February 20, 2012
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Why We Fail?
I tend to think we are failing as a nation right now. I don’t blame a political party. In fact, I am not sure politicians can do much to fix it.
I tend to think that we are preparing kids for the wrong skills in life.
If I was in charge of education, kids would be learning programming languages in school. They would be studying Chinese and not Spanish. Why would you teach kids to communicate in Spanish when Mexicans are all poor?
They would be learning real skills that they could use in life.
Do you feel you have the skills to compete in the next 20 years?
Comments (69)
I’m learning some new skills and becoming better at a few things. Doing the self-employed thing right now and it’s completely freeing!
“Why would you teach kids to communicate in Spanish when Mexicans are all poor?”
Burritos > Lo Mein
I don’t have any skills at all and I don’t care. I’m just an ignorant American and content with that. I don’t expect to live that long anyway, so why should I care when I’m not going leave a legacy or children to inherit this world anyway?
Wait, aren’t Chinese people all poor too?
My kids learned French, Italian, and Japanese. Most of them choosing Japanese. But then we homeschool them soooo they get more options that the local public school offers. I think the missing link is the drive to work hard for what they get. Many of the highschool kids I talk to just don’t seem to have a hunger to learn or improve at the expense of present pleasures.
Education isn’t about skills it’s about learning how to think and understand the nature of things. Such an education is almost impossible to get in today’s public schools.
The result is an entire population that is susceptible to being bamboozled by commercial and political advertisements. In other words, an entire population that needs to be told what and how to think.
Also, children are able to learn languages almost by magic. So there is no excuse for modern children not to be fluent in at least 5 or six languages by the 6th grade.
@TiredSoVeryTired - When the Chinese put their 1.5 billion people to work in their capitalist economy, it will be 5 times bigger than the economy of the United States.
Meanwhile, Mexico is a door mat for drug cartels and peasants immigrating to the United States and Canada.
I hate the paradise we live in now. It goes against my personality.
You don’t really learn anything in middle school and high school, so it doesn’t really matter.
@ShimmerBodyCream - WOULD U BE MY DAET TO TAKO BELL NATALEE?
@Paul_Partisan - si, YO QUIERO TACO BELL Y… Y… peniso.
@ShimmerBodyCream - VIVA GORDITAS Y BOOBIES ERR TETAS
if we had to have a draft to respond to a national security threat, most people would be unfit for the military. The amount of Americans illiterate is higher than much of the West. We’re falling behind in math and science. Our top job openings are going un-filled because people don’t have the skills. People going to college to get worthless degrees then saddling themselves with debt for the next 20 years.
Are we failing?
A huge downfall to the education system is teaching for standardized tests. The teachers focus on these tests so much because their job depends on it, it really impairs their natural teaching ability, if they have any. I just graduated from high school last year, and I feel that there is a need for a more improved way of teaching kids. The first step would need to be a complete overhaul of the attitudes that children develop towards education these days. If they do not feel education is important, then they will not work to succeed. I say all the kids that are doing poorly need to be shown how bad their life will become unless they start working hard. Maybe a field trip to the local McDonalds, they can hear from the people that have worked there for fifty years, and learn just how crappy their future job is going to be.
I have chickens and rabbits and know how to grow my own food, hunt and cook with a fire. I think in the coming years those skills will keep my family and self alive. So, yes.
I’m licensed in an industry that doesn’t get hit too hard with recession. A lot of what I’m trained to do can be dangerous if you try it without being trained and there are enough people who want good looking skin even with the economy, it isn’t a hard hit industry. My husband is going to go into computer repair and is looking into getting the A+. I’m not sure if it has been hit but it’s not in the top 25, my industry (beauty) is on a list I ran across top 25 careers to pursue during a recession. I studied Spanish in high school and middle school but lost interest and only know English. I’d rather learn Chinese or Japanese or study a dead language just to say I know it (either Latin or Arabic although I’m not sure, I don’t think Arabic is dead).
Don’t worry, bro, I’m working on it.
I’m going to save the world.
@dream_guru5 - Arabic isn’t dead at all; in fact, it’s been on the list of top 10 most spoken languages in the world for more than a decade. =)
Yes I do.
a chuckle a day keeps the doctor away, or so I hear. you give me mine, almost without ever skipping a day.
