In reality, the way our education system is functioning, the standard curve is skewed well right, the "average" grade is probably a "B" going from high school to undergraduate college, and moves to the roughly "A-" level as graduate level classes come into play. A "C" supposedly the average, is essentially failing a graduate level course.
One of the big problems in our approach to education is a one size fits all mentality. In California high school graduation required passing an algebra course. I at one point worthed with kids who'd been expelled from schools for a variety of reasons. Some of them were really quite bright on certain subjects, but they were completely snowed by math. How do you pass a mandatory algebra test when you cannot add simple fractions in the 8th grade. I tried to help, but these kids all had passing grades because teachers were not permitted to hold them back, so basic that were needed to learn higher level math were never established, and they were just passed on.
The problem is largely based on the fact that kids are passed based on their age, rather than their mastery of the subject matter, but it's also based on the fact that we've imposed what we believe they must learn. We need to determine what people are interested in before dictating what they must learn. People learn far more when they're interested in what they're learning, or if they can at least understand why it's important to learn it. The shop experience taught many students why math was important as they tried to do something with their hands, but take away the shop classes, which we have, and many students don't see the need for even basic math. If we provided numerous paths to success, I believe far more people would be successful. Only some of these people would graduate college, or graduate school, but even a high school degree can lead to incredible success, I believe that was largely the case with people like Steve Jobs who may have obtained advanced degrees in time, but not before they already had tremendous financial success.
If education was tailored to the student, we might develop great artists, musicians, authors, etc. who all might still not be able to pass that algebra test. The question is, do they really need to.
Gary |
