American Education: What Went So Terribly Wrong?

There are probably at least a dozen different speculations that could be offered as to why American education is such a train-wreck.  My personal belief is that, because our political system has a short-term view of success, our elected “leaders” refuse to invest in anything that doesn’t bring them immediate glory. 

Educating children whose parents can’t afford private school means sinking funds to initiatives whose success will require a decade or so to prove themselves.  When they do, however, they will mean less crime, less addiction, reduced costs and misery associating with building and operating prisons, stronger families with better values, more lucrative careers, better parenting, a larger tax base–a never-ending virtuous cycle.   Yet there is no personal gain that accrues to the brave architects of such plans.

Education isn’t the only casualty of this phenomenon, btw.  This is the reason that we have a federal government that is aggressively stripping away environmental protections: there are profits to be made in the short-term, and by the time the long-term consequences of this insanity are felt, the perpetrators will be long gone, off destroying some other facet of our society for their own gain.

Suggested in the meme here, however, is another interesting point.  “Making people uncomfortable” is the entire point of “To Kill a Mockingbird”; it’s the reason the book has enduring value to our culture.  Perhaps being uncomfortable is a part of life that should be confronted rather than sidestepped; it’s certainly an unavoidable part of a quality education.

Science requires humility, and the courage to realize that what you once thought you knew was completely incorrect.  That’s not a feel-good experience, but it’s the only thing propelling human understanding forward.  Similarly, one’s success in every other academic discipline demands critical thinking, a willingness to discard the crap we’ve been told in favor of an uneasy truth.

We live in an Amazon Prime existence: exactly what we want, delivered immediately, at the click of a mouse.  What we’re learning is that there are things in life that simply don’t function that way.