A Diseased System and a Broken People
Before we begin this, here is the original editorial from Walt Gardner, a teacher from LA Unified School District and a lecturer of UCLA Graduate School of Education, posted on Christian Science Monitor.
Fall classes are barely under way and already guidance counselors across the country are conferring with students about the courses they need for their high school diplomas. In the process, more than 90 percent will be steered toward a college-prep curriculum, according to the Alfred P. Sloan Study of Youth and Social Development. This, however, is not as laudable as it seems.
The reasons serve as a cautionary tale that the US ignores at its peril. Despite what the public is willing to acknowledge, the importance of a bachelor's degree has been wildly oversold. In 2007, for example, about 67 percent of high school graduates went directly to college, compared with just under half in 1972.
The usual argument put forth in defense of a four-year degree is that it contains a decided wage premium. Studies have consistently found that those who have a degree on average earn more than those who don't. . But all these studies were conducted before the new global economy fully emerged. Its presence calls into question long-held assumptions.
If Alan Blinder, former vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, is correct, the only jobs that will be secure in the next decade will those that cannot be sent abroad electronically. That means plumbers, electricians, and auto mechanics, for example, will be working steadily while many of their degreed classmates will be collecting unemployment checks.
Moreover, since wages vary within any occupation, degree holders who are still employed will not necessarily be earning top salaries. The same holds true for non-degree-holders, of course, but at least they will be in far greater demand because their skills cannot be offshored. As a result, they will be in a position to command wages at the top of their respective brackets.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that some unionized craft workers already earn more than the average college graduate - and do so without carrying the heavy burden of student debt. The demand for this skilled labor is expected to intensify in the coming years as more workers retire and the economy revives.
All of the preceding assumes, of course, that students in high school actually receive their diplomas. In order to earn them, however, students in many states have no choice but to take a rigidly prescribed sequence of courses that too often are not in line with their needs and interests. At the top of the list is the growing requisite of Algebra 1.
California is experiencing the harm done by this requirement. At present, just more than half of the state's eighth-graders are taking Algebra 1 as part of the new policy mandating the course for all within three years.
Yet already, the requirement has singularly resulted in an increase in the dropout rate beyond the 24.2 percent in the 2006-07 school year. Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell has warned that the requirement sets every school in the state up for failure.
For schools serving large numbers of poor and minority students, the results are expected to be disproportionately felt. That's because career and technical education, which has proved instrumental in the past in boosting graduation rates for these students, will lose more funding to accommodate the Algebra 1 mandate.
Even if the funding were somehow to materialize, however, tens of thousands of students will not be allowed to enroll in vocational electives in middle school if they haven't mastered Algebra 1. This unintended consequence has become so threatening that the presidents of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association and the State Building and Construction Trades have jointly denounced the requirement.
The total damage inflicted on students by the college-is-for-everyone mentality is incalculable. Students who cannot measure up to the demands for a college curriculum are made to feel like failures.
Our competitors abroad have long understood and accepted the fact that students can have a productive and gratifying career even when they do not go on to some form of tertiary education. They grant equal respect to these students, rather than regard them as second-class.
But their realistic attitude goes against the romantic notion that unfortunately prevails in this country. What Americans ultimately need to learn is that college is merely the most convenient place to learn how to learn. It is not an absolute determinant.
To sum it up, this man says that Americans should stop aiming for advanced education and should be content with what they get outside of academic education. His justification is that hi-tech jobs are being exported to elsewhere in the world because of global economy and so all that is left in this country are service jobs. He cited his findings based on the surprisingly high high school dropout rate of 24.2% in California because California has made algebra a mandatory requirement for high school diploma.
Of course California has higher dropout rate because California implemented the new requirement with 50% of the students passing the point of no return in their high school career. He should be surprised that the dropout rate isn't 50% or above. But if we use an international education testing standard, we will see that Florida and many other states that reported lesser high school dropout rates actually manipulated their high school graduation data by classifying half of their students as "special education assets" so they are exempted from taking any standardized aptitude tests. I bet if we factor in these 50% of special education students in aptitude tests, we'll see 60% to 70% high school dropout rates in those states.
There is a reason why human race has evolved with the largest brain by ratio and the most sophisticated neural network of all animals and complimented with a pair of highly dexterous tool-making hands. We live not to follow the rules of nature but to bend the rules to suit our needs. We are not to resolve to fate; we are to face challenges and create tools to conquer them. Advanced education is not about instant gratification. It is about progress and crusade for self-perfection. We need this will of self-perfection in order to secure our place in the future. Without a sense of direction, we are nothing but drones or four-legged herd beasts grazing on the fields.
In the face of global economy, competition is stiff. But competition should not be viewed as a bad thing. It should be viewed as an opportunity for faster-paced self-perfection. Rather than sitting idly and watching high-paying jobs getting exported to other countries, we should be thinking about how to best our competitors. Do you really think high tech companies like to work with people in China and India? No. They exported the jobs not by choice but by necessities. They can't find enough suitable home-grown candidates so they have to move their operations to other countries where they can continue their projects. If they truly want to export every part of their companies to other countries, they'll hire local managers as well. But at last, they always send managers picked and hired from their US headquarters. Why? Because this is the home front that they can trust. People here at least have civility and understand the concept of kindred spirit.
