K-12 Education

Many Remember and Most Were Not All That Impressed

Often we discuss education at our think tank, and it is a hot topic these days with all the political promises of education reform, and of course all those massive budget cuts, teacher lay-offs, and the media reporting dropout rates that are far too high. You can talk to just about anyone who had gone through k-12 and they will tell you about their experiences with the education in our nation. Many people have given high grades and high praises, but most people were a little underwhelmed.

Some folks later complain that their K-12 education, not only here but also in Europe and other advanced societies, was less than adequate. Not long ago I was having this discussion with an acquaintance, and he indicated to me that he had had problems in school being of a very high IQ, and basically being a creative genius - and it has bothered him ever sense. He worries for other superstars of humanity who bring their intellect and future gifts to the world, as being stifled early on.

After he outlined all the problems that he thought is wrong with modern education, and giving specific examples of how he believed it had affected himself, he asked me what I thought of our educational system and said; "How is your life in this respect?"

Well, I saw K-12 as a prison for kids, it couldn't contain my mind, so I mostly got A's and B's and sketched pictures, doodled, made catchy poems, and thought about other stuff, pretty bored. It was almost as if school was purposely trying to dummy down the minds of all those sitting in the classrooms, I had too much energy, I liked to run, jump, accelerate, play sports, ride my bike, skateboard, school was therefore a prison, except as I got older, I was intrigued by all the girls, which helped me forget I was having my time wasted day-after-day.

Indeed, I always took the hardest classes, and studied those subjects I enjoyed, did a little homework. Whatever, it's the wrong way to educate kids, it's a problem. One, I suppose will eventually cause a revolution in education and change that institution forever, in fact, I think it is happening now and I'd say it's about time!

If I had it to do over today, I'd study on the Internet and skip it, it's a waste of time, politically unfixable, and we aren't doing ourselves or our society any good continuing these archaic methods of teaching. "But hey, thanks for asking anyway?" I told my acquaintance.

Okay so, if you feel the same way and have experienced less than you had hoped for in your K-12 schooling I'd like you to shoot me an e-mail with examples of what you think we should change, and what was not done correctly. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

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