some students tried to convince them otherwise, these teachers were unfazed and continued to communicate this belief to the point that it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. As marketers, these teachers were all able to sell what they were teaching before they taught it. Students never had to ask, "why are we learning this?" These teachers were able to answer that question long before they started teaching the material. But unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of teachers never learn how to passionately and effectively communicate the value of what they are teaching to their students. Thus, we are currently a nation great at marketing consumer products but terrible at marketing the value of studying to our students. This is just one of the many important lessons that we can learn from some of the most successful teachers in recent history.
So if education majors aren't learning from the proven methods of the most successful teachers in recent history, what are the learning? For the most part, they are being taught a series of unproven theories and cheap gimmicks with absolutely no real-world results to back them up. For example, there is a recent theory that student should never be asked to remember facts and take tests but rather should only be taught how to be "critical thinkers" . However, they fail to take into consideration that if you don not know what the facts are then you cannot separate them from opinions and then think critically about those opinions. For example, if a student does not learn about the agreed-upon facts of the Vietnam War, how can or she possibly decide whether it was an ill-advised war that needlessly cost tens of thousands of young Americans their lives or a strategic military action necessary to halt the spread of communism?
8. Students are Not Studying Recent Developments in Science, Technology and Medicine
What is the purpose of high school science courses? Is it so that the small-percentage of students that go on to pursue careers involving the application of physics, chemistry or biology can get a head start on their studies? That would be quite a tremendous waste of time and energy for the rest of students now would it not? I would say the purpose of the high school science curriculum should be that every student is better able to understand the implications of recent developments in science, technology and medicine. Progress in these closely-related areas is radically transforming the nature of everyone's existence; thus studying them is fascinating and inherently valuable regardless of what career path one chooses.
However, high school students — and indeed, the overwhelming majority of college students — are rarely, if ever, asked to study recent developments in science and technology. Furthermore, very few, if any students are asked to regularly apply what they've learned in their textbooks to understanding recent developments in science and technology. I would dedicate the entire first month of a high school course in biology to just studying recent developments in science, technology and medicine that are directly related to biology. After peaking their interest in the subject of biology, I would regularly ask students to apply what they're learning in their textbook to better understand recent scientific developments. Some new stories I might cover include:
Lab-Made Organ Implanted For First Time - CNN
New Hope May Lie In Lab-Created Heart - CNN
Cancer Patient Gets World’s First Artificial Trachea - Time
Scientists Look to Cure HIV With Gene Therapy - Fox News
Programmable DNA Scissors Found for Bacterial Immune System - Science Daily
9. Students Are Not Being Encouraged to Pursue Any Level of Self-Education
You would think that in school, at least half of what a student reads would be books, essays and articles that he or she chooses to read based on his or her own unique, individual interests. But alas, most students have very little, if any freedom at all over the path of their own education. However, some do.
In her most recent book,
The Reading Zone, Nancie Atwell advocates English class reading workshops in which grade school, middle school and high school students are able to pick what books they want to read from the school library and read them both in-class and at home rather than being assigned specific books to read. While she's only applied this to fiction and literary non-fiction, her method has proven wildly successful not only in improving children's reading and writing levels but transforming children into passionate, lifelong readers. Here are a few passages from
The Reading Zone:
And I can personally testify for the effectiveness of Nancy Atwell's methods. At the beginning of my fifth grade at St. Raymond's Elementary School, I was a below-average student who spent the majority of his time playing video games and watching television. However, during my first week in Ms. Grassi's classroom I saw a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on a bookshelf in the classroom, started reading it in class, read it on the bus ride home, read it when I got home and stayed up until four-a-clock in the morning until I passed out with the book still in my hands. I believe I finished the rest of the book in about three or four days and read the other three books that had been published thus far in less than two weeks. I'm not sure how many books I read in fifth grade but in sixth grade we had reading journals. Students were required to read at least five books over the course of the school year. I read eighty-seven, all of them fantasy-fiction. In seventh grade, I was tested for ADHD because I wasn't paying attention in class. One of their tests showed that I was at a thirteenth-grade reading level and a twelfth-grade writing level. And what was the psychiatrist's diagnosis? I had ADHD. He wrote me a prescription for adderall. I'm not kidding.
That being said, I believe that at least half the books students read should be informative non-fiction. For example, in a high school career research and analysis class, I would ask students to read at least five non-fiction books relevant to their career interests. For example, a student interested in entrepreneurship and business management might read:
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
He may also read books like:
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
The Mind of the Market: How Biology and Psychology Shape Our Economic Lives by Michael Shermer
Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School by Philip Delves Broughton
The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup by Noam Wasserman
In a Public Policy Course, a student could choose to read:
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book) Teacher's Edition: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction - Jon Stewart
It Is Dangerous to Be Right When the Government Is Wrong: The Case for Personal Freedom - Andrew P. Napolitano
Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama - Bill O' Reilly
Alternative Energy: Beyond Fossil Fuels - Dana Meachen Rau
Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future - Robert Bryce
In her Career Research and analysis class, a student interested in both medicine and psychology might read:
The Future of Medicine by Stephen C. Schimpff
The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care by Dr. Jerome H. Grossman
On Becoming a Doctor: Everything You Need to Know about Medical School, Residency, Specialization, and Practice by Tania Heller
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
Some people might protest, "but they won't understand everything in those books!" Exactly! I read plenty of books in high school filled with concepts I was unfamiliar with. The things I wasn't familiar with, I would simply look up on an online encyclopedia. (Of course, it would have been better had I access to the digital version of the Encyclopedia Britannica.) The things I still couldn't understand filled me with the desire to (Gasp!) read textbooks so that I'd have the prerequisite, foundational knowledge to better understand the concepts underlying all the exciting books I was reading. Books like:
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci by Michael Gelb
Nicomachean Ethics - Aristotle
The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule by Michael Shermer
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge by Edward O. Wilson
Truth in Virtue of Meaning - Russel Gillian
Bad News: The Decline of Reporting by Tom Fenton
The Great American Jobs Scam by Greg Leroy
Myth, Lies and Downright Stupidity by John Stossel
Of course, my only interests at the time were philosophy, psychology, politics and public policy — none of which directly offer me a career path I'd be interested in — but I have since expanded my interests to include business management, entrepreneurship and education.
10. Students are Not Being Provided With the Chance to Study Math at Their Own Pace
Solving a set of math problems is like solving a puzzle. One person might take two hours to solve a puzzle, another might take one and a half hours, another ten minutes. Why then, do twenty-five students in a classroom all have to cover math material at the same pace? Why do some students have to be bored in class while others have to feel incompetent because they need some extra time to cover certain material?
As it stands now, the one-size-fits-all approach is the norm but there are already dozens of schools that are starting to breaking the mold:
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