Yet Even More Words to Say about Education

Great introduction to the subject by Harles.

Darrel’s reforms are great. Here are some follow-up comments.

I love most of what you have to say. Section 3 article “a” is my favorite ('By the time a student leaves high school, he/she should have all the core skills/knowledge expected of an average citizen. Make sure those skills and knowledge have been taught effectively.') I would recommend that elementary school education should concentrate about 75% of its efforts into math and language. Scientists studying children have found that their innate abilities in these areas dwarf their other capacities. Children under the age of 12 have a remarkable capacity for math and language that begins to wane, and is never equaled after that period in their lives. They are hard-wired for learning what (later in life) becomes the “difficult subjects.” There, of course, should also be training in the Arts (music, drawing, et cetera), since these aspects of learning also increase the quality of the whole when begun young, though they should certainly not fill up more than 7% of the curriculum.

Middle School should, then, introduce some of the practical applications of their formative training, with High School letting them begin to choose which practical applications appeal to each of them the most. You said it right, when you posted that an individual graduating High School should be equipped with everything the average citizen needs in order to survive in the “real world.” If this really were the case, I would imagine that there would be far fewer people interested in going on to college. I don’t say this as a negative comment. In fact, if the system were working properly, most people leaving High School would be just as qualified as the average holder of a baccalaureate degree is today.

Natural exceptions should be obvious, such as training in the advanced sciences, the engineering disciplines, and other highly specialized courses of study that High School is not and should not be designed for. The goal of University studies should never be to make graduates “more rounded individuals.” What a load of crock! The whole system should aim for ever increasingly more specialization, not ever more broad indoctrination. There’s no reason a person should not graduate from college in two or three years under an optimal educational system.