@syedanoor - It seems to be a pretty cool language to learn, I figured since I think it’s one of the ancient languages it was probably dead.
The problem is we want a high expectations education system, where no child is left behind. see the dilema?
And I should add, failure is an extremely important part of the learning process, and yet we don’t want kids to fail…
We’re improving slowly… Some people choose to speak Spanish because a lot of the population can’t speak English. So communicating with our neighbors better would help things run more smoothly. People are still living and they can choose to learn another language if needed
…
I think that what is hurting the USA is the lack of an all around education. Arts are getting cut. Music is getting cut. Gym is getting cut. Athletic programs are getting cut. It’s as if reading, writing, and arithmetic is all there is to schooling. Where is the creativity? This is true for high school programs. Then you have colleges like the one I attended(Ohio State) where so many of the students didn’t care one bit about the classes they were taking and read The Lantern during class and coasted by with a gentleman’s C. Now I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t get straight A’s in high school or college. In fact, very little of what I learned came from the straight up educational programs offered in high school or college.
I totally advocate being a rebel student. Take the classes you want to take and forget the guidance counselors. And take as many classes in as many different areas as you can. I took some I thought I’d like, and failed. But I took a whole bunch that I thought I’d love and got 4.0 in them. Explore your education. Don’t be pigeonholed by what your high school told you you should be. Find out what you want to be. Find your passion anyway you can. Find a dream and follow it.
That is all. Now….try and make money off of all that. That’s where I’m struggling.
I’ve got skills. Hope they still work in 20 years
America is just getting lazier and lazier. Technology is playing a pretty big role in that. The parents must take a stand at that and teach these kids some important life lessons that they can use as adults.
You decide what you want to do.
Interesting, i also tend to think you are failing as a nation. But there is always hope for recovery..
No. Neither Spanish nor Chinese (Mandarin?) should be first on the list! English should be taught first and extensively – then other languages.
Math and arithmetic should be taught extensively as well – particularly the ability to write proofs – as is common in geometry classes of years gone by. Many schools have eliminated proofs from geometry because proof writing cannot be easily tested. This is a poor excuse for not teaching the principles of basic logic.
The use of relatively current technology should be integrated into all subjects.
This will require skilled teachers to keep current on all the technology – and higher salaries.
History and Civics should also be taught. Any natural born U.S. citizen should know as much about our laws, constitution, 3 branches of government, etc. as those that legally immigrate to this country to become citizens.
Very interesting point about language. I agree. I personally think that at least concerning what you mentioned, the changing needs for different job fields is changing faster than educational schedules can keep up with.
I agree, our kids aren’t learning the skills the need to make it in today’s world. Americans are so far behind in math, science, languages. Only Spanish is offered, and very badly so, at my daughter’ s HS – much too late. Our whole education system needs revamping, noddles after Europe or Japan. Our kids aren’t going to be able ti have the ” traditional” careers in this new world. New teacher graduated can’t fond jobs and are waitressing, working in factories, if they are lucky enough to get any job at all. I worry for thrift future.
*modeled, not noodles. Kindle autocorrect is worse that iphone!
Maybe the title of this blog should be written, Why Men fail. There are a lot of hard studying women now. A lot of colleges have more women than men. Men (maybe boys is a better term) get distracted by sex and video games.
Debate is a lost art (after reading terrible comments all day here at xanga) in some cases but still the ability to translate what you mean has been pretty good here for now. Yo se puede hablar mas espanol, than I can speak Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese tones give me problems).
Why would I want to speak more Spanish? Maybe to educate them and have allies to fight against the rich.
May a new generation discover new ways to exhibit leadership morally in the face of destitution…
because the world as we know it surely faces destitution when cheap oil fails to materialize and the population continues to explode and medical science continues to uncover means to keep people alive who have the money for it…making it seem unfair even though such expensive “progress” CANNOT be provided for everyone out of the base that is available, and any “base” that is provided out of taxation, etc., would be eaten up so quickly with the needs of those who expect to be kept alive that it could not last long.
But since it is materialism that wears the mask of science and progress today, I see nothing noble coming out of this America that worships science, unless there is a return to that which gives us the highest definition of sacrifice in the name of love…
John 3:16
@Shadowrunner81 - Great Advice!
