A thought provoking question: "Will Dropouts Save America?"

[Pamela Ann Cameron]

     As a former educator, I found myself quite interested in a thought provoking article by Robert Wenzel that I found in the Economic Policy Journal.  Mr. Wenzel responds to an article by Michael Ellsberg entitled, "Will Dropouts Save America?"  Mr. Ellsberg began his article as follows:

"I TYPED these words on a computer designed by Apple, co-founded by the college dropout Steve Jobs. The program I used to write it was created by Microsoft, started by the college dropouts Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

And as soon as it is published, I will share it with my friends via Twitter, co-founded by the college dropouts Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams and Biz Stone, and Facebook — invented, among others, by the college dropouts Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, and nurtured by the degreeless Sean Parker...

In a detailed analysis, the National Bureau of Economic Research found that nearly all net job creation in America comes from start-up businesses, not small businesses per se. (Since most start-ups start small, we tend to conflate two variables — the size of a business and its age — and incorrectly assume the former was the relevant one, when in fact the latter is.

If start-up activity is the true engine of job creation in America, one thing is clear: our current educational system is acting as the brakes. Simply put, from kindergarten through undergraduate and grad school, you learn very few skills or attitudes that would ever help you start a business. Skills like sales, networking, creativity and comfort with failure."

     Wow!  Is this the truth?  Is our educational system so broken that we are not preparing students for the real world that they will face upon graduation?  I believe that there is definite room for improvement.  School districts need to plan their curriculum in a way that encourages change, that teaches the use of technologies that a student will need for the modern workplace, that encourages and teaches higher level thinking skills, and government intervention needs to be kept at a minimum so individual districts can make course changes that reflect the needs of the local workforce.  Community colleges that teach basic skills are a viable option.  These community colleges could partner with local businesses to learn what kind of workers they need and what those workers need to know.  I definitely think that all students would benefit from a class on business ethics; obviously, many businesses have failed because of a lack of ethics on the part of at least some of their workers.  I also believe that students need to be allowed to fail if they have neglected to put any effort into their learning experience.  Many public schools do not allow teachers to fail students anymore.  This breeds mediocrity and teaching to the lowest common denominator in the classroom, certainly the last thing that will help education.

     Universities must be faster at planning for and integrating the changes of the marketplace into the courses that they are teaching and even the courses that they are planning to offer.  Requiring a course on capitalism might be a beneficial addition to every degree.  I understand the task is great.  Nevertheless, the future of the American workforce is at stake.

     One of the points that Mr. Wenzel makes in his response to Mr. Ellsberg is "that the problem is because of government intervention in education. Government doesn't want creative teaching and radical ideas. It rewards teachers who gain advanced degrees within the system, rather than those who might be creative."  This is a pretty radical statement.  I am seeking a graduate degree within the system so that I can teach at the college level.  I want to teach relevant ideas in a creative way.  Mr. Wenzel even goes so far as to explain that he feels that those who teach are non risk-takers.  Ouch!  I do not agree with his assessment, but I want to guard against any part that might be valid.  Wenzel says, "the great risk takers and entrepreneurs drop out of this system."

     If you were an educational planner, what are some ideas you might suggest to help develop an educational system that encouraged risk taking and entrepreneurship?

[06wl92n4qutjm]

It sounds like you want the grade school years to be something like a technical school teaching children how to preform jobs instead of teach them information. Although there may be problems within the system not all can be attributed to the schools. Teachers do not necessarily have the ability to change ideas developed in a students mind. This is important to realize this because if you are in a community win which few have gone to college few will aspire to get good grades or even do the work. This can be seen in many high density areas by high levels of high school drop outs. 

Could the school or teachers have done something to motivate or encourage the students?  It is a possibility. I agree that creativity should be encouraged by the government so teachers can best reach their students. Sometimes the system can seem impaired but it was created for a reason, so that all children can be measured at the same level. Without the system independent states and districts would be in charge of curriculum and plans. The question is, how can you check if it is really working for that area? How do you know that the teachers and administrators aren't just after a pretty penny?Yes you could say that the states would check and push for a better plan but what are you relying on to prove what is working? tests? that means you are back to the same system as before just there is more diversity and a different person in charge. states wont adopt others plans that work better simply because the issue of pride and the thought that their plan cant work here.

I do think some things need to be changed in the system but that doesn't mean we should scrap the whole thing. The culture in many of these areas must be changed in order to push students to strive for a higher standards. much more difficult to do but it would make things better. 

[Pamela Ann Cameron]

Actually, I did not have elementary school in mind at all when I made my comments.  Obviously, students must still learn to read and write.  Nevertheless, as a former high school teacher, I do feel that some of what Ellsberg and Wenzel had to say were valid criticisms of the current system.  Having seen it from the inside, I know that it is very difficult to change the status quo in school districts because of government requirements and the inability of a large organization to respond to changes in our rapidly changing world in a reasonable amount of time.

