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I recently finished a book that made an impression on me. The title is "Rich Dad, Poor Dad".

The basic premise is that while the American educational system does a fine job of training students to become employees of big corporations, they do very little for the student who wants to run his own business or in life skills in general.

I am inclined to agree. I believe that a semester of double entry accounting basics (with a week on checkbook balancing), followed by courses in insurance, consumer credit, taxes, investments, real estate forms and basic business law would be more useful to the majority of students than calculus - or even algebra 2.

Has anyone read it? Comments?

Actually our educational system appears to prepare people for little beyond knowing how to unroll a condom or who is raping the environment or how to feel good about themselves.

Every day I encounter people who cannot spell simple words, multiply two single digit numbers without a calculator, or logically think their way out of a paper bag. If I am being to hard on our system please let me know why.

Steve makes some good points and I think his emphasis is in the right place. Self reliance.

Folks, have you been in a high school classroom, lately?

Reality does not dwell therein!

Many of the books are lousy. Not just bad, horrible. They tend to lean towards "total immersion" education without first explaining to the kids what the "water" is. The students memorize realms of information, yet learn very little. I guess they figure if you throw enough mud at a wall, some of it has to stick.

I think Steve has made a very valid point. Teach basics. Well. When a child graduates from a public school, he should have a good grasp of our economic system, the rudiments of starting or running a small business and how to handle personal finances. He should have a basic grasp of our governmant and how it operates. He should have a firm grounding in the English language and be able to write a decent sentence. He should have a basic understanding of science and the scientific process. He should know at least the rudiments of Algebra and Trigonometry.

Secondary education, public or private, should prepare the student to begin life as an adult. If the student's aims are to further his education in college, he should have enough basic academic background to succeed. If his aims are to begin a vocational career, such as an aprentice electrician, high school should have supplied him with enough simple geometry and algebra to bend pipe. If his aim is to start a small business, he should have been exposed to enough business courses in school that he understands the challenges facing him.

If a child has a good grounding in the basics, the employer has something to build on, or the individual has something to build on. Trying to start out in life without the educational essentials is like planting a tree with damaged roots. It may grow, but it takes longer to become established.

I have to disagree with you Steve. Major disagreement.

On of the problems I see in the current school curricula is that we keep putting new things on the schools to teach. So, now Steve wants us to add entrepreneurialship and how to balance a check book and analyze what type of life insurance to have. I don't buy it.

The schools, with our tax dollars already are the training ground for too much of Amercian industry, from engineering and accounting schools to sports programs. Any voc ed type education is nothing more than a subsidy for the industry the students are being trained to enter. This is OK; but we must see it for what it is -- the government giving industry workers.

For too long now, the American system has been defined in economic not political terms. We have defined what kids need to learn by what will be helpful to them in getting a job or to become a good contributing consumer or to create a nice stable homelife. And in the worst cases to become adherents with a certain religious moral system, even if we do not say openly what that system is.

Don't get me wrong, these are nice and good things to learn. But it is not what our kids need to live and and contribute to a democracy (OK representative democracy).

Is it necessary for kids to learn to solve quadratic equations? Probably not. Is it important for them to learn the mental discipline needed to solve such equations. Yes! Because then they will have the mental discipline to wade their way through government and business and special interest propoganda.

Is it necessary for kids to appreciate poetry? Probably not. Is it necessary for them to learn how undertake critical analysis? Yes. Because then they can take a critical look at what Hollywood and Madison Avenue and Washington are placing before them and decide if it has validity or is just nicely packaged.

We live in a time where the average American blindly accepts reports from battlefields where no unfettered news coverage is allowed. And yet many of us recall very well the lies of Viet Nam and Desert Storm. We live in a time when the Attorney General takes on to himself the right to hold people in unlimited detention and to limit trials by jury through secret military tribunals and issue orders to reduce other freedoms. And yet, many of us are old enough to remember when Richard Nixon herded political protestors into RFK stadium to stop their protests and used the full force of the Federal Government to go after and destroy his political enemies.

Amercian capitalism and the American economic system are wonderful things. But they are so only because we live in a democracy.

Steve suggests we alter the curriculum in the schools to teach the kids another way of becoming a viable part of the economic system. I suggest it be altered to make them viable, contributing involved citizens in a democracy -- the economic system will take care of itself if we do.

But then, it is better for the power structure and those who want the status quo if the children are made into cogs, instead of thinking people.

Terrific post, George! And we don't really disagree at all - not on the major stuff.



Time is the enemy in our schools. So much knowlege to impart, so little time. So many conflicting goals. The best the schools can do is an overview, but an overview of what?



