The death of traditional education

 

 

"Education is so important - and yet we seem to muddle our way through archaic systems which often leads to failure..."

Yesterday I had the chance to listen to a bit of Glenn Beck. Glenn is changing his focus as of late - he has become more and more fascinated by the future. So much so, he has put a futurist on his staff. In everything his company is doing right now, he tells his staff, "We will not burn down the past, we will live in the present. However, our planning will revolve around where we think technologies will be five years down the road." It is a great way to look at things if you want to survive as a company, or as an institution.

Recently, there has been quite a bit of news about education, both K-12 and higher. As they say in the car business, both K-12 and higher education need a "lube job, tune-up and alignment". In other words, they are in a mess. For example, consider the following:

• In Minneapolis right now, it has been decided that punishment for bad behavior would depend on the color of your skin. My, oh my - we have sure come a long way since that Dr. Martin Luther King thing about judging on the content of character and not color of skin. The poor schools in Minneapolis continue to fail students and the teacher unions have deflected blame by always talking about "bullying". And now bad behavior will also rule the day.
• The cost for higher education has slowed down a bit, but is still way out of control. A four year degree (with room and board) can cost anywhere from $80,000 (at a state school) to $170,000 (at a private college). Outrageous, simply outrageous. These kids are going to hit the job market with a huge financial millstone tied around their necks. Student debt is soaring with no end in sight.
• More and more articles have been written about the value of education. In other words, is the end product worth the cost? My answer to that is no, it is not. Education is important, but at what price?

Getting back to Glenn Beck for a minute. Our education system is doing just the opposite of what Glenn is trying to do with his company. Our education system is mired in the past. Mired in failure. The K-12 system is being run by a teacher union who is much more interested in political power than teaching kids. Our higher education system is tied up by a tenure system which allows cornballs like Ward Churchill to poison our kid's minds and never get fired. So where then, is the future? Online.

Years ago in the 1980's, the Control Data Corporation came up with the Plato System. It was 100% computer based education. Since I was working there at the time, all my continuing education I had to take with the company was done via the Plato System. I see no reason, no reason what so ever kids cannot learn just as well on line. It would be a fraction of the cost compared to our brick and mortar system. Plus, we could get rid of the teacher's union and tenure.

However, until we develop a "future cast", and scrap our broken system, we will continue to fail our kids. The ones who are able to make it through sixteen years of education will be saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in debt. We have a bad system yielding bad outcomes. Time for a change