Lie Number One: Everyone can afford to and should own their own home. This crock has pretty much imploded over the last few years, although I sense a creeping rebirth when I hear the President talk about how the JOBS legislation is such a triumph of democracy since pretty soon every Tom, Dick and Harry will be able to buy and own cheap stocks, and raise money through new and virtually unregulated crowd-funding vehicles.
Lie Number Two: Every kid in America needs and is entitled to a four-year college education. Whether they (and/or their parents) can afford it or not, whether they want it or not, whether or not they are capable and likely to be successful.
Would some of these kids be better served and far more likely to ultimately find a job if they pursued a shorter, less costly program to get some practical vocational training? Then they could get on with their lives without mortgaging their future with student loan obligations.
Lie Number Three: Classroom education is one size fits all. This ignores how differently each of us learns and pretends that a single instructor standing in front of a classroom full of kids can effectively teach anything to all of them at the same time.
By the time many kids are college aged, the damage from this lie is already done and they’re long gone from the system. The ones who remain are no better served by the continued pretense that we’re teaching them much of anything useful or of value in today’s globally competitive world. Instead, we’re teaching those students that we still think of schools as industrial-style factories with a premium on rote memorization and repetition rather than rigorous reasoning and problem solving.
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I think lie number two is the most interesting. I truly believe that not everyone can be successful in the college setting, and that is ok because there should be other opportunities available for people who don't belong at college. For example, my father has always been critical of my college education. Out of high school he wanted me to go to trade school, or start an apprenticeship. I chose not to pursue that career path, but I think those sort of options should be readily available.
ReplyDeleteI think we've talked about lie number two in class before. To use the example I used previously, years ago in Detroit, everyone who wanted to could come right out of high school and work at the auto plants and have a good job and retire fairly early. Obviously that has changed and is no longer the case. I think we need to have an industry/show people an industry where that can still be the case. Putting yourself in debt for years is not in the best interest of every young person.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interest with lie number 3. I'm surprised when we take classes that never talk about how they are applicable to real life and in a sense to your major despite the class. I know I've done a lot of service learning classes and case studies through K so I feel greatly prepared of business. I know how a lot of other schools for at least under grad are more on memorization than the ability to apply concepts.
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