Unfortunately, America reminds me of late-era Romans with their apathy, self-indulgence, huge corrupt bureaucracies, and inbibing of chemicals that are shit for you (in their case, by drinking from lead pipes). But I don’t think it’s too late–we’ve gotta fight that apathy with all we’ve got, and we’ve gotta do it ourselves. Some suggestions:
1. Throw the standardized test people out on their asses. Emphasize creativity and the tools to do it–tools like practical math, programming (as you say), languages, and history (to learn from the past, and because it rules)–Look at examples like Finland where teachers are well-paid, respected, and have lots of freedom. The product of education must be creativity, not just facts.
2. End the coddling. Stop psychiatrists from handing out Ritalin like Halloween Candy. Make failing acceptable again, because it is okay to fail and try again…but not okay to pass people just to spare the drama that it will create. Hardcore, daily physical education programs in which girls DO NOT just sit on the bleachers. Military emphasis in PE, and a year or two of Universal Compulsary Military service for Men and Women after age 16. Free up room in prisons by immediately decriminalizing all **victimless crimes**.
3. For Chrissake, lets not try to be more like China, unless the idea of a corrupt pseudo-capitalist oligarchy where a few privleged elite send the working class to die in hellish conditions for shit wages, then buy their kids iphones and a good education. I mean, we’re a bit too close to that already.
I’m retired and so is hubby but it is an exciting time for young people like my 2 yrs old grandson
People collecting welfare are the only ones with money anymore. Seems like the best marketable skill would be translating ebonics into human English.
I think the reasons our nation is failing are very complex. Between media that outright lights and spins those lies as truth, to a failing educational system, (last I checked we were ranked 25th in the world). There are a lot of broken pieces, the electoral college, which detracts from our actual rights to vote. Politicians who are all bought regardless of party affiliation. I could easily go on, but starting with education is perhaps the best move that can be made. Make college more affordable, implore more creativity in schools, and above all make a central theme to the majority of classes be critical thinking. It is one of the best skills a person can have, beside effective communication and applicable and marketable skill sets.
1. Futile attempts at child rearing. I think the increasing number of two income families has increased the number of children who spend more time at a day care or tucked away in a school system than they do with their parents. In my opinion, that is simply not the way to raise children. Period. In short, I think we need more homemakers and child rearers.
2. The education system is definitely flawed. @unflii has great points in his/her comment above. I agree with all of these points. I don’t think that is the extent of the problem in our education system, but it is a very good start.
3. The HUGE disconnect between what is good for America (as a society and as human beings) and what the media shoves down our throats. But the media is just a symptom. In short, I think some of the capitalistic elements of our economy are way way out of control.
no
I don’t often recommend reality shows, but I feel that some of them do represent the human desire to get something by working hard for it. I don’t watch “Gold Rush” regularly, but those are some determined, hard-working guys. Especially that teenager who is running his grandfather’s mine, trying to save it. He’s seventeen, he runs all the heavy equipment, works 12 hour days, fixes equipment…he respects and loves his grandfather. You might sneer at “Swamp People,” but those guys and women work hard and don’t complain about it. “Truckers” is the same. These people say right to us that you have to work to get what you want, to earn respect and self-respect. The female driver, Lisa, is the most determined person I’ve ever seen on TV. I don’t know just how much of what happens on these shows is staged, but if we could get the complainers, the “things are worse than ever” people, the “everybody is useless, stupid and lazy,” people to see some of these shows and hear from those people who actually do manual work for a living and are proud to do it, maybe they would be a little inspired to follow suit. Forget “Survivor,” “Real Housewives,” “Teen Mom.” They are examples of how not to behave and how not to treat each other. People say that you can’t learn anything from watching TV. I beg to differ.
Yes, only Mexicans speak Spanish.
I think we will fail as long as we keep focusing on our fear, prejudices and stupid political arguments and not on advancing ourselves as a nation. ALL of us.
When the world ends later this year, none of this will matter. Duh.
@Shadowrunner81 - That’s what you get for leaving the education of children to the government.
“They would be studying Chinese and not Spanish.”
I like this sentence. Maybe I can teach you Chinese.