What this man is trying to convey is isolationism. What he wants is for Americans to give up this senseless investment of time and resources on advanced academics because there is no future for such highly educated people in America. I'd like to mention that such belief was used a long time ago by Josef Stalin as he forged a Communist regime and raised an Iron Curtain from the rest of the world. The rest of the world doesn't pay the same respect to plumbers as they pay to candidate of a top tier national college. I am born in Taiwan and I speak well for the rest of the Chinese people worldwide. Education is more than just a fancy title we write next to our name. It is our name. In a family reunion, the first topic ever discussed among family members that haven't seen each other for years is the education of their children. Children who are going to top tier schools will not only get praised by other family members but become a pride of the family. This prideful presence will then translate to command status in the family circle. Those who did not make to a top tier school will be frowned upon. While their presence is acknowledged, their life is not. Nobody want to talk to a dropout. All they ever care about is what those people attending top tier colleges are doing in schools. That is why Chinese families see advanced education as an investment as important as the notion of having children at the first place.
Education system in America is diseased. As a result, it is no longer producing the right types of brains anymore. It is a sad day when tech companies have to tell new recruits fresh out of colleges to forget everything colleges taught them and attend special training programs. We need to see education as investment of life and future. America is a nation of advanced citizenship. We expect each and every one of us to do most things ourselves but to understand that when we encounter things too big to be carried on by ourselves the government will step in and push it with us. So long as the people have the will, the government will provide the mean. When did this partnership ended? Why do we suddenly have people on newspapers and TV glorifying gangsters and advocating dropouts? When did America become a communist country? People stop looking out of their windows to see what other countries are doing. People stop questioning why government aren't keeping up with its partnership promises. People stop pushing for answers. People stop living altogether.
American education system lacks a standardized methodology on standards and achievements. That is why it is impossible to compare one state's results with another. In fact, it is impossible to compare one school district's results with the school district next door. Rather than solving the education issues (or the lack of education), policymakers are shoving them under the rugs and pretend nothing is wrong. Why didn't we tell those 50% of students on special education that they are pathetically stupid and a dead door knob is probably more intelligent than them? Schools classified them as special education and kept them in that status so they can continue to collect special education fundings. That's why the school administrators don't want to say what they really are thinking about those students, that they are pathetically stupid and a dead door knob is smarter than them.
Reflect upon this. America is a country of advanced citizenship. If you want something, you have to fight for it, or else you showed that you have no will for it.
Fall classes are barely under way and already guidance counselors across the country are conferring with students about the courses they need for their high school diplomas. In the process, more than 90 percent will be steered toward a college-prep curriculum, according to the Alfred P. Sloan Study of Youth and Social Development. This, however, is not as laudable as it seems.
The reasons serve as a cautionary tale that the US ignores at its peril. Despite what the public is willing to acknowledge, the importance of a bachelor's degree has been wildly oversold. In 2007, for example, about 67 percent of high school graduates went directly to college, compared with just under half in 1972.
The usual argument put forth in defense of a four-year degree is that it contains a decided wage premium. Studies have consistently found that those who have a degree on average earn more than those who don't. . But all these studies were conducted before the new global economy fully emerged. Its presence calls into question long-held assumptions.
If Alan Blinder, former vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, is correct, the only jobs that will be secure in the next decade will those that cannot be sent abroad electronically. That means plumbers, electricians, and auto mechanics, for example, will be working steadily while many of their degreed classmates will be collecting unemployment checks.
Moreover, since wages vary within any occupation, degree holders who are still employed will not necessarily be earning top salaries. The same holds true for non-degree-holders, of course, but at least they will be in far greater demand because their skills cannot be offshored. As a result, they will be in a position to command wages at the top of their respective brackets.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that some unionized craft workers already earn more than the average college graduate - and do so without carrying the heavy burden of student debt. The demand for this skilled labor is expected to intensify in the coming years as more workers retire and the economy revives.
All of the preceding assumes, of course, that students in high school actually receive their diplomas. In order to earn them, however, students in many states have no choice but to take a rigidly prescribed sequence of courses that too often are not in line with their needs and interests. At the top of the list is the growing requisite of Algebra 1.
California is experiencing the harm done by this requirement. At present, just more than half of the state's eighth-graders are taking Algebra 1 as part of the new policy mandating the course for all within three years.
Yet already, the requirement has singularly resulted in an increase in the dropout rate beyond the 24.2 percent in the 2006-07 school year. Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell has warned that the requirement sets every school in the state up for failure.
For schools serving large numbers of poor and minority students, the results are expected to be disproportionately felt. That's because career and technical education, which has proved instrumental in the past in boosting graduation rates for these students, will lose more funding to accommodate the Algebra 1 mandate.
Even if the funding were somehow to materialize, however, tens of thousands of students will not be allowed to enroll in vocational electives in middle school if they haven't mastered Algebra 1. This unintended consequence has become so threatening that the presidents of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association and the State Building and Construction Trades have jointly denounced the requirement.
