As many Americans know, we are still in the grip of this financial crisis. Our politicians promise to improve the economy by bringing more jobs back from overseas, throwing money at the work for welfare programs, and lowering taxes for the "Job Creators" corporations. The problem with this idea is that the root of the problem is not being looked at; and I believe that the root of the problem lies in how we educate our citizens.
I believe that the way we catch up technologically with the rest of the developed world is revolutionize our current education system. To do this, we need to start with how we educate our children. Our system currently works like this: At the age of five or six, we send children off to kindergarten. From there they advance from grade one to five learning basic math, reading and writing, as well as Physical Education. From there they advance to middle school from grades six to eight; learning pre-algebra, and science classes. Finally they advance to high school where they advance from grade nine to twelve. From there they are released into the real world to fend for themselves; some of them heading to college to continue their education (where they learn about critical thinking), while others head out to the work field and try to make a living with the very basic education they've received in school. More often than not, a high school diploma is pretty much worthless. This leads to people going to a four year college, accumulating massive debt, and spending the next half of their lives paying off student loans. And now with the current economy, the question rises: "Is it worth getting into debt?". Many people will answer this question with an emphatic "No! It's not really worth it!" So what do we do? How do we improve our education system to the point where it is valuable again?
I believe that education starts at the home at a very early age. There is no reason that a child should be entering their first years of school not knowing basic mathematics, reading and writing. Grades one to five should cover pre-algebra, science, a language class (e.g. Spanish, French, German, etc... Not a dead language like Latin), health and physical education, etc. The earlier these children learn the basics, the better. When the student advances to grade six to eight, the subjects they take should act as an introduction to what field of study they may want to focus on when they get to high school. Advance mathematics, science, art, music, health studies, social and political science, a history should be introduced here. When the Student advances to high school, they should then be separated into schools that focus on their fields of interests. For example, a student who is interested in science while in Middle or Transitional school would attend a high school that is focused on Science and Engineering. So say this student goes to a school of science and engineering, he'll find that this school has programs that would branch to all disciplines of science; if he wants to be a biologist, his syllabus would match the type of courses he should take, for example. If the same student finds that he has an affinity to art or music, his studies and education should reflect his talents, and his high school should accommodate this.
I believe this taps into the idea I have for changing the way we learn, and the way we seek employment in the future. In the second Presidential debate, President Obama made a statement about how the jobs that we shipped to China are lost to us, and that we shouldn't be looking for those type of jobs to return. I agree that these aren't the jobs Americans should be seeking, but the question remains: how are we going to replenish the jobs we've lost? The answer lies in leaving the industrial way of educating, and embracing the technological way. I believe that in doing this, we expand our fields in technology; and could eventually compete with countries with a technological superiority, like Japan. One day I'd like to hear that electronics made in the USA are of equal to better quality to Japanese products. When you have a society who can focus on their talents, and are trained to do so at a very early age, the level of innovation can sky rocket.
What about college? I believe that college should be free for the students and paid for by the government. Think of it as an investment for the future industries of America. The way I would design these free colleges would be to have it ran much like public schools where teachers would get paid by the government. However, instead of being funded by local governments, it could be funded by the combination of local, State, and federal governments. So instead of grants being issued by these governmental branches, these colleges are funded by the three, and the professors get a salary from the government. So instead of the grants going to waste to students who may eventually drop out of college, the money goes to the professors regardless of the individual students personal ambitions.
Once we have this generation of free thinkers and innovators trained, we can have them tackle some of the bigger issues with the environment, renewable energy, and the next generation of technology.
