The Education Process
What exactly is the education process? During the very early stages of life, much of what we need to learn is taught by our parents. Learning to walk, talk, go to the bathroom, and getting dressed by ourselves are most commonly taught to us by family members. Once these basics are mastered, usually by the age of 4 or 5, more advanced teachings begin. This process of being educated by non-family members, dates back to over a thousand years before the birth of the United States of America. Learning to read, write, and have basic math skills at increasing stages, were the cornerstone of this process.
Let us skip to the present. For simplicity purposes, assume a previously unknown and uninhabited area of land was discovered and a large group of young families decided to move there completely removed from other jurisdictions. In order to establish a functioning community, homes would need to be built, food would need to be grown, and the children would need to be educated. The new settlers might conclude that with all the things that need to be done, they need an efficient way to further the education of their children. They then all get together and choose to delegate educating everybody’s children to someone with the skills to do so. As a result, they would then have their first teacher.
As time progresses, the new region’s population gets larger and larger, necessitating more teachers and classrooms. As the scope of the education system grows larger, these citizens feel the need to oversee the education process by electing a school board to do so. In theory, this school board will make sure the children are being effectively educated. As part of this oversight, the school board acknowledges that it is unfair for teachers to dedicate themselves without their own compensation to allow them to have a roof over their heads and afford food for their families. The citizens agree to all chip in to pay for this (aka school taxes). Then over a hundred years ago, teachers were not happy with school boards dictating what fair compensation should be, so teachers’ unions were then formed to collectively negotiate teachers’ wages. School boards then needed to create administrative teams to negotiate employment terms with the unions.
Fast forward to today. Teachers’ unions have parlayed their ever-increasing collective bargaining power to dictate terms of their presence to the parental taxpayers of their respective districts, while completely losing sight of the fact that they work FOR the parental taxpayers. Highly effective teachers cannot be paid more than their non-effective counterparts. Removing ineffective teachers is almost impossible. School boards, elected by the taxpayers to act in their children’s best interests, have lost sight of their primary responsibilities, which is, most importantly, to teach the children to become highly functioning adults at a reasonable cost to taxpayers.
Whether they like it or not, teachers are employees. In essence, their employer is the school board which is supposed to represent the wishes of their parental taxpayers who elected them. Logically, employees are not to dictate terms of employment to their employers. Imagine if US mail carriers decided to only deliver mail Tuesdays and Saturdays instead of the required Monday-Saturday? As an employee, it is not in your job description to discuss your personal life and beliefs. No student needs to be burdened with your personal struggles or preferences. When you enter that classroom, your sole job is to teach your students the skill sets to think and learn for themselves. They do not need to know what you had for breakfast or any personal struggles.
As for the current status of the education system, The Tyber Lustig Foundation can think of no other industry that has experienced LESS technological productivity improvements. Teacher/student ratios have barely budged. There has been zero effort in the area to expose highly effective teachers to a much broader base and compensate them accordingly. Getting a highly effective teacher versus an ineffective one remains at the mercy of the luck of the draw. It does not, nor should not, be that way. Our foundation hopes to raise enough money to provide the highest educational content for all age groups for FREE.
Additionally, the variety of available course subjects is also outdated. Even at the college level, ask any college graduate how many courses actually helped them in adulthood, the honest answer would be very few. Even before getting to high school, students should have very proficient reading, communication, and comprehensive basic math skills. If number-oriented professions like being an accountant has no use for advanced calculus, most of the rest of the population certainly doesn’t. Even allocating financial resources to physical education courses in this day and age makes zero sense. Why not reallocate those financial resources to the much more important subject matter of mental health which would include physical fitness as a component of a person’s wellbeing? Is learning to do a correct chin up more important than learning how to cope with the ups and downs of everyday life? If physical education is that important to some, it is not exactly like there is a shortage of available local gym facilities or youth sports organizations at a fraction of the cost in today’s world.
While the need to upgrade the K-12 education system is obvious, the colleges of today are completely off course in so many ways. The sales pitch that a ‘formal” college education is critical to becoming happy and successful in life is BS. College diplomas have evolved into the most expensive participation trophies on earth. The current conversation of eliminating student loans for certain graduates is shameful. Bottom line is that you willingly entered into a contract to borrow money to pay for a moronically high tuition that you are obligated to pay back. The time to worry about repayment was to be done BEFORE you signed on the bottom line. It is nobody’s fault but your own if you elected to enroll in a bunch of useless classes. The real question should be, in this era of amazing technological productivity advancements, why are tuition costs so ridiculously high?
The aforementioned comments on college costs highlight the need for courses in personal responsibility in high school. Throw in some courses that teach common sense and mental health while we are at it. At some point students need to start to figure out what they intend to do to earn a livelihood. Some figure this out sooner than others. Ideally, it should be in an area that suits your personal skill sets. As a society we are currently experiencing an unprecedented shortage of skilled workers. We need machine operators, brick layers, plumbers, electricians, mechanics, etc. Trade schools are excellent alternatives for many people. For certain professions college is necessary, such as becoming a doctor or a lawyer. But keep in mind, going to medical school or law school and then serving a fellowship or an internship is basically the same as attending a trade school and then serving an apprenticeship. It is just unfortunate that those professions, for whatever reasons, are held in higher social esteem than other valuable and needed professions.
The Tyber Lustig Foundation wants to help all people focus on their own personal livelihood goals.
