The American secondary school system is going down the tubes. I don’t think there is anyone in particular to blame; it’s just the whole secondary education establishment. Back when most people earned their livings by a trade, boys went to school for a few years to learn to read and write, and then learned their father’s trade. Now schools are geared toward the Industrial Age, preparing students for factory work with the obnoxious bells and strict rules on time. This is no longer necessary. Society is moving toward a system where “face time” doesn’t count as much as it used to. Instead of heavily penalizing students for not being in class, students should be given more control over their lives. Homework is another area that could use improvement. There is no reason for teachers to breathe down students’ necks over assignments. Students should be responsible for learning what they need to know for large assignments. Everything should be taught in class, but if a student doesn’t show up for said class, or doesn’t take the time to study, that should be the student’s problem, not the teachers.

Another issue is the lack of vocational training in secondary schools. An American high school graduate is almost useless in the workforce nowadays. It is almost required that students attend at least some college to be able to find a good job. My high school provided some vocational training to juniors and seniors, but it was only in areas such as auto body and cooking. There were no options for college-bound kids other than some generic “college prep” (i.e. Advanced Placement) classes, and some dual-enrollment classes with a local community college. If I wanted to become, say, an engineer, all I could do was take AP Calculus. That’s it. I don’t see how something like AP History would help me become a better engineer. Having some specialized training, even if it covered broad disciplines, would certainly help shave some time and expense off college, and help those going into the workforce get better jobs. High schools need to stop churning out fast-food and retail workers and start preparing students for the real world.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 5:26 pm and is filed under education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.