Education Rant
I know everyone is focused on health care reform but it is the education system in the U.S. that is in critical condition. Mass High Tech published my Education Rant in this month’s It’s Saul About Innovation. Let’s go. The student is waiting.
“Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire” W.B. Yeats
Excuse the rant but I am outraged by the state of the U.S. education system. We have let the pilot light go out and we are failing our youth. Particularly egregious is the way we are failing our urban youth.
We must refocus our national and regional innovation conversation on how to solve real world problems. Job number one is to design a better education system that lights a fire for every youth, creating lifelong passionate learners. It is time to move beyond public policy debates and institutional rugby scrums to try new solutions. What we are doing now isn’t working, and far too much of the federal stimulus investment in education is being spent to sustain the current system.
[...] I know everyone is focused on health care reform but it is the education system in the U.S. that is in critical condition. Mass High Tech published my Education Rant in this month’s It’s Saul About Innovation. Let’s go. …Read More [...]
You’re absolutely correct. We have shied away from competition and we are resting on our past laurels.
Although both sides / factions in this debate (about what went wrong with the US education system) are entitled to their positions, I seriously doubt that any one side is fully or primarily responsible for what is occurring here in our society at this point. It’s probably 50/50 or 51/49 at worst. However, I am reasonably sure that continuing to argue and fight about it, without actually addressing the underlying root problems, will not advance anyone’s interests. We should all Try Harder.
Hear hear for your suggestion on listening to students. This is such a simple, obvious way to get the most important stakeholders in education on board. We can’t improve education unless we include students in the conversation. It’s not impossible, it just takes a commitment to youth voice and empowerment. We are wasting so much talent, energy and passion that many young people would happily apply to improving education for themselves and their peers.
It’s also not hard to see that this same commitment would help create the engaged global citizens of the 21st century that we hope for.