[Education Reform] What would YOU do ?

[Graves]

What would YOU do to drag future generations out of the sidewalk trap ?

(Disclaimer : I am not fluent in english, please feel free to point out writing mistakes )

We've heard it many times. The president/secretary of education of our country tells us they're going to spend more of our money, so that every student is "ready for college" and everyone can get their degree and live happily ever after because hey, a college graduate will earn $1 million more than a dropout OMG !!11oneoneone!eleven! PARTY FOR FOUR YEARS, LEARN IMPORTANT SUBJECTS LIKE TRIGONOMETRY, LINEAR ALGEBRA, AND RENAISSANCE LITERATURE ! MAKE 1 MILLION DOLLARS ! EVERYONE DESERVES A COLLEGE EDUCASHUN !!!!1oneone!

Just like everyone deserved to own their home back in 2006 ?
"SIGN A MORTGAGE NOW ! DON'T HAVE ENOUGH FOR DOWN PAYMENT ? JUST PAY OUTRAGEOUS INTEREST, IT'S WORTH IT ! YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS OUT ON THIS OPPORTUNITY TO OWN THE HOME OF YOUR DREAMS ! REAL ESTATE GOES UP LIKE CRAZY ANYWAY, SO THAT COMPENSATES FOR THE INTEREST !"
Yeah right.

Actually I thought the recent housing bubble was huge, but here's a REALLY scary graph :

( I'm almost certain this omits some factor, as this graph is just out of this world. )

The only way this massive price inflation can happen and not be a bubble is if a college degree had very good "fundamentals" and was tremendously undrvalued.

Well, I think most of you would agree that IF COLLEGE DEGREES WERE COMPANIES, MOST WOULD HAVE SHIT FUNDAMENTALS !

I don't think paying crazy tuition to sit in a classroom and being forced to fulfill your "general education requirements" with subjects like linear algebra or renaissance literature has good intrinsic value.

Heck, even the lectures that look good on paper are taught in the worst way possible; most professors give more of a crap about their salary than about dispensing genuinely valuable teaching.

And they are economically right in doing so because THEY'VE ALREADY CREATED THE ILLUSION OF VALUE. Why the heck would they improve their programs when employers place full faith in credentials and everyone is begging to go to college so they can get "educated" (ie sitting in a lecture hall listening to academics that care more about their research than teaching students + rote learning obsolete materials in order to get good grades so you can have your credential) ?

-"Blog"post to be continued, it's 3 am in paris and my brain isn't working well enough anymore -

_________________________________________________________________

So he's my question(EDIT:questions, I thought 2. would be an interesting q to think about) for the members of the community.

1)What would you do if the president of your country asked you how to build the best education system in the world ?

What changes would you make ? What should be added ? What should be removed ?

2)What can we actually do as individuals to improve education ?

Your opinion is highly appreciated !

 

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[GlobalWealth]

I would privatize the whole system. I would take each and every public school and auction it off to local entrepreneurs who care about their local community AND care about making money.

By selling the school to a local entrepreneur that would create a huge influx of capital to the local government as well as a long term revenue stream through property taxes (public schools don't pay property tax).

The teachers would then be held accountable for performance standards and would be paid according to their metrics.

The cost of public school would be eliminated and thus the tax rates would be lowered accordingly. Families would pay tuition and would receive income tax deductions on education expenses.

Children of lower income families would receive vouchers for schools.

Parents could chose the school they want based on quality and location.

Schools could specialize in specific focus areas. Parents could send their kids to the school that best matched the child's interest and aptitude.

Good topic. I look forward to hearing other replies.

 

[Rickson9]

Speaking for myself, this is not surprising. Homes have appreciated in the 3-4% per year range for decades. Tuition is part of a business - the business of college. Business grows faster than homes.

With regards to the original question - I have no idea how to fix the problem. I don't see a system that can reliably create a society of fastlaners nor do I feel that that would be a benefit to society overall.

Best regards.

 

[Graves]

I would privatize the whole system.

Yeah I'd definitely privatize. I'd privatize almost everything If I was in charge of a country, but it looks like it's bad politics since even the USA - once a symbol of capitalism - is becoming socialist.

