The Problem of Education in America and Its Solution
The Problem
There is an obvious problem with education in America; namely, certain students are not learning. Our lawyers, doctors, and physicists are doing fine. That is to say, we have no difficulty educating the intelligent and motivated. There is, however, a group of students resting between the very intelligent and the challenged who are unwittingly being neglected. I state “unwittingly” because many programs that exist today are meant to help these very middle-of-the-pack students. The problem of education persists because these programs are failing.
Blame is invariably placed upon the teachers, the school administrators, and the government agencies responsible for education. In other words, blame is placed upon the education system itself. Therefore, the solutions to the problem have involved altering this system. New laws and acts have been created (Merit Pay), programs have been designed (Core40) and standardized tests given (ISTEP) to make certain students are receiving and retaining necessary material. Yet it remains true that students are not learning.
Programs with amazing spirit have been attempted and failed, and many are being implemented today destined to fail. The bulk of these failures speak of an unwillingness in the students to learn, laziness, or, more poignantly, “lack of motivation.” Because the programs were created with this fact in mind (that is, they were created to motivate students), the failures are blamed once again upon the teachers and administrators. Blame is placed upon the education system.
Even if you could state logically that the teacher should be able to motivate the students, is that really the problem? Should you not be asking the question, "Why are the students unmotivated in the first place?" What is the cause for the students' lack of motivation? The blame should in fact be placed on whatever it is making the student not care. Hormones? Parents? Those things are certainly contributing factors, but unavoidable. The more pressing issue is something very different.
The underlying dilemma is this: students see no advantage in learning the material if they can obtain the diploma regardless. In other words, if the student can get an 'A' in all her classes, pass the ISTEP, and graduate, then she has accomplished everything that was asked of her. Nobody asked her to learn anything. She was only asked to do well in her classes and obtain her diploma. We assume that in the process she did learn, and that assumption is our downfall.
To abate any leading thoughts, I feel I must state now that I am not here to argue against a “test-driven” education system. Those battles are already being fought. I place the problem in a much different, much deeper location. That said, let me continue.
The purpose of education is to learn and become more. Politicians and Americans in general are under the impression that this is achieved by obtaining a diploma or a degree. Therefore, when the diploma or degree fails to deliver, blame is placed on the system that is churning them out. That makes sense and appears a logical argument. But why aren't any of the solutions to make the education system better solving the problem? Because the problem with education cannot be found in the educational system or its enactors. The problem is elsewhere. It is found in the fact that we have lost sight of education's purpose, which is TO LEARN.
The system is not flawed. Instead, we are using it improperly, and so it is not working. It does not matter how sophisticated you make the system or how many people you hold accountable, because the students sitting in the classrooms are only concerned with passing courses with their desired grade and obtaining the subsequent diploma. The masses upon which education is being forced are not actually learning anything because education is seen as a requirement, a stepping stone, rather than a source of learning. Therefore the mentality is to "get through" because all that is required and requested of life is that you obtain the diploma or degree. Therefore, most students are not actually trying to learn anything, but that is only because nobody expects them to! They are only expected to pass the test with an 'A' or 'B' or 'C'. As a result, students are not learning, Americans are not getting any smarter, employers are complaining, and other countries are passing us by.
So how do we fix this? How do we change America so that students are more concerned with learning? First, you must understand how this happened. I mentioned above that students see education as a "stepping stone" or "a requirement." A requirement for what? Why is the student’s goal only to get the degree and not to actually learn? Because a diploma or a degree gets you a JOB. Therefore, the purpose of education is not “to learn;” instead, it is “to get a job.” Jobs are the ultimate goal of education in America.
So what do we have now? We have an entire society whose goal is this: get the degree. Actually learning something is the byproduct. We have a perfectly sound education system that is being used incorrectly because the government's initiative of educating America has as its ultimate goal more people with jobs. They want to give people a "better" education, but with jobs being their ultimate objective all of their attempts to make the system better are failing. The government sees the bad results, and so it continues making changes in the education system. But the problem is not the system, so their changes are not helping. The problem is that the underlying principle behind education is being unwittingly ignored by everyone involved.
I truly believe there is currently no better avenue toward education than a quality university degree. The student is surrounded by like-minded individuals from vastly different backgrounds, professors with hoards of knowledge and experience, libraries with innumerable books, and opportunities for internships, studying in other countries, work-studies, etc. A university degree can provide a remarkable education.
However, that is only the case IF your goal in pursuing the degree is to become educated. But when employers place such great value on the degree itself and not the knowledge and skills obtained, then the focus of the government and educators, and ultimately the students themselves, changes from knowledge-seeking to degree-seeking. That is why students are not learning—they have been brainwashed into believing the degree is the answer, not the education.
Some may argue that the real problem is that employers are not demanding the knowledge and skills, that employers should demand more than simply a degree. After all, if they demanded it now, as things are, would not people try to truly educate themselves?
The fact is that the employers do demand it. The education systems respond with "Honors Programs," keeping track of GPA, and "better" colleges. The most highly respected and demanded path to the workforce is the education system, so that is what people will use in attempting to "truly get educated." Remember, this is all happening unwittingly. Americans think they are doing the right thing by going to college. The issue is that kids go to college assuming they will come out with the required knowledge and skills. They look up at the teacher and say, "educate me!" They expect some sort of magical transformation to take place just by going through the process. The employers expect this too! The employer says, "You are not ready, go learn more or get better equipped." What do you do? What does everyone expect you to do? Go back to school! You jump in the education machine and everyone expects you to come out all scrubbed up and educated. Still, you are not ready. The employer must settle.
So the employers are demanding more, but they are relying on the education system to take care of those demands, and so are the hopeful employees. "Educate me better!" The education system answers with higher degrees, different degrees, more specific degrees, more group projects, more interaction with the public, putting desks in a circle. These ideas are outstanding and at times revolutionary, but they are being used by people with the wrong mindset. When the ultimate goal of a student is the degree, not what is gained by pursuing the degree, then she will come out missing something extremely vital. It is that missing ingredient which employers are demanding and not finding.
The education system is being used to train the masses for life. However, most of the jobs and lifelong pursuits do not require an education. In fact, the skills and knowledge could be obtained in other ways. Why aren't these other methods being used? Because the education route is considered "better." A person with a degree is seen as "better" than a person without one. Therefore we are trying to put everyone through the education system to get that degree and make them "better" prepared for the job market. We are using a system designed for higher education to arm the masses with diplomas and degrees. They are obtaining those degrees, but not the higher education.
I agree that we have a problem. However, I do not place the blame on anyone in particular, and certainly not the education system. I place the blame on an idea that has overtaken America, an idea inherent in the "No Child Left Behind Act" and the powerful declaration that "everyone deserves an education."
The idea, the delusion, the great fault of American society is that the ultimate goal of education is to obtain 'proof’ of education rather than education itself. This proof comes in the form of diplomas, degrees, certificates, PhDs, etc. Therefore, in order to solve the problem of education we must find a way to change this mindset of society.