The purpose of education in K-12 is to ostensibly prepare the student for either a post-secondary education or to join the adult population in becoming a well informed member of our ever shrinking world. But, public education is failing in its assigned objective. Why is this important and what are the potential outcomes?
First, we began teaching to standardized testing to keep funding and certification. Testing periodically through these grades has been in place for years but it was a random test and actually reflected what real levels of achievement were. Now results are more indicative of how well students learned what was going to be on the tests. Simultaneously the budgets were cut to eliminate art, music, and other "non essential" parts of the curriculum. Instead, much more money went into STEM education which is essential for both male and female students. But, there are two areas that have gone mostly unnoticed for a long time.
Those two subjects which are critical to adult preparedness are civics and finance. There was a time when schools taught civics for at least one full year in high school. Now, although all 50 states are supposed to teach some form of how the government works, the results are poor to virtually absent. So you say "the parents can educate those children who have no real civics course". Well, have you talked to any of these parents who don't even know how many branches of the government we have? No less how a bill is born and travels from the House to the Senate and then to the President in the executive branch. And this is a perfect time for teachers to make civics interactive in a time of chaos and tribalism.
And what about handling personal finances? Credit and how credit card companies encourage us to spend more than we have and use most of our resources paying interest. What is interest and when does it become almost criminal? In this age of technology when we just swipe our cards and buy, buy, buy is burying many people and school age students should know about money and how to handle resources. In this mix of finances students should also be aware about post-secondary education and choices and the reduced cost of community colleges and borrowing money to finance their education or trade school.
I know that there are schools that do teach the essential civics and finance subjects but they are in a small minority. We need to be involved in our local PTA and school board and become advocates and hope our children learn about voting and staying out of bankruptcy court.
First, we began teaching to standardized testing to keep funding and certification. Testing periodically through these grades has been in place for years but it was a random test and actually reflected what real levels of achievement were. Now results are more indicative of how well students learned what was going to be on the tests. Simultaneously the budgets were cut to eliminate art, music, and other "non essential" parts of the curriculum. Instead, much more money went into STEM education which is essential for both male and female students. But, there are two areas that have gone mostly unnoticed for a long time.
Those two subjects which are critical to adult preparedness are civics and finance. There was a time when schools taught civics for at least one full year in high school. Now, although all 50 states are supposed to teach some form of how the government works, the results are poor to virtually absent. So you say "the parents can educate those children who have no real civics course". Well, have you talked to any of these parents who don't even know how many branches of the government we have? No less how a bill is born and travels from the House to the Senate and then to the President in the executive branch. And this is a perfect time for teachers to make civics interactive in a time of chaos and tribalism.
And what about handling personal finances? Credit and how credit card companies encourage us to spend more than we have and use most of our resources paying interest. What is interest and when does it become almost criminal? In this age of technology when we just swipe our cards and buy, buy, buy is burying many people and school age students should know about money and how to handle resources. In this mix of finances students should also be aware about post-secondary education and choices and the reduced cost of community colleges and borrowing money to finance their education or trade school.
I know that there are schools that do teach the essential civics and finance subjects but they are in a small minority. We need to be involved in our local PTA and school board and become advocates and hope our children learn about voting and staying out of bankruptcy court.
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