And this is the point of the book. Feeling as you do, I suggest you read it - it will speak to you. The schools are a training ground for industry workers and little else. Trouble is, only a select few ever make it all the way through college to become these workers, and those that do often find themselves at the mercy of what has become of the corporate structure in this country. They are left with little but a diploma and a prayer if they can not find a corporation to carry them.



No disagreement there. I believe this focus puts those students who are bound for the trades for example, or other non-corporate endeavors at a distinct disadvantage. The military has figured this out, and now routinely teaches their recruits the rudimentary basics of checkbook baslancing, consumer credit and the like. They can handle a rifle, but credit cards get them every time.



Perhaps the better way to make sure our students can wade through this propoganda is to teach them about the propaganda. About the only class I can remember from high school was a civics course. I do not think the instructor was following the approved curriculum, but I learned more useful things in that class than anywhere else. Things like "follow the money" and "trust and verify", critical analysis of advertisements and the inner workings of the political system. Excellent stuff - stuff I am passing on to my kids.



I agree with you on critical analysis, but propose that for a full and rich life one must be at least exposed to the possibilities contained in art, literature, music and all of the other glorious endeavors that humans undertake when they are not bound by the constraints of making a living. Just an exposure will do if that is all the time you have. If one of these areas lights up the student's mind, that student will seek out more on their own.



I propose that the schools could do a better job of both, but as none of these things are not easily tested (and testing is all the rage these days) thiat it will up to us as parents to pass on this knowlege.



George, you are going to LOVE this book.

[ March 09, 2002: Message edited by: Steve Miller ]

My undergrad degree was obtained from a small (1400 students), religious based, liberal arts college. While we didn't have some of the luxuries that big State U had, the school consistently turned out (and still does) outstanding citizens for the community and the nation.

A large part of our education was a core curricula that everyone had to take. It did not matter if your major was chemistry, religion, education or English, you still had to have the required number of social sciences, hard sciences, religion courses, philosophy, english and literature, arts etc. And the courses were non-substitutable. Everyone took the classes together. This gave us an enormous sense of cummunity and joint purpose.

The faculty was also outstanding. The professors were paid to teach, not research and publish. They were allowed quite a bit of academic freedom as long as the course goals were met and the students could show mastery of the subject matter. I never took a multiple choice test while in college. All tests were either "blue book", essay, fill in the blank, or problem sheets. It takes a lot more of the professor's time to grade these (and no, they didn't have grad assistants), but they could assess their student's progress much better.

What does the above have to do with public secondary education in America? As I have stated previously, I believe Education has lost its' way in our public high schools. Teachers are supposed to use sub-standard books. They must follow lesson plans that do not allow them to teach. They must try to cover more material than the average student can be expected to master, so they "dumb down" the tests, in order for the students to pass.

Perhaps we need to re-embrace the idea of a liberal arts education at the secondary level. Cut down the number of subjects, yet take the time to teach the remaining ones well. Reward the excellent teacher, and define that excellence not by the children's grades, but by what they have learned.

And at the heart of the high school diploma, indelibly fix the idea in the public mind, that in order to obtain that degree, the student must be able to begin their journey as a minimumly qualified citizen in this country. And yes, that includes paying the water bill, balancing the checkbook, and the other everyday, mundane duties they should know how to do, but many times do not.

Was it Jefferson who said that a successful democracy requires a literate populace? (I'm way paraphrasing here!). I don't think he meant by literate populace someone who can read comic books, or take in someone else's opinions without some critical evaluation. I totally agree with these posts.

On a slightly different tack, there are virtually NO courses in my kids elementary school, on basic economic and fiscal management. I believe the same is true of middle school and high school.

By that, I mean no one teaches kids what it means to buy on credit, how quickly interest rates build up, the devasation of declaring bankruptcy, how to make money through basic investments and savings accounts, basic personal fiscal responsibility. I think this is because somewhere along the way we've decided, as a society, that talking about money is crass.

But, how else are kids to learn? In my case, these lessons have to come from hubby and me. But I think it's an appropriate topic for school, even starting in elementary grades.

Nina

The problem with the education system is that the teachers are not allowed to teach the way they find works best. In most other professions, experience is valued. Teachers (at least in San Diego Unified) are being told to put aside their teaching methods and teach the way the district sees fit. When you have an ex US district attorney driving this it becomes real suspect.