Schools have been messing up education with
“working in groups” (which tends to be a bad way to learn for many,
since only so many ideas can be come up with, peer pressure is pretty
inhibitive and people tend to underperform), putting people on a regimen
of learning (I don’t know about you, but I have picked up any learning that stuck on my own). And so on; the list of bad strategies used in standardized schooling is relatively lengthy.
What about kids being allowed to learn whatever the hell they want to learn, independently? That’s where home comes in in the modern system, and a few dedicated parents can really make a difference in a kid’s life by exposing the child to stimuli that offer the child a chance to grow in whatever direction, maybe narrowing it down as the child shows a general trend of interest(s).
You can expose children to programming languages, Chinese, or any other subject, but pressing them won’t work when they genuinely aren’t interested, because they probably won’t care enough about these subjects to pursue them when they get older, or they might deal with them dutifully but fail to be great, and it will have been a waste of their potential. The important point is that the child engage thoroughly in something they enjoy that isn’t going to harm people, playing to their individual strengths in life; this enables them to build a specialized or semi-specialized skill set, which can be extended in many possible directions as they get older. (Personally, I enjoy sciences and academic pursuits, but I would be happy to see a child of mine grow up to be a competent politician, a craftsman, a professional martial artist or athlete, or anything else they can make a life out of.)
The other part of my answer, I guess, is that assuming such “competition” and a need for being “useful” under the system is short-sighted. The world is a diverse place, and it doesn’t make sense to me that everyone everywhere will have generally the same disposition towards things, making only a limited amount of life paths viable. I was allowed to travel on my own from a young age, I have always been an observer of people, and I have seen and learned a lot about different ways of living, and I would like to provide such an education for a child of mine. I do somehow manage to get by in the world, but don’t know if I “have the skills” you’re talking about.
“Why would you teach kids to communicate in Spanish when Mexicans are all poor?”
I don’t get it… shouldn’t you go and fix something about the poor instead of blocking communication with them?
By the way, Spanish and Chinese are part of the same skill-set, if from
two different language branches; the likelihood seems greater that
someone who is interested in foreign languages in the first place may
enjoy picking up either language. Spanish may be less of a challenge to a
native English speaker who isn’t.
This post is way too overgeneralized to take seriously. Also if you learn Spanish, you are given access to an entire continent to make your livelihood, not just Mexico.
No but I am a survivor so I will scrape by somehow. Maybe I will become a Male Stripper…LOL….I will do what I got to do.
Did you also know that now in alot of schools (all in my state) they have quit teaching them cursive. Signatures anyone? Its like oh its ok, your not going to be writing soon since everything is on the internet, we need you to type everything.
I think we are all screwed and need to board the space ship to mars and surrender our brains, or what is left of them now.
Hello, I found you on the group Grown Ups with… I liked your thoughts. I agree, we are not equipping our children with the best education that is needed in our evolving world. Yes, we cannot blame any politician, nor even the school system in and of itself. We, as parents have a responsibility that cannot be continually fostered onto others, be it the school or elsewhere. We have to take the blame in a lot of ways. It has to start at home.
I don’t agree with your thought of not teaching them Spanish, at least for the reason you gave. Poor or not, it doesn’t matter. Languages should be taught, if not in the school then offered as something at home and very early on in their education. Not just Chinese either. How about Latin? There are lots of reasons why our children should have a more rounded and ratcheted up education to be able to compete in a world 20 years in the future. There are lots of programs out there to help a parent do that if the schools do not. I do not agree that learning of anything should be based on poverty or wealth. I mean no disrespect but in my opinion that is biased.
I’ll look forward to reading more from you.
Namaste,
Barbi
I agree that children in school should be learning Mandarin. Or at least be given the option to. In elementary to middle school, we only had French or Spanish, and they both seem pretty useless to me right now. I took Japanese in high school, and it’s been immensely helpful in work. I also think my generation’s mathematics and science skills are seriously pathetic. We need to concentrate on those fields.
@TiredSoVeryTired - No. Not all Chinese people are poor. There’s a huge amount of wealth in China, and it’s still booming. If you go to Beijing, you’ll find more luxury cars driving around (I’m talking about Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Aston Martins, Bentleys) than you’ll find in the richest part of Manhattan.
I think people should learn skills that don’t involve electricity.
I do, but we fail because we no longer value freedom and Liberty. That’s why each american owes the federal government over $1,135,000.
