Comment on 50 Stars "America Sucks in Education"

This is a commentary I made in response to a fellow colleges editorial post "America Sucks in Education".

While keeping records would certainly assist in determining the magnitude of the educational crisis, and perhaps even point out particularly troubled areas in our nation, the numbers do nothing to ascertain what is causing students to not complete high school. Discovering that requires a less mathematical and more human approach to the problem.

Barbara Pytel, in her article “Dropouts Give Reasons” quotes The News Journal who interviewed 500 dropouts and asked what made them decide to quite school. Eight different reasons were sited, and a quick look at the percentages shows that the students often listed more than one reason for leaving. I purpose that the eight reasons can be reduced to three main causes: a lack of interest and motivation, difficulty with learning the material, and life obligations interfering with school.

Recently I had the privilege of spending some time with students from Denmark who where participating in a study abroad program with ACC. These students were the same age as juniors and seniors in high school here, but educationally they were at our college level. I was able to question some of them and learned about their amazing school system. In summary, they have an incredibly flexible system that focuses on finding the right path for each individual student. What tests they do have are more for determining the student’s strengths and tailoring their education accordingly. The first 9 years are mandatory, with the first several years focused on basic education and a set curriculum. The later years are more diverse, combining a set curriculum with electives in various career paths. If after 9 years the student has yet to figure out what direction to go in, there is an optional 10^th year, with nothing but electives. From there the students can go to a trade school, which is basically paid training, or secondary school, which is similar to community college. The students that came to ACC were in a secondary school for Humanities. Once finished they will go on to universities that focus on their particular field of studies, such as journalism, politics, music, etc.

Now, it seems to me that this type of approach would solve all three problems mentioned for dropping out. The cost would be somewhat prohibitive; Denmark citizens pay extremely high taxes to cover it; but the benefit of ensuring the US stay competitive in an increasingly well educated world market makes this venture worthwhile. Also, a complete restructuring of our system may not be necessary. Perhaps we can pick and choose which aspects would be most beneficial, and implement those. In any case, something must change, before we find ourselves a third world country.