America's Future

It's dim.

Our country's future is entirely dependent on how our adults treat our youth.

I have high hopes, however, because I sense a small uprising in the education-world that seeks to overthrow the standards of the past, ready to adopt a new ideal of learning.  Truth be told, it is nothing new, just ask Socrates.

Our kids are great thinkers, from the day they are born.  Somewhere along their educational path, we suppress their innate ability to question, to be creative, and we teach them that they have to learn a set amount of facts so that they can pass certain tests. We are here today, I believe, because of our need for competition in America.

I had a rather confrontational conversion tonight about the value of competition.  I was told that my views are Socialist.  Maybe I am when it comes to educating our youth.  Competition CAN be good, but when the playing field isn't level, it isn't fair, and the result is a young person's self-deflation in their abilities.

In education, cooperation/collaboration is far more effective than competition.

When certain jobs are being outsourced to other countries (whether high or low skill), as Americans, we ALL need to critically analyze how we can secure our future.  Do we want our youth to be able to find jobs when they graduate or live with their parents?  Do we want our youth to work for peanuts or find a career that promises both personal satisfaction and financial security?

We won't level the playing field in education unless a lot of changes are made, among these are:  

1. Eliminate any discrepancy for basic needs (food, shelter, clothing)... [believe, me, I know, there are huge issues with this for all sorts of political parties.]
2. Put way more emphasis on learning how to learn instead of memorizing facts. [i.e. put less emphasis on standardized tests that mostly assess low-level thinking; put less emphasis on evaluating teachers and schools on their performance on said tests.]
3. Understand that the profession of teaching is just that.  Teachers are PROFESSIONALS.. educated and devoted to helping our youth learn.
4. Understand, that in America, public education (and education across the board), is a SERVICE job.  Teachers are not in the profession for profits.  They are in the profession to help kids learn.

America's future entirely depends on it's BOLD stand that education needs to change.  The change lately, however, has been sprinkled with more of the same low expectations and false assumptions on what makes education better.  We don't need new standards.  We don't need more tests.  We need the freedom to help every young person to grow wings so that they can be successful adults.

Lights out,
Nik