Actually I think this pertains directly to education, as we have developed a culture of wanting something for nothing.

I believe we would be way better off if there was a focus on teaching basic economics and value creation. Value is what money is supposed to represent in the first place ! Yet I'll lay 2:1 odds a random person in the street won't use the word value when someone asks them what money represents.

This is why so many people accept working for an hourly wage, or buy at the peak of bubbles, or get scammed by unethical people. We don't realize making money without creating value is a very difficult endeavor.

I think (practical) economics is the most important thing that needs to be taught in schools. It's preposterous when schools teach integral calculus and some physics formulas/biology jargon 90% of us will never use while a subject relevant to EVERYONE's life is neglected; in fact, it almost looks like governments don't want us to learn about it.

 

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[GlobalWealth]

I don't see a system that can reliably create a society of fastlaners nor do I feel that that would be a benefit to society overall.

I agree here. I don't think the mentality is just taught. The desire to excel comes from within. I think people have to want it and be willing to work for it. This cannot be taught.

But that doesn't mean that education cannot be improved. I don't want (or even think its possible) for the education system to create a society of fastlaners.

But raising the level of knowledge and awareness for the masses can only improve the overall well being.

 

[Graves]

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I agree here. I don't think the mentality is just taught. The desire to excel comes from within. I think people have to want it and be willing to work for it. This cannot be taught.

But that doesn't mean that education cannot be improved. I don't want (or even think its possible) for the education system to create a society of fastlaners.

But raising the level of knowledge and awareness for the mases can only improve the overall well being.

I agree. The status quo is the result of people who think they need to indoctrinate "the masses" and keep them dumb in order to maintain their power.

Not only is this bad for society (for obvious reasons), it's also probably untrue; sure they won't have absolute control anymore and people will be less manipulable, but there are only so many people with an entrepreneurial mentality. There will still be a large enough supply of people willing to work as employees ; and in the long term, an educated employee will probably give more value to his company (and subsequently society) than an indoctrinated one.

Wealth(which is different from $ or €) is not zero-sum but positive-sum; if you increase the human capital of everyone, the money supply might not increase, but more value is created and society still benefits as a whole.

• Privatize the System
• Eliminate Compulsory Education Laws
• Make the building look more like a "hands on" center than a classroom.
• Fill the building up with inspirational people of all ages
• Add Apprentice programs
• Get local business owners involved, craftspeople, retirees, hobbiests
• Open it up to people of all ages
• Eliminate Testing

+1000.:eusa_clap:

 

[AroundTheWorld]

• Privatize the System
• Eliminate Compulsory Education Laws
• Make the building look more like a "hands on" center than a classroom.
• Fill the building up with inspirational people of all ages
• Add Apprentice programs
• Get local business owners involved, craftspeople, retirees, hobbiests
• Open it up to people of all ages
• Eliminate Testing

 

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[FDJustin]

1)What would you do if the president of your country asked you how to build the best education system in the world ?

Offer to take up the challenge for 1% of the tax revenue collected and set aside for education for the next ten years. With the stipulation that I cannot be taxed on that 1% given to me.

2)What can we actually do as individuals to improve education ?

Take all of our personal grieviences and apply them to independent learning, take charge of developing our own systems and getting our children, selves, or community involved.

I agree here. I don't think the mentality is just taught. The desire to excel comes from within. I think people have to want it and be willing to work for it. This cannot be taught.

I'm not sure about that... Much of our 'mentality' comes from how our environment cultivates it. The problem isn't that we can't instill the desire to excel, or the willingness to work. The problem is, we try to do so from our own perspectives - Or even just the perspective that wanting to excel and work hard is in itself the end that should be taught.

The reason why this is the problem is painfully simple. We don't all desire those traits. For many of us they aren't natural, and we don't integrate them simply because they aren't presented in a way that brings us value.

I believe that just about anyone can learn to adopt those traits if only they are subjected.. No, submerged in an environment that not only encourages the use and growth of these traits, but does it in a way that is very relevant to the students desires.

