Big Business (and the Pentagon) often complain that teenagers are not prepared for work in the real world.
Most high school graduates require remedial education in college or on the job.
Perhaps the most striking feature of our public schools is how little they teach. Surveys and anecdotal evidence suggest that the Education Establishment has turned busy-work into an art form. At least 30 hours each week, at least 30 weeks each year--that’s 1000 hours annually that seem to accomplish little. Students reach college not knowing what 5 x 7 is or where Alaska is on a map.
What alchemy are our schools using to prevent education? Curiously, the endless murky debates you see in the media never point in the direction of the real problem, namely, our Education Establishment loves bad theories. Here are the worst offenders, and some remedies:
Constructivism: The basic idea is that teachers can’t teach; students construct knowledge for themselves. Children might not be taught the basic facts you assume they know. “Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs To Know,” a book by E. D. Hirsch, is one way to start a dialogue about this problem.
Cooperative Learning: Children are routinely divided into groups throughout the day. They sit around tables and work as a team. The problem is that some students never learn to think for themselves. It might be helpful to tell prospects: “You’ll be expected to work on your own and solve problems for yourself. Can you do it?” This question at least establishes a baseline for further discussion.
Reading: Not even one-third of the young adults in this country can read fluently and for pleasure. The rest can read with great effort or not at all. Many adults lie to hide their illiteracy. So here’s a simple test: give a newspaper to a prospect and say, read this story. If they drop words, add words, make wild guesses, or reverse words, you know that they read only in a limited sense. (Students who learned to read with sight-words can acquire a lot of bad habits; the solution is to start over and learn to read properly.)
Multiculturalism: This theory preaches that children should know about other cultures. In practice, third-graders are told to memorize rivers in China, but they don’t know what the Mississippi is. You may say, “Our other plant is in Montan,” expecting them to know roughly where that is. Don’t count on it. One answer is to create games and contests that will nudge people into learning all that easy stuff they somehow missed. Hang up big decorative maps and say, “Get to know your country…and the world.”
Reform Math: Our experts tend to make simple arithmetic difficult; almost everyone said so after struggling with New Math circa 1965. The public said the same thing about the murky curricula called Reform Math. Children can’t multiply and divide without calculators. Reform Math is merging into Common Core Standards. Techniques remain difficult; and progress is slow. You will find employees who can’t do simple arithmetic. Mention a book such as “Basic Math and Pre-Algebra for Dummies.”
In short, schools don’t emphasize the 3 R’s or basic knowledge. Consider testing and/or tutoring for these things. The simplest solution to the mediocrity of our public schools is to put education back in people’s lives. Talk it up.
People of all ages should be encouraged to take charge of their own education. Read a magazine every week. Read a book every month or two. There are lots of great resources on the Internet -– help your employees find the best for their needs. Solicit suggestions from the whole organization, and publicize the good ones.
Bottom line: well-educated management people might have no idea how low education has sunk. The suggestion here is to face this head-on and help people to fill their gaps.
