This weeks topic asks the question "Did school prepare you for the real world? ". My answer is no, not at all if the school discussed is everything up to and including high school.
School did very little beyond teaching me to read and write. Granted, those are important skills required for any level of success in
life but they stop far short of preparing anyone for success.
Somehow our schools need to find a way to inspire students to discover what interests them and points students in a direction that leads to a career. In my high school there were vocational classes that focused on blue collar careers like
welding, auto mechanics and carpentry. Sadly, those have not been available for decades. No budget for them. That is, in my opinion, rediculous.
Students need more elective classes to inspire interest in fields that are useful and more needs to be done in developing interest in math and science. We need to fill our colleges with math and science students from here, not from around the world. We need to take advantage of the educational opportunities we currently provide students from other countries.
Our college system does offer the tools necessary to launch a career. The trick is to get into college and then graduate without a crippling mountain of debt. My BA cost me a total of about a thousand dollars. I attended a state university that was essentially a commuter college - and also a community college (also called a junior college). There are opportunities available, our students need be aware of them.
That brings us to the students. Today's world is unlike any previous. The pace is faster, changes more frequent and information more readily available than ever. Along with that information is its evil twin, misinformation. Now more than ever it is critical to verify information and that is equally important when it comes to education choices. It starts with the parents, flows to the student and finally the educators. Garbage in, garbage out definitely applies. You get out exactly what is put in, and now more than ever students need to be prepared.
While it may not be possible to earn a 4-year (well - six in my case 🎓) for only a thousand dollars like mine, it is possible to earn that degree and start a career. It requires hard work, and whether or not today's students are up to the challenge is a topic for another
week.
I picked this week's topic and so Ramana will choose next week's. Be sure to check Ramana's take on this week's here.
Both of us are of the same opinion that our schooling did not equip us for the real world. This topic has been occupying my mind for long and I have been looking around for the right kind of education that can be emulated every where and the nearest that I have come across is the Swiss system of compulsory primary schooling and a higher education based on the apprenticeship model. It is not quite what I would ideally like, but come closest to it.
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