In an ideal world, students would be taught strategies to accomplish just that. Schools would send home instructional material for parents to get involved with shaping their child's practices, that will directly affect their ability to shape their own destiny.

However. The future of students, their mentality and practices are not the metric with which schools measure their success. It's how many people complete the current curriculum, and to what rank their scores are that dictate success. What will come of any system is naturally going to be most heavily influenced by it's definition of success.

To their credit, some teachers, programs, parents and television shows do try. They even make a difference.

 

[Graves]

I think GlobalWealth meant you can't FORCE everyone to have high ambitions.
But I agree you can certainly help cultivate that mindset.

Before I stumbled on Steve Pavlina's site (and then started to read a flurry of books/blogs that changed my perception forever), my mindset was :

"How can I make lots of money ? My doctor gets paid €50 every 15 minutes. I should probably become a doctor ! Wait, I don't like biology. I like finance. I should become an investment banker ! Investment bankers make lots of money !"

And I pictured an "entrepreneur" as someone who worked and saved for at least 10 years (or inherited a substantial amount of money) before starting their business. That's what I was always taught by my parents and other adults ! "Work for the man, save enough money, then maybe you can open your business when you're wiser and have experience. But be careful, it's RISKY !"
And actually most of their businesses were "slowlane" : buying a restaurant, opening a clothing shop... Innovation and entrepreneurship was for the geniuses with IQs of 150+ AND $1 million in spare cash.

Now I know better, and I'm grateful to MJ, Pavlina, Ferriss, and other authors/blogwriters for my education. I'm grateful I learned so much before even turning 16, because I see so many "highly educated" people live their whole lives with no conception of value at all.

[ Random thought - If we had given a course about asset bubbles (=overvalued assets) to everyone before they graduated high school, we wouldn't be in this mess right now. In fact I'm not even sure most people have a remotely clear picture of the recent crisis. Governments & universities think it's more important to teach future citizens how to compute the integral of cos(x)*sin(x). ]

 

[ZCP]

The question is who will teach economics and finance in the schools. The business people are out handling their business and the talented people that do go into academics are crushed by the rules and administration until they leave to go back to business.

I think the answer is the retiring baby boomers. We need to appeal to them that teaching and sharing what they have learned is noble, patriotic, and their responsibility to their children and grandchildren.

 

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[Graves]

Yeah, I agree we don't need academics with advanced degrees. Lots of people in this world with a basic knowledge of economics and a liking for money.

If we make the education system better, we can raise salaries and encourage more people to go into teaching.

Heck, we can even host some evening/saturday classes taught by people who work during the day; intelligent students WILL go if they feel like it's true education and not just some impractical stuff taught by academics. (that's a good business/nonprofit opportunity btw )

 

[AroundTheWorld]

Forgot one...

• Eliminate the sorting by age idea

If you are interested in more on the topic - here are a couple of very interesting reads:



Amazon.com: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (9780865714489): John Taylor Gatto, Thomas Moore: Books

This one puts education in historical context. Very very interesting read.

Amazon.com: Instead of Education: Ways to Help People do Things Better (9781591810094): John Holt: Books

This one outlines some of the ideas I mentioned above. It is written by John Holt - a man that was an advocate of the home school option in the early years of home school. He has written several other books too including "How Children Learn" and "How Children Fail."

and...

Amazon.com: Free at Last: The Sudbury Valley School (9781888947007): Daniel Greenberg, Michael Greenberg, Andrew Brilliant, Carol Palmer: Books

This is true story of a school that takes a different approach and succeeds.

I have lots and lots of other resources on the topic too - if anyone is interested in more, let me know.

 

[Graves]

I've downloaded Dumbing Us Down a couple days ago and have read the first pages; it's probably going into my list of "Most important books I've ever read".

I think the majority of us know education is a total mess at the moment, but Gatto is probably the first person who wrote close to 100 pages on why it doesn't work and what should be done.

Your list of changes would tremendously benefit society. I was thinking of writing a list, but when I read yours it was so similar to my ideas it would be pointless for me to repeat what you proposed.

 

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