We Are Free to Choose Many Paths to our Success

When I hear a multitude of public speakers claim that America needs to produce more engineers or similar professions I think it is the wrong message for an entire group.  I also do not understand why American students are compared to Chinese students.  How many of us have lived in China (a closed society) and experienced life as a student?  I am friends with several people who have up close and personal knowledge of their life there.  There, the students go to school six days a week.  And they go at night as well as day.  In order for Americans to emulate this, the school day and year would need to be much longer than it is...among other changes as well.

It has also been observed that other countries are producing more and more data collectors.  That is something I have seen within the school system here.  The “bean counters” in the administrative offices are counting the test data of our students.  How many students passed the big test at the end of the year (and all the other tests too)?  Many teachers are being graded on that “success”.  There is no grade for the student who just arrived in the class one month prior from a different school.  There is no grade for a student who improved so much between August and April, but didn’t score high enough on the Big Test.  There is no removal of that child from an American public school to eliminate him/her from the data.

We need to remember that China screens students and also guides them to the area they would excel as an adult according to their data .  United States’ public schools teach whomever walks in the door.  China will not include the brightest students in the school’s test scores—those students are guided to a trade, which will best serve their country.  In their high school, there is one big test and if it is not passed there is no entry to college.  At all.

I also do not agree with the messages I hear every day that every child should go to college and therefore that is the path to achievement.  I live in a community of many cultures.  The students in my sons’ schools have parents who speak 40 different languages (this is regular public school and this is the South and this is a metro area which is actually more diverse than you would imagine).  Many students’ parents arrived in the United States with nothing and now have their own businesses and their children will work to help the family.  Maybe they will get a college degree but their parents’ success without a college degree should be recognized.

At high school here the required courses are offered in several levels, such as “basic”, “honors” and “gifted”.  What is the basic level called?  College Prep.  I don’t agree with that.  It is called that because the courses are designed that if they are passed, those are the requirements for college (4 years of math, 2 years of foreign language, etc.).  The high school drop out rate is higher than we realize.  And where is the technical path anymore?  Shouldn’t we offer trade learning?  I am not seeing job availability for engineers and architects but I am seeing successful plumbers, electricians, and more.  And the South will always need residential and commercial A/C companies.

And don’t even get me started on the too-high cost of a four year college.  There are so many paths to success and I hope that more students and families can know the value of a beginning at a two-year college after high school or a trade or a combo.  We know some local high school girls who do not score well on tests who have learning disabilities.  However these girls have incredible personalities and can speak well and interact socially.  I know they will be successful even though this is not reflected in an SAT score.   It is frustrating to see more and more value placed on bean counters and data.

So much to say about Education--I am so glad that Gretchen chose it for today's Spin Cycle theme.