Opinions On Education

The following is an attempt to put my opinions on education today into writing.  If at any point you feel as though I am ranting rather than being logical, please stop reading.  I will attempt to offer solutions when I have a well formulated answer. 

At times I will struggle to put into exact words what my opinion is, and will most likely bounce from place to place at points.  Bare with me 

Part One

First off I am a young teacher.  Many could say that I am too young, and inexperience for my opinions to be justifiable or heard.  I would respond that yes I am young, but I am not inexperience in the field of education, or in the politics of education.  If you consider me too young, opinionate, or just plan stupid, do not read this.   I know what I see and I know it well.  This is what I see

I teach a social science. Social Sciences have been relegated to a second or third class subject. This is not opinion, it is fact.  Look at the increasing importance placed on Science and Math.  My school system, and the Commonwealth in which I teach, have become apart of the growing number to place STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) education at the forefront of their curriculum.  We as a country are doing so at our own peril. 

            Peril is the word I choose for this because we suffer when education is compartmentalized.  STEM has become so popular because those fields are where jobs are TODAY.  China, Japan, and parts of Europe saw STEM on the horizon years ago, thus they are benefiting today.  Think of the Industrial revolution.  The United States fortunately caught the IR soon enough to ride the wave to shore.  The wave of STEM is already crashed over us.  The education system of this country would be better to take our lumps and look to the future.  The future is not in STEM it is in free thinking and ideas.  Original thought is the future. How are we going to implement this technologies is going to be the question more asked than, how are we going to invent a technology

            My solution is to simply stop.  Curriculum can and should be written to broaden student rather than send them into a specific field.  With in a borad education there is room for the sciences, yet there is room for the soft sciences, art, and physical education aswell.  Teach our students in the liberal arts. Teach them to ask questions, not so much of how, but why.  Had “Why?” been asked more than “Why Not?” many of the worlds problems would not have be problems at all.  The world needs to stop asking what new technology is next, and start asking what the cost of that new technology is.  What human skill is being lost at the expense of the new widget? What are the implications of these new technologies?  These questions my friends are better asked by philosophers and humanist than engineers and nanotechnologist.  Technology only dulls our creative thinking.  Look back to the feats obtained by the likes of Einstein, Newton, or the Greeks. These were not done with the latest, or greatest, but ink, paper and mind