Stuck in the Middle
I read
your article "The Middle of Nowhere" with great interest. However, I
wonder if there really is a problem that needs a solution.
I am a new
High School teacher. After having successfully spent nearly 30 years as a
professional in industry, I decided to pursue a career as an educator.
One thing I have noticed, in both careers, is that people have
different abilities, drives, desires and goals.
While your
article does not claim that ALL children must “succeed” (whatever that means)
it does express great dismay that so many children drop out of school. I am not
yet convinced that ALL children should be in school. Is it necessary or even
desirable that everyone complete high school? Does the butcher, the
baker, the candlestick maker need a high school education? There are many jobs
that can provide a very decent standard of living that do not require a high
school education. Moreover, given the quality of high schools today, is the
high school diploma evidence of attainment of even a
minimal education? It merely is questionable evidence that a young person
was physically at a school for approximately four years. Many students
lack both the ability and the desire to become doctors, lawyers, physicists,
etc. Why then do we insist that they conform to our ideas of what everyone
should be? If you don’t graduate from college you are a failure; if you don’t
go to college you are a failure; if you fail to complete high school you are a
failure. Why? The fellow who repairs my car, the electrician who wires my home,
the butcher down the street are just as happy in their professions as I (I
would venture to guess that, in fact, there are many days when they are
happier than I).
In
addition, for many children it is also a matter of timing and maturity. Many students who drop out might later, after encountering the
harsh realities of life, decide that they are ready to complete their education
(at least to completion of high school). They would be more accepting of the
rigors and discipline of a high school environment and more likely to
succeed at it.
Having
been in the hi-tech industry for many years, I am well aware of the failure of
our education system to develop, in our young people, the ability to compete
effectively in the global market. We all know that so many businesses must
import their talent from
because so many students drop out of high school—it is because our colleges are
graduating students with no skills or totally unmarketable and
valueless skills. Industry has very little demand for young people who
graduate with degrees in “feminist studies” or “comparative studies in race and
ethics.” Such nonsensical degrees would be less objectionable if
the students who received such degrees also obtained an honest liberal arts
education with an ability to think critically and analytically. But way too
many students (dare I say the overwhelming majority) are graduating from
college without an education in the traditional sense—that is when you could
graduate with a degree in Philosophy yet still obtain a broad and comprehensive
education that allowed you to learn throughout your whole life and obtain
marketable skills.
So if
graduating from college means nothing today and prepares one for nothing, and
graduating from high school means nothing—then
why insist that everyone stay in high school? By insisting that everyone stay
in high school, doesn’t it take time and resources away from students who can
truly benefit from being in high school? Wouldn’t the overall quality of
education improve if teachers could focus on students who were not openly
fighting them at every turn? While I don’t doubt that our current
education system does induce some children to turn away from education, the
truth is that many students are just not appropriate for high school, and it
would be a mistake to waste resources on children that lack the capacity or
desire to benefit from being in the system.