I believe that the United States needs to rebuild its educational system from the ground up. One should not need a bachelor's - or even a master's - degree to find entry-level work in either the public or private sector. I think we should arrange things so that you have a foundation of practical skills such as the classic
Three R's, critical-thinking, the more useful bits of the liberal-arts core that high schools still dish out, and some relevant vocational skills
(ie how to read a schematic, how to perform some basic Excel calculations, how to communicate effectively, how to operate an electric drill) -
such that you are employable in entry-level work. It takes some time and experience for young adults to figure out what they want to do with their careers, so let secondary education wait until it becomes both personally and professionally
relevant before committing the time money and effort to it.
The primary education system should not stand still either. Its vocational skills should be updated regularly so they remain relevant to what the public and private sectors are demanding.
Of course, this sort of change will be inconvenient to the massive secondary education industry in the US, which is one of the larger sources of debt behind mortgages and cars. Sadly, the industry can't explain why its costs have risen so dramatically while the benefits it offer have simultaneously shrunk alarmingly. It needs primary education to continue to be marginal "college prep" in order to keep peddling the dream of a better life.
Perhaps the secondary education system needs to be pulled into this initiative - some of what I'm describing is offered by community/junior colleges to high school students in exceptional cases... these should be more the norm. As a transitional period, we should allow students that are bored out of their skulls and being effectively held back by the slow plodding pace of primary education to enter secondary education at an early age
as a matter of course.
George Santayana
'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'
Norm
Indeed - but rote memorization is pretty useless if you don't understand some of the
Big Ideas at play when significant events occurred... and with the mere presentation of these
Big Ideas becoming increasingly controversial, they're often omitted or slanted in favor of those interested enough to apply pressure on local educators.