Sokanu: The Blog

In light of the current release of Waiting For Superman (which I can't wait to see) I thought it would be a great time to reflect on why we are all arguing about the current education system. With Oprah providing such amazing publicity and generosity towards the education sphere, I think it makes sense to discuss why there is such an uproar in the first place. By doing this, I think that we can understand what needs to happen in order to fix the system, for the better.

If you are not familiar with the current news, Waiting For Superman is a new documentary directed by Davis Guggenheim about the failure of the American public education system. By failure we mean the inability to properly educate our children equally and fairly. Some of the main complaints in the current system include the fact that the unions are allowed to keep bad teachers in while keeping good teachers out, or underpaid. Sounds ridiculous, right? I mean, in every other company on earth, bad employees are moved out of the way for better, hungrier ones. It is the law of the jungle. Not, however, in the education space. It is very difficult to get rid of bad teachers, for one reason or another. Another problem is with our test scores. America can't compete with statistical intelligence with Japan, China, India, France, etc... and haven't been able to for some time now. How can this be when America is the richest country in the world?

But instead of looking at what is wrong, let's look at what is right. The first thing is that we have people in the system that are so incredibly passionate about what they do, that they, one person, can turn around an entire mini-ecosystem. For examples, take a look at this story in the Atlantic or listen to what Geoffrey Canada says last week on Oprah. Wow. These are single people making an enormous difference. This is the first thing to recognize, that there are truly decent people who's only purpose is to help children. So maybe it isn't a problem with specific people per se (although we haven't talked about the bad teachers). Maybe it is a problem with the system? To understand this, let's take a look at the purpose of education.

The Purpose Of Education

Lost among the noise in the media is the true reason that kids go to school. And there are two trains of thought here. One is that students are educated in order to prepare them for the world, allow them to succeed, and mold them into proper social citizens. This is the governments, parents and teachers point of view. Each one of those groups has their responsibility in order to make sure that every child meets those criteria. 

The other train of thought is those of the economists. They see students as units of data. And those pieces of data all fit into a giant ecosystem that we call America (or Canada). Each piece of data is worth X number of dollars, and represents X value to the country.  If the pieces of data aren't educated enough, then they won't produce X value to the country, meaning that the country is worth less. And it goes on and on. Basically the world is in an education race that effects innovation, creativity and ultimately, GDP.

While this is an awful way to think of education, that's the macroscopic view. Now let's dig into the real parts, the microscopic, or individual people. Each student is not a piece of data, they are a unique individual that can contribute many things to this planet. Most people are born with some dormant talents hidden deep within themselves. This is hereditary. But it takes time and a beneficial environment to reveal those talents. If children can not get this from their parents or peers, it needs to come from school. It can be as simple as reading a headline in a paper (what happened to me) or it can be through the inspiration of a teacher.

The true purpose of school is not to push people through a tube. It's not to fight about which teachers are good and which are bad. It's not about budget cuts and government regulations. It is to help students awaken their talents within themselves. And for the most part, we are doing a very poor job of this.

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At the poorest level, we see dropout rates in the high double digits and college progression at a minimal level. At the highest level we see 100% graduation rates, the majority of them going to Ivy's and pursuing careers in management consulting and law. Which group is better off? I am going to argue and say that while the latter group will have an easier life, it doesn't mean it is any better. The former group may have one or two students that have their "awakening" moment and discover what their true talents are. The rest will probably go through life struggling. At the highest level, one or two will probably find their calling, while the rest will live a mediocre life. 

Is mediocre better than poverty? Probably. But are either of them success? No. And so what this says about the current system is that regardless of the financial level we are at, the real goal of the system is not working properly. The higher income brackets are much better "pieces of data" then the lower group, but not better on the microscopic level.

This is why we have a lost opportunity. If our system was designed around actually helping each individual student, all of these other problems would be taken care of. The pieces of data would produce more value, the teachers would automatically be better and our system would prosper. Is this a generalization? Sure. But the concept is always the same. Without a noble cause, education will always struggle through the same problems it is going through.

We need to discover our own purpose in order to help students discover theirs.