As to your comment about the need for all children to be measured at the same level, I would submit to you, your statement is an impossible goal because children are unique individuals who learn in different ways, respond differently to their environments, and may be really smart but are unsuccessful on standardized tests.  Case in point, I have a friend whose daughter never did well on the SAT (or most standardized tests), but she was in the top 10% of her graduating class of 600-700.  She got into UT in Austin and graduated with a very high gpa.  Was she stupid?  Obviously not.  The SAT test did a poor job of measuring whether she would be successful in college.

I guess my main point is that schools are broken, especially public ones.  Education must begin to plan for and focus on the needs of the future workplace.  It will take lots of people working really hard to fix the current system.  But, I am optimistic that it can be done.

As for the motivation of students toward learning, parents have to be a part of that solution.  The government or the schools can't fix that one.  A good work ethic is learned at home by people who are modeling it for you and who encourage it in you.  Just my opinion...

I think parents and business people and teachers and administrators all need to be included in the planning and assessment phases of the process.  Ellsberg and Wenzel certainly gave us something to think about.

Jordan Gatts said:

It sounds like you want the grade school years to be something like a technical school teaching children how to preform jobs instead of teach them information. Although there may be problems within the system not all can be attributed to the schools. Teachers do not necessarily have the ability to change ideas developed in a students mind. This is important to realize this because if you are in a community win which few have gone to college few will aspire to get good grades or even do the work. This can be seen in many high density areas by high levels of high school drop outs. 

Could the school or teachers have done something to motivate or encourage the students?  It is a possibility. I agree that creativity should be encouraged by the government so teachers can best reach their students. Sometimes the system can seem impaired but it was created for a reason, so that all children can be measured at the same level. Without the system independent states and districts would be in charge of curriculum and plans. The question is, how can you check if it is really working for that area? How do you know that the teachers and administrators aren't just after a pretty penny?Yes you could say that the states would check and push for a better plan but what are you relying on to prove what is working? tests? that means you are back to the same system as before just there is more diversity and a different person in charge. states wont adopt others plans that work better simply because the issue of pride and the thought that their plan cant work here.

I do think some things need to be changed in the system but that doesn't mean we should scrap the whole thing. The culture in many of these areas must be changed in order to push students to strive for a higher standards. much more difficult to do but it would make things better. 

[0z87rm8mahiji]

Great article Pamela!!!

If I was an educational planner I would develop a system where it had both an analytical and creative aspect to it. At a young age children pick their favorite subjects in school. In order to get children to read I would place more reading and science on the curriculum so that they could get used to it at a young age. Because now a days people are lazy to pick up a book for self edification or do a research on how to do something. Why, we have technology that does alot for us. I would also encourage courses that would develop analytical skills, which would teach children to think. I would recommand such courses up to college level. Next to that I would encourage for them to be creative in their skills if its arts or science whatever it would be I would encourage the teachers to give them the freedom to think and experiement in school, but then  academic related only. I believe this would help develop the skill for both  risk and entrepreneurship because you give the person the space to express himself and to experiment with ideas. This leads to new inventions and other things.

It would be good if the government give its students more freedom to express themselves in school academic wise. It would be good if they would train educators to encourage their (all) students to express themselves idea wise. And with business ethics and mangement as a part of their curriculum starting in junior high school. However, this not only the job for educators but also of the parents to encourage their kids. But it is possible for teachers to be more creative in order to reach their students.

[Erin Barrington]

This was a really interesting article to read; especially since my mom has been an educator for the last 23 years.  I never actually thought about her students and how many of the kids in the public school system are just passed through and don't succeed.  I know that my mother personally puts 100% into her work and wants the absolute best for those in her school, and I know there are PLENTY other teachers that are the same way.  It's a little bit out there to say that all of this failure is on the teachers and the failing system.  What about the failing moral system in our society today?  A teacher can do all he or she wants for 8 hours in the classroom, but when a child goes home and is exposed to inappropriate language, tv, and behavior, all the teaching from school goes right out the window.  I truly believe that the dropouts and laziness in school is a direct correlation of what is taught at home.  Nurturing by family is so important and vital to a child's future.  The discussion of college teaching in this article was interesting.  I have taken a handful of classes that are not too interesting and seems like my professor is kind of just teaching what is in the material and has no personal experience.  What is important in my mind is for professors to have some personal experience in their area that they are teaching.  I took a criminal law class here at DBU with Dr. Kung who was in the FBI for many years.  The stories he told that applied to the lecture made that class 100 times more interesting for us.  The best idea that I think was presented in this article was: "Community colleges that teach basic skills are a viable option.  These community colleges could partner with local businesses to learn what kind of workers they need and what those workers need to know.  I definitely think that all students would benefit from a class on business ethics; obviously, many businesses have failed because of a lack of ethics on the part of at least some of their workers."  This is a GREAT way for their to be more real-life teachings in the college setting.  That really is so important and if students could learn through realistic teaching I think that would only increase success beyond the classroom.  This was a very interesting post to read and opened my eyes to how much opportunity this country has.