Education: We Need Good Members of Society, Not Just Good Students

I'm intrigued by the methods of education that we employ. Sir Ken Robinson, one of the world's top creativity experts, has said (in the video below) that we're basically training everyone in our schools to be university academics, and not good citizens of the country or world. And that college does not begin in kindergarten.



So, we have to ask ourselves constantly--what is the end goal of our Pre-K to 12 education system--and should whatever that is be our end goal?

Is it to get people into college? If we're saying that, we might as well be dooming ourselves to our current cycle of failure. Let me explain.

How can I say that when we know that college graduates earn 84% more than those that don't? If you notice what I actually said--"get people into college" says nothing about their ability to succeed in college. Unfortunately, too many people who start college were not adequately prepared to succeed--which is why I'm happy to see organizations like the Starfish Initiative now follow-through on their college access efforts to actually see how their mentees are doing.

And, we're not even doing a great job at getting less-forunate kids into colleges anyway.

But just getting to college can never be the end goal. Too many students aren't ready for the real world of citizenship in an advanced society. It's a shame that even basic personal finance isn't a required element (but should be) for high school graduation nationally. This isn't to say that the housing crisis could have been avoided with financial education being mandatory, but it certainly wouldn't hurt. It's those kinds of skills--money management, entrepreneurship, and creativity--that create a better economic outlook and financial security.


Additionally, making college access or even college success the sole end-goal of a Pre-K to 12 education system is also forgetting that many people are not college-types--and that this is not a bad thing for them or our society in general.

Skilled labor is crucial, and, yet, in short supply (which IS very bad for us). A "green collar economy" needs people with the technical skills to assemble, install, and maintain all the fun and "sexy" green energy technologies and materials. We need those skills badly, but for some crappy reason, technically skilled careers aren't promoted like they are in places like Germany. Granted, I'm not saying we need to adopt the 'track' system as the Germans have, but we need to very much improve the non-college educational attainment of our students. It should be more natural and not place extra burdens on those students. This can also be done through the expansion of distance or 'virtual learning' from VIABLE and LEGITIMATE resources, not from gym teachers that get re-cast as business instructors (that's from an actual experience, not made up).

We still need people to go to college, and still need college professors (eh?). But having a system that focuses on only those is hurting our economic outlook directly, and it fails to train people for the greater social mobility.

These things--getting the focus off of simply getting into college (with ridiculous tests that prove only how well you did on that test, and not that you're a sentient human being with actual goals in life) and putting it on creating great citizens--people who are responsible, socially conscious, opinionated yet respectful of others' opinions, and ethical--seems like a helluva lot more virtuous--and practical--end to the means of an educational system.