"This is not a dark, dsytopian view of the future. It is reality."
The match game! What channel is it on? No channel, as it is not a game. It is a real life problem we have in the country right now. President Trump understands it. Obama did not. In fact, most Democrats don't really understand it. The match game is getting the people with the right skills into jobs which are evolving to keep this country on the cutting edge.
There have been several articles of late addressing this issue. An 2017 article in USA Today addressed the fact it is estimated by the year 2020, one million computing jobs will go unfilled. Why? Not enough young people pursuing a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. And here is a statistic almost as alarming. Only 11% of employers think our higher education system adequately prepares students for today's workplace.
Meanwhile, our immigration system does not give two hoots and a holler if a person coming into this country can help fill this gap. We continue to get more takers than makers. Smart countries, funnel their immigration to attract folks with much needed skills via a I 9 Visa program.
But what about the young people in this country who have not prepared themselves for the future? A very good question indeed.
A July 2017 article penned by the Dell computer company really put things in perspective. By 2030 (a scant 12 years from now), it is estimated that 85% of technology jobs don't even exist today! That is a jaw dropping statistic. The message from Dell to young people is simple and blunt - get ready for a lifetime of more globalization in the workforce and constant re-training.
Those of us with young grand-kids have no clue what they will be doing for a job when they are adults. A very smart man I worked for years ago said the only way for a company to stay in business, and stay relevant, is to be NIMBLE. The same holds true (from a micro view), with young people. Get as much relevant education as you can, work hard, and be flexible.
This is not a dark, dsytopian view of the future. It is reality. Think about this with the "wave" about to hit our southern border. Will they be able to help our high tech worker shortage? Will they be "makers"? Or just more of the "takers". I know this sounds harsh, but for a country to continue to survive and thrive, these are the tough choices which need to be made. Like I said earlier, our President seems to get it. We all should.
Meanwhile, it turns out that 63% of white HS grads cannot read at a 12th grade level, and for black HS grads it is closer to 75%! Talk about unemployable. Oh, and about 3/4 of these grads now go on to college, where they take remedial classes and become "gender studies" majors. Plenty of pessimist appeal to go around.
ReplyDeleteAll this deserves a big shout out to Education Minnesota for killing the Golden Goose of a fine education.
DeleteIf we recognize that EM is out to get more money for less work for their members, you have a brief statement of the problem. It explains why they keep wanting more money for education, when it can be easily proven that money doesn't matter, and smaller class sizes, when class size doesn't matter.
ReplyDeleteBut it does explain why we pay by steps and lanes rather than merit, and why Education majors have the lowest ACT scores going in, and the lowest test scores coming out. When Louisiana required all graduating teachers to pass a test in their subject, something like 90% failed and the test had to be scrapped. Merit pay, /universal/ vouchers, and school rankings. Maybe a graduation test. Technical ed and career counseling, before going off to college?
I think kids will be alright.
ReplyDeleteI think its the educational system that hasn't kept up with how kids like to learn.
Kids in waiting rooms and on transportation are kept placid with smartphones and earphones, pressed into their developing canals. Six-month olds already know they need to swipe to unlock an iPhone.
Information darts in and disappears just as quickly on smartboards in classrooms.
Our attention spans are shot.
Our collective impatience is at its historical peak.
Will it stunt early development?
Is anyone thinking of the children?
Well, It’ll be 20 years before we really know the effect that current technology is having on them, but there is no doubt it will change them.
Our love of stability and familiarity is coming into conflict with the acceleration of technological innovation.
Adults worry because it may not be intuitive to them, but young minds learn differently.
There may be trade-offs in the way things have always been but in history, by and large, the benefits outweighed the harms, and they will continue to do so.
It’s as human to continually advance as it is to grapple with what is new.
Got back to MN yesterday, our street looks grim as diseased elms on boulevard were removed while we were in AZ.
DeleteTemps are tolerable.
Grandchild who stayed in our house only broke a few things: electricians and plumbers have been scheduled.
All is well.
Dave
Glad you had safe travels my friend.
DeleteI work with some of these kids and their technology. They aren't learning anything. They're so immersed in the technology they cannot use it for anything. Give them any problem and if it requires thought, they wander off into cat porn, or something. Years ago I worked in IT, and our general rule was we did not hire computer science majors because they were more interested in what the computer could do than in what we could do with it, like, you know, useful work. Their programs were invariably full of little "tricks" that could not be altered or built upon rather than straightforward, reliable programming. The fifth graders I work with do not possess even fundamental logic with which to do programming, even though the languages have become near-magical in their simplicity.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for computer-aided instruction and teacher tools. But unless we are willing to change our approach away from the way it's been done the last 150 years and actually USE those tools wisely (while teaching the kids the virtues of staying on task), we're not going to see the benefits.
Computer aided instruction (if done properly) allows children and young adults in the same classroom to move forward at different rates (efficiency), grades the work (eliminating one more mindless task), manages their time (keystroke counters) and doles out rewards (game play at specific achievement intervals) and probably many more things than I can think of.
ReplyDeleteBut when a AZ typing class is given 6 computer keyboards (in disrepair) for a class of 42 students, someone should be fired, like Rep Gov Gary Ducey, OR the teachers should go on strike today and tomorrow (as they did), not for pay, but for resources.
Better yet, fire the school board for either incompetence, malfeasance or impotence. I have long held that school board members are good folks that aren't paid enough to make hard decisions, so when teachers demand more pay for less work, they get it. When someone demands that some great class, like Chinese, be offered, they say "yes" regardless of cost. They want what is good for everybody and are always running out of money to do it.
ReplyDelete20 years ago I was helping a little Baptist school near here. I was in a room with 45 kids and one teacher, and the only sound you could hear was the clicking of keys. While I was quietly speaking with the teacher (who told me their kids routinely "blew the top off" of standard tests and academic competitions) I saw one little girl get up, take a box of software over to the shelf, reach up and grab another and go back to her seat, without a word. This was about October. I looked at the teacher, rather puzzled. "Oh, that's Annie. She's in second grade. She's just finished 3rd grade math and now she's starting on 4th."
A couple of things: The Union would never allow a class size of 45 in second grade. Under the Horace Greeley method we still use, (and the "racial equality" discipline policy) it would be impossible today. And no school board, beholden as they are to the Union for their election, is going to consider doing what this little private school (low tuition, poor kids) was doing, regardless of how obviously superior were the results. If you want to blame a politician, blame the elected Board, or the powerful Union lobbyists.
I really don't want to blame, that doesn't solve anything (take a hint DIC). Solutions are needed, whatever the cost, to whomever. The children's livelihoods and our nations future are in jeopardy.
ReplyDeleteI'll agree with that, wholeheartedly. I would much rather fix the problem than fix the blame. BUT... How do you get "the system" or the people you COULD blame for the problem to change, if you don't point out their failures and suggest a better way?
ReplyDeleteIt is very hard to talk about getting people educated for the right jobs when we cannot get them educated at all.
Take the obviously failed "racial equity discipline policy" in St.P. schools, for example. Any idiot can see it was doomed for failure from the outset, and how it has repeatedly proven itself so. Why has this policy not been reversed?
It cost 800k to get rid of Supt. Silva and it will take years to rid the schools of the damage caused by her and her California consultants and their "No thug left behind" programs. Glad mine missed all of that!
DeleteAs I read it, the program is still in place and the new program now has the same great disparities as the old system, we just have the total chaos on top of it! It's insane and, like I say, I simply cannot understand insanity as official school policy. Where are the lawsuits for "reckless endangerment" or somesuch?
ReplyDelete