The schooling system is limited by the fact that citizens do not need to be educated any better. They end up sufficient for the jobs that await them.
I'd argue this has never been less true than it is today. The American public education system has never been less equipped to produce capable, employable adults.
However, I'd argue like the OP - that our education system is not a failure because it doesn't teach students enough academic competencies (although that's definitely a factor), but that it fails to teach students critical thinking, self-agency, and basic life skills.
Anecdotal evidence: I volunteered briefly at an alternative high school in Seattle called PSCS. What I saw there was incredible - there was no focus on academic excellence, standardized education/testing, or competition. Instead the focus was on accountability, personal responsibility, community outreach, and following your own passions with support and without criticism.
The results were amazing. Graduating students, for lack of a better term, uniformly "had their shit together". They had practiced setting, following, and realizing their own personal goals, and were amazingly prepared to enter the job market or strike out on their own.
After volunteering, education made sense to me. I had a useless and damaging public high school and college experience, but now work in a field where I've succeeded entirely due to self-education and personal passion. The largest frustration I've experienced is that people think the work I do is complicated, magic, and entirely the province of smart people. The opposite is the case - the work I do is largely dead simple - it's simply a matter of being able to Google and teach yourself the answers to new questions.
famousbirds20 karma
I'd argue this has never been less true than it is today. The American public education system has never been less equipped to produce capable, employable adults.
However, I'd argue like the OP - that our education system is not a failure because it doesn't teach students enough academic competencies (although that's definitely a factor), but that it fails to teach students critical thinking, self-agency, and basic life skills.
Anecdotal evidence: I volunteered briefly at an alternative high school in Seattle called PSCS. What I saw there was incredible - there was no focus on academic excellence, standardized education/testing, or competition. Instead the focus was on accountability, personal responsibility, community outreach, and following your own passions with support and without criticism.
The results were amazing. Graduating students, for lack of a better term, uniformly "had their shit together". They had practiced setting, following, and realizing their own personal goals, and were amazingly prepared to enter the job market or strike out on their own.
After volunteering, education made sense to me. I had a useless and damaging public high school and college experience, but now work in a field where I've succeeded entirely due to self-education and personal passion. The largest frustration I've experienced is that people think the work I do is complicated, magic, and entirely the province of smart people. The opposite is the case - the work I do is largely dead simple - it's simply a matter of being able to Google and teach yourself the answers to new questions.
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