Why America’s Education System Continues To Fall Behind

There seems to be a continuous discussion in society of the education of each generation’s children in terms of why they do not seem to live up to certain standards as compared to children of other countries. Why, they ask, are American children behind in reading, science, or math? Answers are offered in terms of whether our schools or teachers are adequate; are our children in school enough hours, if our children are sufficiently disciplined at home or in school, or is the fault of parents having to work two jobs to maintain a middle class income for the family or even to survive.

Perhaps the better question might be how are American children different from children of other countries? After all, America is but a collection of many nations cohabiting under a single premise of nationality. It is not as if we have the purity of most of the European, Scandinavian, Middle Eastern, and Asian nations which comes from many centuries of existing and continuous growth in their cultural awareness. Those whose long histories taught them a basis for their cultures that despite many changes tended to remain fairly constant.

Instead we have brought together a little of all of them but none of the completeness that they enjoy. We did this under the premise of forming a new country, and thus a new culture, where everyone was equal and had equal opportunity to arise to their heights of aspiration if they only worked hard for it. Only that premise was not true from the beginning and isn’t true now.

Those that settled this country did so looking for something they did not have or could not find in their own country. For some it was looking for religion, for others it was looking for wealth, while others were simply looking for an opportunity to better their lot in life. In the process of trying to build a new country those that settled this one did not anticipate, nor could they anticipate, the mix and blend of so many different peoples, cultures, beliefs, and faiths. The term “We the people…” in the Declaration of Independence most likely did not even include all of the people who occupied this land as was proved by the fact that the authors of the document still held humans in slavery and as the country grew westward Native Americans had land taken from them at gun point.

At the very outset there was no equality in terms of standing [of the people] who lived in this new country. Those who arrived with money, education, and grants from the English king had a head start on all the others. True, there were vast amounts of land yet to be discovered and settled, but there was a tremendous price to be paid for the opportunity to establish that dream. Many were here as slaves of the large landowners and did not even have that dream while others came to provide services to those who were the haves.

The main issue is that instead of developing a culture the founders of this country instead we’re more interested in developing an economic system which is a poor excuse for a founding culture. The Declaration of Independence was at its inception built on partial truths and outright lies by its authors. Jefferson did not consider his slaves as being his equal in any way, shape, or format, nor did our first President George Washington who was also a slave owner. This issue did not become a real issue until 70 years later when the Southern states saw the states’ rights movement as a threat to their rights to own slaves. This of course led to the Civil War which subsequently led to the Emancipation Proclamation.

Suddenly there was to be a vast number of people who had never been allowed to learn to read or write and whose skills were limited to just what their owners had let them do. Other immigrants who were pouring into the country were taking their turns at being at being the lowest on the rung of the economic skills. Many of them had some remedial education so even they were ahead of many of the freed slaves but they were still the “Micks”, “Wops”, “Spics” “slant eyes” and other derogatory names attached to the new “Americans”. They had all came to partake of the so called American Dream. With them came their culture from “the old country” that they still held onto to retain their cultural identity because there was no American culture. Only a promise called the American Dream that if you came here and worked hard, obeyed the laws, you could be anything you wanted to be. And for a precious few, that was true. But for the vast majority it was a pipe dream.

What does this have to do with the educational system one might ask? Very simply – everything. In a homogeneous society with many centuries of consistent cultural constants everyone has come to understand how and where they fit in their society and what they must do to get there. They understand what to expect from the time they are born until the day they die what their cultural norms are and are not. There are no politicians making wild promises about what can or cannot be done, culture has established that for them, not the government. Their education systems are designed to accommodate the people of that culture and its strengths. The curriculum in their school systems account for the rigidity of what the children expect and have been brought up to expect. The manners and behavior of the children are in place long before the children darken the doorway of a school because it is the way they were raised.

The essence of this argument is that our education system is trying to use a “one size fits all” approach to students who come from a myriad of cultural backgrounds. There are children from well disciplined backgrounds who are ready for a very structured education process. There are others whose backgrounds lack structure but who still have a lot of potential that can be reached through alternative means which capitalized on the child’s energy and natural curiosity. There are even more who are beyond what the school system is trying to teach in their structured programs that get bored and tend to be labeled as uncooperative.

In short, since we have not had sufficient time for America to develop a culture we can’t have an education system that is the same for everyone. The educational system needs to be able to identify the appropriate learning strategy for each child or groups of children and adapt their curriculum to them.

The real plight of our education system lies within the problem called a price tag. While we like to pretend that everyone has an equal opportunity to be educated the fact is that it simply is not true. Our education system is loosely modeled on other bureaucratic structures described by Max Weber. It is a cookie cutter design with a goal of all students being able to reach a particular goal at a particular point in time.

The fact that the children all come from different cultures and backgrounds and with different learning patterns seems not to matter. Because the primary goal is the most cost effective way of getting the most students to meet that particular goal is of the greatest importance.

Another measure quickly touted by school administrators is how many of their students go to college despite the fact that many children are more adept at learning and practicing a craft than earning a college degree. Other countries have long understood the importance of craftsmen and are respected within their cultures. In America children are made to feel that if they don’t go to college they are failures. As a society we look down on the trades and crafts as less important than those activities which are derived from college degrees. Yet it has always been the craftsmen who have built this country brick by brick, board by board, and highway by highway. It isn’t the math or science majors, or the engineers who have actually built anything. It has been the working people. Sure, we need the architects, chemist, and other scientists to design the roads, bridges, and buildings but we need more workers to actually build them. But when the job is done it is the so called professionals who get the credit and who are revered for the accomplishment, not the craftsmen who built it.

All in all we as a nation need to be realistic in our approach to education. The promise of equal opportunity needs to not depend on the race or wealth of the child or the parents or, for that fact where the child lives. There is no excuse for students in one place to have a nice school facility with all the bells and whistles while another group of children must attend a school where the roof leaks, the heating either doesn’t work or barely works, or the children attend under the threat of disease from mold growing in the building. Otherwise there is no such thing as equality.

Schools need to be funded so that teachers have manageable class sizes so that they can determine children who have different learning styles and needs. Children need to be encouraged to be curious and seek answers in order to find their learning styles. Those that show a strong inclination toward a craft then there should be a curriculum available for the child to explore that avenue. Similarly, those that show great promise in math and science should be given opportunities to follow those paths.
To be sure, this will be more expensive but it is an investment in the future. We should be spending far more money on education and less on prisons. In the long run there would most likely be less need for the prisons.

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