Consequences of a Failed System: Part 1

(Excerpt  from Stop Beating the Dead Horse)


The focus of education today must be reexamined to determine what we, as a country, want from our system of education. In the past, the system has been focused on socialization and homogenization of our citizens. This focus has not only failed to educate our students well in the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic but, most importantly, it has also failed to prepare them for life.

An unknown, but wise, author, wrote, “An educational system isn't worth a great deal if it teaches young people how to make a living but doesn't teach them how to make a life.”

Many of this country’s current social problems would not be happening (the mortgage crisis, surging unemployment rates, rising teen violence, irresponsible parenting, preventable vehicle deaths, etc.) if the system had been educating students to prepare them for life. In the public school setting, we have a great opportunity to address these problems and any other problems which may arise, and educate students to prevent them in the future. It is very important that any system of education be flexible enough to change as the educational needs of society change. The inflexibility of our current system has been a major problem of education in the United States today. Our current system is using the methods and curriculum developed for an early industrial age to educate students for the entirely different world of today.