As for the check book/credit stuff. Kids follow their parents lead as that is their initial role model. It's the same with education. The reason that kids in poor school districts do so poorly is not because they aren't a smart. It's because their parents don't put the emphasis on education, reading to them when they are young, checking up on their homework every night and participating in school events.

it seems that this becomes a circular problem. how are the teachers to teach what they themselves were not taught? education has been deteriorating for at least the past 30 years. that means that today's teachers didn't get the greatest education, either.

while i was lucky enough to go to one of the top public school districts in the nation, and feel i got a pretty solid foundation (before education went down the tubes while i was still in high school), i know that the kind of education all of you are talking about i didn't get in school, and i doubt anyone ever has (unless they went to some sort of elite prep school).

critical thinking and appreciation for the arts, music, and literature came from my family. i was rigorously taught--at home--how to think critically and independently. and my appreciation and love for music, art, and good books also came from the way my family immersed us in those disciplines.

nobody in schools, even in the 50s and 60s, was teaching those things.

likewise, the reason i've been so woefully ignorant about things like money management and all financial matters was because this was not where my family's interests lay. but i know lots of people who teach their children those principles starting when they are very young, because it is an important part of their values system.

you can't expect the schools to do it all. but this is not saying that our public schools need vast improvement. my graduate students at the university can't spell and don't know basic geography or history. it is a scandal.

The problem is that the teachers don't care! when I was in high school ( not too terribly long ago) my teachers would often come in drunk or not at all. if they were sober, we woulndt do anything anyways because they didnt bother to keep the classrooms under control. drug trades were common right there in the classroom. even the "good" teacher would maybe spend about half the semester teaching us, and then just fell into a pit of not caring wether we learned or not. by about febuary each year we would just watch movies in every class.
It was sad.

What a depressing story.....

This however, is why there is such a major emphasis on testing and rewards for standardize test scores these days. I think it is a lousy way to ascertain what sort of a job the teacher is doing - barfing back facts on tests is only one of many, many skills a student will need if he is to get the most out of his life.

But then I hear stories like this one, and wonder if the best we can hope for is an ability to read, spell and do basic arithmetic.

It is a shame. Our kids are capable of so much more.

Sorry Amy, but I don't believe a word of that...

Here's food for thought: School is not for the intelligent or gifted child. Teachers must teach at the pace of the slowest learner, meaning that the slow learners still may feel frustrated about the rapid learning rate and gifted students will feel frustrated about how slow things are going.

The ideal program for intellectually gifted children: home schooling and independant study

Thanks, Brendan, you made my day.

Steve, I read the book about a year ago while sitting in the hospital next to TLOML as she recovered from surgery. A friend has the game the author discusses and thought that it was extremely good for his kids. Of course, his son is now a California car salesman, so go figure. At least, he is troubled by the ethics of his profession.

Sorry, don't agree with this. The first problem is that spending 24 hours a day with anyone will drive you crazy after a while. The second problem is, that in most cases, it is very difficult to teach your own children. They know exactly which buttons to push to get you going. Children, in general seem to learn better from others (I'm assuming the others are capable teachers). Do you teach your own children the piano or send them to a teacher? Course, in that case you can choose your teacher. Hopefully others have good stories of home schooling, but out of all the kids I know that were home schooled, most turned out to be screw ups. One person I worked with ended up with both his daughters pregnant before they were 18. The best things you can do for your kids is teach things like honesty and integrity by example, throw away the TV and read to or with them, help them with their homework and make sure it is done on time, get them to bed at a decent hour, observe/help in the classroom, and throw some stuff their way that they don't get in school (like piano lessons).

I also don't agree with the teaching at the pace of the slowest child. Why should other kids be penalised because of a slow learner. This is exactly what is going on in San Diego with the famous "Blueprint for Sucess" (sorry, this is one of my hot buttons). The goal of the education system should be to educate all students, not to focus on the bottom 10% and let the others wander. The comments on the failing standard of education in the last 30 years is well noted. It's now going to be worse because the bottom 10% of students can't keep up and so the system is dumbed down further. It's also not fair to the bottom 10% - they have now been singled out. Can you imagine what happens when the rest of the kids get frustrated at the slow pace. The education system is also telling them that they deserve special treatment which they won't get once they leave high school.

The other biggest problem is testing. All the teachers do is teach the test. Why? Because their pay raises are tied to increasing test scores. Testing needs to be abolished along with multiple choice tests. One exam in each subject taken should be administered by the teacher at the end of the grade, to determine how well the student is learning and whether that student should proceed onto the next grade. This should be a written test graded by the teacher. I don't care whether Gray Davis wants to run for the White House using improvements in education as a platform. If he wants to know how well my daughter is learning he can damn well get off his rear end and come down to San Diego and ask. And no, he can't have his picture taken with her for the papers.

