Education is an ever changing system. The problem is that it changes for all the wrong reasons. For decades education was focused on preparing students to enter factory work. This is why students sit in rows, work according to a bell schedule, and do monotonous assignments. A shift then occurred after World War II. The education system started to focus more on socioeconomics, state programs, and social needs. From there, education has been on a constant pendulum that has swayed back and forth between a focus on academics to a focus on social/emotional learning. The problem is that education is no longer education.
To better understand this problem, we need to have a better understanding of the purpose for the education system. Schooling used to focus on preparing students to enter the workforce, and the workforce used to be blue collar jobs. As times changed, so did the focus on preparing students for the workforce. There became a tremendous push to send students to college and university to earn degrees for specific employment. For a time, it was all about what college a senior in high school would attend after graduating. In some respects, this push for college is still a priority today. However, the pendulum has started to swing the other direction. Today, education has very little to do with building real world skills and preparing students for life beyond school.
Today, colleges and universities have very little to do with offering job specific classes that prepare students for real world employment. Instead of preparing students by focusing on work ethic, discipline, the value of hard work, and job specific skills, colleges and universities use their status to push political agendas and ideologies. In other words, a college education is not an education, but rather an indoctrination. Public school has started to make the same shift that colleges and universities have made in the political sector. Rather than preparing students to enter the workforce with real world skills and become productive members of society, the focus is on political agendas and ideologies.
Education was once said to be for the whole child. This has been grossly misrepresented and is now used as political ploys and indoctrination of students. There must be some responsibility for a student’s education that comes from the home. A public school’s focus should be on educating students on skills needed to achieve their career goals. A public school should never focus on personal, political, or institutional ideologies. The classroom should be a place of practice and practical use of needed abilities. It should be focused on helping students learn foundational skills and academics to aid them in achieving their career goals and placing them on pathways to success.
There needs to be a significant shift in the education system. Education needs to be less about politics, ideologies, agendas, and indoctrination and more about preparation for life through the building of real world skills that will help students become productive and successful in their life. K-12 education should be designed in such a way that students are placed on pathways to help them reach their desired career goals. K-6 education should focus on building the foundation for real world skills – reading, writing, basic mathematics, and social skills. Middle school, or 7th and 8th grade, should be focused on helping students pick a career pathway. High school, or 9th through 12th, should be set up as specific pathways that guide students to reach their career goals through specific career skills that are needed. In other words, if you are going to be a journalist, author, social worker, etc., then you don’t need to waste time on classes you don’t need – like algebra 2 and calculus.
We must carefully consider what is most beneficial for our students and our society. Preparing students to enter the world to be productive and successful is essential. This must be the priority and purpose of education. This is the shift that needs to happen in the education system.
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