No I don’t but I am a survivor so I will survive somehow.
I think some schools aren’t strict enough and go too easy on students. some of my high school teachers literally gave away most of the answers and told students what to study for yet some still managed to get low grades
and some girl in my biology class actually failed the 10 question quiz where we only had to memorize 10 simple definitions
some seem to be too busy messing around and not take their education seriously, because they can still pass with average grades. make it so they must have at least a B grade to pass in each class
nearly anyone can get a diploma even if they barely meet the requirements. then they might fail college because they weren’t properly prepared. bootcamp their spoiled asses.
The elementary school in our district teaches mandarin, which excites me for my children!
it’s need time ,heh
I think the role that school should play is teaching people how to think and broadening their mind, not giving them a narrow skill set. Not everything we learn in school can be immediately applied in our lives post-grad, but the fact that we had to grow and learn to wrap out mind around new ideas will always be of benefit to us.
I have a nursing degree – which is a skill I can use anywhere, coz we are never going to run out of sick people, are we? But I’m not using that skill right now, so it’s quickly disappearing. (Gave it up for a comfy desk job). Even so, I don’t think I have the appropriate social skills and networking skills to make it succesfully through the next 20 years!
Please, please, please, in your curriculae, include critical analysis. One of the biggest reasons we as a society are failing is because people don’t exercise critical analysis skills.
Also you should include empathy. As a society, we have become so individualistic that we cannot understand what or how a person thinks or feels. That also is one of society’s chief failings.
@curiousdwk - How do you teach someone empathy? It seems to be a personality characteristic that you either have or don’t; perhaps you mean that people should stop discouraging empathy?
As for critical analysis (assuming you mean the same as “critical thinking”, maybe up a notch): I have read that it can be taught in a given area (linked to, say, analyzing literature, or using scientific methodology), since there are specific things to look for or ways to do it, but that it is relatively difficult to teach to someone as a general skill. Again, I think the best thing to do here would be to get any blocking factors (disencouragement of questioning attitudes, etc.) out and let people develop naturally.
Empathy is a skill – actually the greatest skill in the toolbox for Interpersonal Intelligence. (See Multiple Intelligences) As a skill, it can be taught just like all other skills. Yes, some may have more innate than others, but everyone has it. And everyone can develop it just like music. Music is an intelligence and music skills can and must be developed. People may have more or less music intelligence, but everyone has some and everyone can develop what they do have. (Empathy is actually taught in many Bully Projects as they have found that many schoolyard bullies are low in empathy. But they can be taught and so they can improve their interpesonal skills.)
Critial analysis is basically the art and science of asking the right questions. Not just any questions, but the right questions. So instead of parroting what some dusty book says, or some guru, or whatever, a person asks the necessary questions so that it makes sense according to his worldview in such a way that he can describe/explain it to someone else so it makes sense. This is called fitting the world into one’s objective reality rather than just keeping it within himself for his own subjective reality.
Many/most social and political arguments would be cleared if people asked the right questions rather than just accepting what is said by a politician or a Catholic Pope or minister or guru. Critical thinking is independent thinking but using the tools of logic rather than subjective criteria for explanations.
I agree that as a nation we are failing. I’m a computer programmer. That means coding, testing and debugging. With all the canned products out there to make life easier for web designers, they can’t ‘code’. So they rely on me to get the job done. This is how convenience hurts education. You don’t have to learn it because it’s all been simplified for you (drag ‘n’ drop). Use to be that you needed html to design a web page. Not anymore. Someone’s made it easy for you at your educational expense.
First comment: Why learn Spanish? Why should I? It’s not necessary as you say. There’s no money here. These peope make on average $12.50 per day (lower-classes) and they work like dogs for their Mexican employers 6 days a week. I live in Mexico and I see the problems that pervade Mexican culture in terms of learning. Mexicans generally don’t like to read, and additionally, they don’t finish the jobs completely. And they allow social problems to fester. They don’t trust the police or their government. So why do I live here? Because it works for me, it’s cheap (the economy) and the weather’s great and the people as a whole are generally nice. I don’t teach english here because they can’t afford me. Number one rule of teaching: the teacher never works harder than the student. Indeed, I tried to teach English here in the beginning, but they soon quit because they couldn’t do the required diligent studying. (This problem does not seem to be evident in the bigger cities of Mexico where education is better.). And in China, they just gobble-up english learning. Two different attitudes toward learning.