No, I don't have the answers, but I can point out what's not working. The teachers have many suggestions but they are ignored in someones political game.

To me, the answer to what is best for our own kids is very simple.

1. Parents need to place a premium on educating their children and become involved. If the parents find education important, the kids will also.

2. Read to the kids -- from birth. Have them read to you. Talk to the kids. Answer their questions. Find the answers if you have to. Take them places they find interesting -- museums, libraries, parks, nature preserves, the harbor, wherever.

3. Be involved in their learning. Make sure homework is done, tests prepared for, projects completed.

4. Look over the work that is sent home, with your kid sitting next to you. A test to sign because the kid did poorly? Sign it -- but only after finding out what the problem was. A package of work the teacher has graded and sent home? Look at every page and see how the kid is doing.

5. If your child is struggling, find a way to help them. If they are stuck on fractions, help them with it. If they don't quite get the concept of adjectives versus adverbs, help them learn it. The teachers will usually help. But if not, do it yourself.

6. Meet their teachers. Let the teacher know you are interested and be willing to accept calls or meet when needed. And don't blame the teacher when he/she has bad news. The problem is likely the kid's.

7. Be involved at school, but not too involved (give the kid some space). Attend parent conferences, back to school nights, parent meetings.

8. Educate the kids on what you think is important that the schools may not be covering as much as you like. Entrepreneurship? Teach your kid that. Home economics? Teach the kid that. Politics? Teach the kid that.

9. Undo what the schools do wrong. Usually, it is not so much the school is wrong as they just do not teach all of the values you have or ideas you have. If you know what your kids are learning, and listen to them, you can add, supplement, erase what the schools teach.

10. Start early -- before preschool. If you wait until 5th grade, it is too late; you have lost the battle. If you wait until the kid is in high school when things really can turn bad, you have lost the war.

The parents are the primary educators. It is one of the most important things we do. It is not up to thew schools first, it is up to us first. If we make it a priority, it becomes easy to do all of these things.

And unless we make it a priority, why should our kids? But if we make it one, they will follow.

By George...! that was an excellent post.
Every home schooled kid that I've encountered has been socially backward. $.02 I sure don't want to start a war here. Have a great day.

Absolutely excellent post, George. Homeschooling is big where we live, and I know many successful kids who have been home schooled. However, I often wish that the parents who choose to do this, who are so involved with homeschooling groups in town, would instead get involved with the public school systems, parent groups, school board, and offer some of their incredible and positive talents so that ALL the children in the area could benefit. More help for the gifted students who need to be challenged, and also for those who don't have a good home situation - for whatever reason, and eventually will fall through the cracks. Think of how much better a society we would be if we all worked together on this. Just a thought. Jodi

[ March 11, 2002: Message edited by: jodi ]

Oh, ouch, Eldon. Recently I sat next to a man on a plane to California who told me that the thing he didn't like about Oregon was the "hick factor"....people who are missing teeth and homeschool their kids. Let's see, I have all my teeth but the homeschooling part would apply to me!

Before you pass judgment on homeschooled kids and their social lives, I'd encourage you to spend some time with a few of them. Yeah, the ones you've probably noticed are the kids who don't go to "regular" school because THEIR PARENTS are socially backward and have anti-social reasons for not sending them there. Then there are the kids you meet and don't realize that they are homeschooled. The ones who shake your hand and talk to you politely when introduced, who enjoy talking about classical music, who are honest and hard-working because their parents have taken the time to teach them good values.

Do you have to homeschool to teach your children these things? Of course not. However, there are plenty of dedicated homeschooling parents who do. We teach our children at home because we find it works for us. Our kids do well academically, we network with other homeschooling families so that our children don't become anti-social, and we simply enjoy the time it gives us to do things together as a family. In addition to all that, it gives our "students" more time at home to....PRACTICE PIANO.

By the way, that man on the airplane had a nice conversation with my 14 year old daughter who was travelling with me. I don't know if anything I said had an effect on him but I think she may have changed his view on homeschoolers... She has all her teeth as well.

My area has among the very best public schools in California (unfortunately, this is not saying a lot!). And also a huge homeschooling population. For the record, my kids go to private school. But I know a lot of homeschoolers who have chosen this path for various reasons. Some are religious, some are secular.

I'd say I personally know of 20 home-schooled kids. Each of them is happy, well-adjusted and among the most polite, poised children I've ever met. Most of them are far advanced academically. It's not something for everyone, indeed not for me. But I'm in awe when I see it done correctly.

penny