Growing up I had the opportunity to graduate from one of the top high schools in the country at the time (Mamaroneck HS class of 65) and I have to say that the education gained there went along way in providing a pathway fro the rest of my career. I went on to earn a degree in Education and before entering the business world taught for six years. This is not a bio on Daniel Bloom but rather laying the ground work for a real concern that hit home in the past week.
To keep my teaching skills up to date and to give back to the community I periodically serve as a substitute teacher in the local school districts. Recently I covered for a 6th grade social studies class and was taken aback by the interaction in the classroom. There were students who did not even try to do the worksheet assignment the teacher had left, there were other students who complained that they could not understand what the teacher wanted done and still others who complained that it was too difficult. I talked with one of the school administrators about my concerns and was told that this is the name of the game these days. He further stated that if he taught today's students the way he taught students 20 years ago, he would have to fail every student in the class.
So here is my concern on this nice fall day in the sunny tropics (temperatures are actually not supposed to get over 80 today and low's in the 50's tonight). I read on a fairly regular basis that the rank of this country in regards to competitiveness is slipping compared to other countries. Have we brought this on ourselves? Did the parents of this generation who insisted that they get a gold star for showing up or the trophy for playing on a saturday morning sports team because every else did do a disservice to our business organizations?
Granted that day in the class room I saw sign of team work and collaboration. ON the other hand what I envisioned was a group of employees in a workplace who when confronted with a project with a specific deadline, would not know where to begin.
There is also another aspect to this scenario. We in the business world know or should know that the key to our being successful in the global marketplace is both innovation and collaboration. Part of that comes from individuals being able to share ideas and concepts. With the ever increasing push for "purity" in ideals and philosophies in our political arenas, are we going to come to the day where those keys to innovation disappear from our jobs. Does that push for sameness mean that the respect for our collaboration is demeaned? Does it mean that we have forgotten the lessons from history in which those who have tried this purity route before have eventually failed in their goals?
I will agree with come commentators that the push for success on standardized tests has diminished the education level of our students. The believe that everyone has to be at the same level to succeed means that we have lost the ability to present real hands on challenges to the next generation because our teachers are too busy teaching to the test rather than the material. I can tell you that if I was coming out of college today with a degree in education I would have second thoughts about going into the classroom.
So what is our recourse? We need to move to a program that actually prepares our students for the real world not some contrived test that supposedly teaches skills, even if they turn out new employees who can't read, can't write and more important can't think. My mother used to tell the story of one of her teachers who challenged her students by asking them "How do you know you think?" Is the answer we are giving them, that you don't need to know how to think.
Our businesses are confronted with major problems toady. Many of them stem from the altered society views on the world we live in. Some of this we brought on ourselves. Others have come about because we have changed the nature of the education we deliver to them as they prepare to enter the workforce. We need to do something now not later to return to those days when we went to school for a reason not because the law says we have to until we turn 16. I just came across a website yesterday that is trying to make those changes. Take a look at http://www.donewaiting.org
It is not too late, we can make a difference for the business organizations we work for to ensure their survival. But we also can't sit back on our sofas and say it is not our problem. Everyone has to get involved.
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