Compulsory education, or our obligation to go to school in the U.S., was set into motion state by state starting in 1852. For the time, the mandate was beneficial- It helped to educate America’s youth, especially emmigrant youth.This was in the day where no child of schooling age wanted to learn. However, nowadays things have changed.
Being a highschool student, I can tell you that there are plenty of unmotivated, irresponsible, and obtuse (As in failing their classes, and at that, their life.) peers in my freshman class, in both an academic and common sense setting. If I had to give percentages of each grouping of students, I would say that they compose around 45% of my class. Average people compose around 30% of my class. And my grouping, the above-average GT students, compose the remaining 25%.
The problem with our education system is that we teach our students to the mean of what they can handle. This is a pretty good idea in theory, but in practice it almost never works. This is due to the striking contrast of the student body, on a national level. (Trust me, I’ve lived in 4 states all on opposite sides of the country. It’s the same everywhere.)
In essence, people like me who have a burning passion for exploration and discovery; for learning- who absorb information quickly are left behind those of other countries because of three things:
1.) There are compulsory mandates in effect which make it so that students who do not care for education and would rather go to a vocational school for a year are forced to go to school anyway.
2.) Said students distract the rest of the class and prevent teachers from doing their jobs.
3.) The U.S teaches to a mean. Coinciding with problem 1, this prevents students from excelling all the way until high school. Even then, at my current high school, there are restrictions on what classes I can take that are advanced. (Ex., Math II is easy. Extraordinarily easy. But I can’t take Math III because it “would be too much”)
The resolution to this massive problem is simple- to drop compulsory education and to teach to an advanced level. Not the mean of failing students, and to open a vocational school system that would teach to our students for a few years the profession of their choosing. This would ultimately lead to a more diverse and talented workforce.
So, that’s my rather thought-provoking take of our education system that might fix the problematic commonalities we observe in our nations schools; but I would enjoy your input as well. Feel free to comment with what you think and possible solutions for tomorrow’s workers.