I'm very busy a the moment (for a hint at what I'm doing you can look here),
but I'd like to take some time out for some quick comments on Amritas's
latest post. He makes the
radical statement that higher education isn't for everyone, and points
to an article by John Ray called Down
With Education! I basically
agree with them, but I would like to briefly mention some things that I
think the education system could do, but doesn't.
As John points out, there are two major goals of education: to teach
skills that will be useful in life, and to create good citizens. I
would like to add to this a third: to expose students to life's
possibilities. Most people graduate from the educational system
(whether at the High School or University level) with very little idea
about their options. If you ask students about their career goals, for
example (to pick just one aspect of life), your answers will be
something like this:
This is, to put it mildly, a very unrepresentative picture of the true
nature of the possibilities, both in terms of scope and proportion.
These are simply the possibilities that are visible to the average
student. But there is a big world out there, it would be nice to know
something about it before you get there.
I think that this can be addressed. I think that every year (at least
the four years of High School) students should take a course which is
devoted to simply describing the workings of different industries - I
can't think of a good name for it at the moment, any suggestions are
welcome. The way it would work would be to take an industry - say food
production - and describe all its components, e.g. what the farmers do
- who they buy from, sell to, what are the factors which influence
their decisionmaking, what are the different jobs in the industry, what
are the skills that are required for the different jobs - then do the
same for the people they sell to or buy from. Industries should be
chosen based on their prominence in the economy, and diversity (i.e.
their inner working are different from each other). I even think that
government agencies should be covered - after all they really are
potential career choices! Four years of this, and you can cover a lot
of ground, and people would come out of it understanding a lot more
about how the world works, and what their possibilities really are.
It seems to me that most students would consider this a fun course - it
doesn't involve mathematics, and doesn't require good writing skills.
Fun and useful, what could be better?
I wonder if it would be even more beneficial to actually work in various careers for at least a few hours a week. Learn and do is probably the best way to really understand anything.
Posted by: Rachel Ann at June 2, 2005 08:46 PM PermalinkHello David:
I have written this small post on Disengagement plan (in English). Probably we don´t agree, but I am very interested in your opinion:
http://kantor-blog.blogspot.com/2005/06/countdown-to-disengagement.html#comments
Posted by: Kantor at June 3, 2005 11:58 PM PermalinkIt would be nice if there were teachers who were bright enough to incorporate some kind of blogging curriculum into the classroom. The students could find bloggers in industries that interested them and comment and ask questions. I am sure that folks would be happy to respond and honestly tell the students what it is really about. The kids are going to be doing this kind of thing anyway, unguided, so imagine how productive it could be if there were assignments, and a little guidance, etc. I suppose smart parents might already be doing this kind of thing. shalom.
Posted by: koa at June 4, 2005 09:29 AM PermalinkUniversity, just because, rather than to prepare for one's future is a waste of time and money. In Israel the kids first go to the army or National Service. and then they sometimes travel. So by the time they study, they have an idea, and acceptance to university is to a major, and it's a three year program.
Posted by: muse at June 4, 2005 08:27 PM PermalinkMuse is right; by the time Israeli children have reached college age, they have gone through the army, have perhaps held leadership positions, no what it is to work with little free time, do something for someone else. THey come not only older, but more prepared to do work.
Posted by: Rachel Ann at June 4, 2005 08:42 PM PermalinkWhen your hobby is also your career, then going to work might be a pleasure. A professional sports person or recognised artist, for example.
I always fancied glass blowing, or this http://www.outline-uk.com/Neon.htm
How about swordsmithing? http://www.thearma.org/
Pericles
Posted by: Pericles at June 5, 2005 12:55 PM PermalinkThis is very interesting, actually I'm having the same thought since I left school (which was 10 years ago). I live in Germany and although kids have the opportunities to take internships and visit companies I always thought it might be necessary to change the way of becoming a teacher. I mean here you leave school, you study at the university, you go back to school to be a teacher. Its a closed cycle somehow and although there are teachers that are very committed, curious and interested in miscellaneous things also a lot of them aren't. How can those people be able to draw a picture of the world out there and to give hints about the vast opportunities?? Difficult I'd say.
My career goal when I was in high school was race car construction, which got me looked down upon both because it was considered blue collar and because I was a total dweeb about it. I let myself be pushed into college for mechanical engineering, which would have been useful in that field, but I'd have been far better off with a metalworking apprenticeship.
Of course if I had told people back in the '60s that I wanted my current line of work, using laptop computers and GPS mapping to optimise GSM wireless telephone networks, they really would have thought I was nuts.
Posted by: triticale at June 23, 2005 04:43 AM Permalink