The total damage inflicted on students by the college-is-for-everyone mentality is incalculable. Students who cannot measure up to the demands for a college curriculum are made to feel like failures.
Our competitors abroad have long understood and accepted the fact that students can have a productive and gratifying career even when they do not go on to some form of tertiary education. They grant equal respect to these students, rather than regard them as second-class.
But their realistic attitude goes against the romantic notion that unfortunately prevails in this country. What Americans ultimately need to learn is that college is merely the most convenient place to learn how to learn. It is not an absolute determinant.
To sum it up, this man says that Americans should stop aiming for advanced education and should be content with what they get outside of academic education. His justification is that hi-tech jobs are being exported to elsewhere in the world because of global economy and so all that is left in this country are service jobs. He cited his findings based on the surprisingly high high school dropout rate of 24.2% in California because California has made algebra a mandatory requirement for high school diploma.
Of course California has higher dropout rate because California implemented the new requirement with 50% of the students passing the point of no return in their high school career. He should be surprised that the dropout rate isn't 50% or above. But if we use an international education testing standard, we will see that Florida and many other states that reported lesser high school dropout rates actually manipulated their high school graduation data by classifying half of their students as "special education assets" so they are exempted from taking any standardized aptitude tests. I bet if we factor in these 50% of special education students in aptitude tests, we'll see 60% to 70% high school dropout rates in those states.
There is a reason why human race has evolved with the largest brain by ratio and the most sophisticated neural network of all animals and complimented with a pair of highly dexterous tool-making hands. We live not to follow the rules of nature but to bend the rules to suit our needs. We are not to resolve to fate; we are to face challenges and create tools to conquer them. Advanced education is not about instant gratification. It is about progress and crusade for self-perfection. We need this will of self-perfection in order to secure our place in the future. Without a sense of direction, we are nothing but drones or four-legged herd beasts grazing on the fields.
In the face of global economy, competition is stiff. But competition should not be viewed as a bad thing. It should be viewed as an opportunity for faster-paced self-perfection. Rather than sitting idly and watching high-paying jobs getting exported to other countries, we should be thinking about how to best our competitors. Do you really think high tech companies like to work with people in China and India? No. They exported the jobs not by choice but by necessities. They can't find enough suitable home-grown candidates so they have to move their operations to other countries where they can continue their projects. If they truly want to export every part of their companies to other countries, they'll hire local managers as well. But at last, they always send managers picked and hired from their US headquarters. Why? Because this is the home front that they can trust. People here at least have civility and understand the concept of kindred spirit.
What this man is trying to convey is isolationism. What he wants is for Americans to give up this senseless investment of time and resources on advanced academics because there is no future for such highly educated people in America. I'd like to mention that such belief was used a long time ago by Josef Stalin as he forged a Communist regime and raised an Iron Curtain from the rest of the world. The rest of the world doesn't pay the same respect to plumbers as they pay to candidate of a top tier national college. I am born in Taiwan and I speak well for the rest of the Chinese people worldwide. Education is more than just a fancy title we write next to our name. It is our name. In a family reunion, the first topic ever discussed among family members that haven't seen each other for years is the education of their children. Children who are going to top tier schools will not only get praised by other family members but become a pride of the family. This prideful presence will then translate to command status in the family circle. Those who did not make to a top tier school will be frowned upon. While their presence is acknowledged, their life is not. Nobody want to talk to a dropout. All they ever care about is what those people attending top tier colleges are doing in schools. That is why Chinese families see advanced education as an investment as important as the notion of having children at the first place.
Education system in America is diseased. As a result, it is no longer producing the right types of brains anymore. It is a sad day when tech companies have to tell new recruits fresh out of colleges to forget everything colleges taught them and attend special training programs. We need to see education as investment of life and future. America is a nation of advanced citizenship. We expect each and every one of us to do most things ourselves but to understand that when we encounter things too big to be carried on by ourselves the government will step in and push it with us. So long as the people have the will, the government will provide the mean. When did this partnership ended? Why do we suddenly have people on newspapers and TV glorifying gangsters and advocating dropouts? When did America become a communist country? People stop looking out of their windows to see what other countries are doing. People stop questioning why government aren't keeping up with its partnership promises. People stop pushing for answers. People stop living altogether.
American education system lacks a standardized methodology on standards and achievements. That is why it is impossible to compare one state's results with another. In fact, it is impossible to compare one school district's results with the school district next door. Rather than solving the education issues (or the lack of education), policymakers are shoving them under the rugs and pretend nothing is wrong. Why didn't we tell those 50% of students on special education that they are pathetically stupid and a dead door knob is probably more intelligent than them? Schools classified them as special education and kept them in that status so they can continue to collect special education fundings. That's why the school administrators don't want to say what they really are thinking about those students, that they are pathetically stupid and a dead door knob is smarter than them.
Reflect upon this. America is a country of advanced citizenship. If you want something, you have to fight for it, or else you showed that you have no will for it.