I know basic chinese (spoken cantonese and 6 of the 9 tones) as well as basic spanish…and some french. I used to teach english in China at an all Chinese school so it was a necessity to learn some Cantonese to be able to communicate the grammar differences in their native language. TOEFL wasn’t a big help. And Yes, you want to earn money? Get connected with a Chinese company…if you can. One day you will be washing their shirts.
America has lost it’s edge by a wide margin, in many ways. It makes me sick that the people who make laws can’t see it, or it’s not in their best interests ($$$) to do anyting about it. It’s a sinking ship. The best way to educate your children is to instill in them some talent or skill that no government can tax, or demand a license to use, and get them working via the internet with international clients. That’s what I do. My current clients reside in London, UK.
America no longer works for me. Government of, by, and for the people…my ass! And it’s not to say that Chinese society is perfect. No. It too has it’s problems, but you can sure make money in some countries in Asia.
@curiousdwk -
“Empathy is a skill
– actually the greatest skill in the toolbox for Interpersonal
Intelligence. (See Multiple Intelligences)”
I found a page explaining the Multiple Intelligences Theory and took a brief look through it; it was not a system I was familiar with. I am not sure how much
stock I can put in something that appears to be an arbitrary
categorization of skills people develop. I haven’t had time to do deeper research, though, so:
What is the
foundation of the theory? Can it predict with reasonable accuracy how someone very young will develop? Or is it intended to be mostly descriptive?
From Wikipedia: Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share
feelings (such as sadness or happiness) that are being experienced by
another sentient or semi-sentient being.
I’ll grant that maybe you can teach someone to recognize emotions in other people, if you teach them what different facial expressions and things mean. What else is taught, though? Can you teach kids much about feelings? Can you teach kids the meaning or importance of feeling? Can you teach most kids to grasp empathy? Are kids trained in moral tenets? Etc…
From personal experience, I was a secluded, unaffected child who rarely disturbed anyone but I had little understanding of empathy whatsoever until far later in my life, when I learned more about emotions themselves, thought about their basis, and so forth; same goes for morals, as I reasoned out the golden rule for myself only in early adolescence.
“Critical analysis
is basically the art and science of asking the right questions.”
I have a different idea of what analysis means; I consider it whatever method you use to break apart a mental construction into its consistuents to better understand it. I would call your idea “critical questioning”, while critical analysis would seem to me to do this breakdown to get to the point of the matter. Nitpick aside, I’m accepting your definition of it for now:
“So instead of parroting
what some dusty book says, or some guru, or whatever, a person asks the
necessary questions so that it makes sense according to his worldview
in such a way that he can describe/explain it to someone else so it
makes sense.”
Why is description or explanation to others a necessary part of analysis? It can prove the fact that something has been analyzed by the person, but strictly speaking, it appears to be the icing on the cake, not the cake itself?
“This is called fitting the world into one’s objective
reality rather than just keeping it within himself for his own
subjective reality.”
I don’t quite get what you mean by “fitting the world into one’s objective reality” in the first place. The external world -is- objective reality already, isn’t it? By understanding something, do you not bring what you understood into the -subjective- realm, and what about the nature of the communication about it that you share with others, does it not potentially create a subjective, shared vision of reality between people? Common context? I don’t think of people as inherently objective creatures…I don’t know, maybe I’m missing something here.
Anyhow, I’d like an example or explanation, once again, of how you would teach a child critical analysis. If I saw your methodology, I think I would be able to glean a better understanding of your technique and what it actually entails. What -are- the right questions? I have a lot of questions when I consider something, which enables me to find for myself a more complete understanding of things, but I don’t know if that counts by your standards.
“Critical thinking is independent thinking but using the tools of
logic rather than subjective criteria for explanations.”
Teaching this would seem to involve introducing mental tools and teaching people how to think, which is an approach I would expect only some people to really take to, and a lot of people might forget after they leave logic class. I kind of wonder if thinking can be independent if it is leaning directly on and using the tools of others, but if that only provides a foundation, it can definitely grow to be independent.
Umm..sorry, rambled.