Rise and Fall of the School System
It is useful to look at the history and development of the school system.
It the old old days - about 200 years ago - you got your education by living on the farm or working the street with your parent or apprentice master.

The elite had tutors. They also had "The Tour" where young people were sent to travel all of Fashionable Europe with their tutor or companion to broaden ther minds. That sounds like a realy good idea!!

Then came the industrial revolution and the big companies needed workers. Everyone assumed that since the conveyor belt concept worked so well for making cars and cigarettes - it would work just as well for educating kids en masse. The purpose was for everyone to finish school to become employed by one of the huge corporations. We were creating workers.

This was a significant change in philosophy - until then people were being trained to carry on the family business, or start their own small business - in essence become entrepreneurs. This involved the basic work skill of blacksmithing or farming and thinking skills and people skills.

In the new school concept they were producing workers who could fit into the system, do as instructed, follow the rules and who were inured to boredom. Imagine standing at the machine for 8 hours a day checking to see it if the bolt passing by was defective. All day. Then the next day too. And the one after that!
The factories required basic literacy and numeracy - so that was covered in the school systems too.

All was progressing according to plan, when we had the information age burst upon us. Now, whole assembly lines were replaced by a single computer. Thousands and thousands of workers found themselves uneccesary in this new age. Companies with a conscience spent fortunes in retraining their workers in new more marketable skills.

Today, the companies are screaming for a different kind of worker - now they want someone who is literate and numerate and tech savvy. And they only want to hire them for a temp job with no security or benefits.

Now the future lies in creating your own security. Our children need to regard themsleves as a personal business. The market is hugely competitive and cut-throught and they need to have flexibility, adaptibility, technical savvy, people skills, analytical skills and marketing skills. And that is just to get a temp job...

Their best future lies in becoming their own boss. Contracting, Joint Venture-ing, creating a network of supportive people and companies and becoming expert at communicating as well as their core skill (which needless to say needs to be constantly updated!).

This sounds a lot like what the ancients were doing in the first place!

The school system is doing exactly what it was created to do - sadly times have changed and we now expect more and different results, but that is like asking an orange tree to produce bananas. Not gonna happen!

We need to move back to a more individually designed and appropriate education for each child. We need to be sure they learn analytical skills, that they have a dream to power them through the learning processes, they need great personal and social skills, and they truly need solid values.

Is this something the schools can deliver?

I believe the answer is obvious.

Equally obvious is that we are the ony people who care enough about our children to make the effort to facilitate their education in a way that is specifically designed for each one of them. We know their strengths and their passions. We know how to make them even stronger.

Why does Tiger Woods not practice tennis?
Save your child from being a lemming!
Coming in next posts....

Have a day filled with learning!
Karen