My thought on all this politics and financial crisis is that we can make a difference. We MUST make a difference!
What can we do right now to ensure that the youth and children of now are smart enough and prepared enough and willing enough to care about this country like we do and to run it effectively?
Education is the key to our survival. Look around you; look at the average kid walking down the street. Is that who you want running our country in 40 years? Would they even care enough to want to?
By putting more of a focus on the education of this and the next generations we can ensure that our country will be worth the respect of those around us and that we won't have to worry about the next big crisis.
I think that Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump have the right idea. In WHY WE WANT YOU TO BE RICH, they talk a lot about financial education. It is crucial to not only teach kids the basics, but to also teach them about the wonders of respect and accomplishment and self-worth. By giving them a financial education, we can increase the chances of them being successfully independent. Part of that education needs to be the analysis of situations like what we face now in the financial sector. I once heard someone say that Wall Street didn't affect them because they owned no stock. I wonder what they are thinking now.
Kids are leaving schools without the basic skills to do simple math or even to know how to read in many cases. I've seen this. It is frightening.
Is it up to government to fix our education problems? Isn't it up to the people? This is no time for pointing fingers and saying "you did it." It is a time to come together and find a solution to the problem. Don't like the schools your kids go to? Home school, give them the level of education you think they require, but be sure you include the things that are important. WE have to make certain that we all begin and master the basic skills before moving on to the "fun" stuff.
Where is the support for our educators. I do believe that a lot of the problem with education lies with the teachers. It is not their fault! But they are tired. They are overworked, they are underpaid, and they are seriously underappreciated. What incentive do they have to even care? Now, don't get me wrong, they chose their career and they had to know going in that it would have its down side, but overpopulated classrooms, lack of financial support for curriculum materials and basic tools? Was this part of the deal? When was the last time you thanked your child's teacher for their efforts. How many teachers actually feel like anyone cares?
Well, I care. I don't have children, but I am educated enough to know that if we, as a people, don't do something to support education in this country, we are all in a lot of trouble, now, and in the future!
Teachers need to be paid more, and they need to be held to certain standards. Government at all levels needs to fund education with more passion and money than it funds incarceration.
I am of the mind that if we spent more time and effort educating kids about the basics and even life skills, we wouldn't HAVE to spend so much time and money on incarceration. We would be developing better, more intellignet, and self-confident people who might just committ less crimes.
K
Great deal of truth in this post. It is alarming the lack of basic 3R's education young people are getting nowadays. Then again, my generation was a bunch of "tear the system down" Hippies and now they're running the country. Not very well, though.
I so agree with you. I looked at the results of a poll when people were rating what was most/least important to them in this election. Education came in last. I wanted to cry.
I know that this does not pertain to your blog entry, but I cannot seem to contact you via anything else. Did you ever read the thing I sent you over Yahoo? I sent that a while ago and never got a reply. Did my email never reach you, or did your email never reach me? Please respond right away.
Now to your blog entry. I saw this great sticker that said, "It will be a great day when schools have all the funding they need, and the Air Force must hold bake sales to pay for a bomber." I think that's how it went.
Oops. I seemed to have posted my question anonymously. I'm really cool from Yahoo.
I think you touched on two important issues: one is formal education, and the other is social education--how to 'be' in the world. Teachers are underpaid and, in some parts of the country, under-prepared; schools are over-crowded; and resources are limited for students and teachers. Also, kids are not learning to respect themselves or others, in many instances. (Not all). I think the world is moving way too fast for them and, though I love technology, it's dumbing us down--we don't have to think on our any more.
Oops. Meant to say:
we don't have to think on our OWN any more.
Every school should utilize Junior Achievement's Fr*e Economics program from kindergarten to high school. There's even a special program for rural schools. I taught the JA program for middle schoolers and it's fantastic. This package is a no-brainer, yet there are schools that do not know about it.
http://www.ja.org
Dani