Jim Gibson is Co- Founder and CEO of Adsil – Manufacturing – Technical glass film surface treatments for metal. He is founder of Leadership Daytona and President Elect Volusia Manufacturing Assoc.He has a BS Industrial Management from Georgia Tech; an MBA from UNC Chapel Hill; and 30 hours coursework in Urban Planning at Georgia Tech.
I am pleased to be asked by the esteemed Dr. LSD to service
as a guest blogger….more because the Dr. assumes you may need a rest from his
blither for a week. Whichever the
case, I am here warts and all. Over the past year we have discussed the issues
that have driven our country to its current position in a macro sort of way.
These discussions were lively and sometimes sober enough to drive me to partake
of my favorite beverage… Cabernet...and when I have a few extra pennies to
spare… then the Opus brand. It beats JD any day.
The other day, while pondering the news for the first time
after my 9 day long vacation at my daughters’ extended families in Charlotte NC
it came to me that solutions had to be found or even we boomers will be feeling
the pain sooner than we think…or maybe just moving to Panama or some other
third world country where we can live in luxury in an American style town. I contacted Dr.D and asked if he could jump
out of the macro stuff for a while and get down to the core issues so we could
find ways…in our own small way to... affect some sustainable solutions.
I do not write blogs but instead focus on lively letters to
customers and shareholders. So if you
feel a nod coming on …wake up…there is something interesting and your comments
are welcome…if not needed.
Education has been bantered around and unless somebody has
been snoozing in a parallel time matrix there should be agreement on a solution
for improving education. However, what
are we talking about here? K-12? Adult?
College? Trade School? Charter Schools? Content? Applied or just academic?
Should there be a national program or should that be left to
the states, counties or communities?
Here are some factoids:
- 1. Since 1928 when records began to be kept….only 25%+ or – 1.5% of high school graduates finish a recognized four year college. Why? Should everyone get a college education? Are the degrees that are offered now meaningful for the new norm (define the norm)?
- 2. College Board (SAT) scores began to decline in 1969…just shortly after Dr. D graduated from GT. They have continued to decline or be flat since then. I say this because I wonder if more unqualified people are taking the test and watering down the average. Conversely, is it because the curriculum is watered down?
- 3. The dropout rate from high school students is also 25%.
- 4. Manufacturing jobs decreased in number by 35% since 1985 and were replaced with technology or some other pair of hands in an off-shore country.
- 5. By 2020 Hispanics and blacks will represent close to 50% of the population and the data presented above is worse for this group than for whites. Indians (not US) and other Asians coming to this country fiercely love the right and ability to get a good education and often take it back home to compete with us.
- 6. There is a green card problem here with all of the fervor about illegal immigrants…a side bar issue for further discussions with several bottles of CAB or JD.
- 7. During this past 35 years, the US has dropped to 8th place in K-12 education within the G22….and still declining.
- 8. During the past 10 years China has risen to # 2 in GDP and India is rapidly catching China. The other two countries in the BRIC are quickly catching up.
- 9. We are a marketplace that rewards creativity, technical knowledge and application, intelligence over physical power and that has the ability to see through the fast pace to come up with new ideas, solutions and applications.
OK so we can guess a little at what this
means but how do we indentify the core causes and find ways to improve the
education system…or maybe even create a new one? Without it we will become a sub-par nation in
terms of intellectual effectiveness.
I propose that the timeline you used at the outset is an indicator of the major problem and that would be federal control of education along with an ever-increasing tendency for the education field to become a progressive stronghold where no student is allowed to fail and ethnic diversity and political correctness become more important than education itself. I mean, what can you really do with a PhD in The Smell of Body Odor of Giant Pandas?
ReplyDeleteYou have raised the key point, what do we mean by education? Does work experience qualify? A solid liberal arts curriculum has historically been a predictable path to propserity and prerequisite for many professional careers. An academic pedigree is not necessary if one has the imagination, ethic and resources to engage in entrepreneurship. The washout rate is high but the rewards, financial and otherwise, can be significant. Education tends to follow role models and incentives. These are strongest when at least one parent is on hand, a modern domestic rarity.
ReplyDeleteDear LSD and JG. Yes, edukation is one of the major problems our govomit has been trying to fix since before (and after) the U.S. Dept. of Edukation was signed into law in 1979 by Carter as a Cabinet-level department. Notably, the downward trends of edukation performance measures since 1979 has been glaringly appalling. That is not to say the U.S.DofE is the cause, but it certainly has not helped despite the billions spent on “improving” edukation – just like the wars on poverty and drugs have similarly shown govomit “participation” to be feckless and a poor ROI on taxpayers’ “investments.”
ReplyDeleteLet’s go crazy for a moment . . . go out on a limb and say the govomit – whether the U.S.DoE or other alleged well-intended use of taxpayers’ $$ – is simply a reflection of overall U.S. society’s ethos, values, customs, etc., and as such, the performance of the U.S.DoE and other alleged “well-intended” uses (the of the govomit in general) of TPs’ $$, while less than acceptable, is simply just a matter of getting what you (we) ask (vote) for – because it’s just a reflection of our ethos, values, customs, etc.
But wait! This cannot be true! In asking (voting) for the U.S.DoE and other govomit programs we didn’t expect such lousy outcomes . . . such poor ROI on our “investments.” Did we? What happened? I say the govomit happened. I say we’ve become soft . . . accepting behaviors that shirk personal responsibility, sacrifice, delayed gratification, competition, and reward for success in favor of govomit solutions, policies, and programs that imply (if not guarantee) nanny state from crib to grave. The govomit happened because we voted for it . . . too many blue levers pulled.
Mr. JG asks to ID the core causes specific to U.S. edukation failure. Citizens and policy wonks both offer specific solutions too numerous to present here . . . but until we (as a nation) demand better behaviors and outcomes from ourselves and elected officials we will continue to spiral downward into the education and brain drain/vortex. We and they need to recognize that continuing with current departments, programs, and policies that do not reinforce personal responsibility, sacrifice, delayed gratification, competition and reward for success is tantamount to insanity – expecting different (e.g. better) outcomes by continuing to do the same thing. Maybe as Mr. JG implies . . . . get a new system . . . . e.g. create a new one . . . . or get rid of one (e.g. U.SDoE if it continues to fail), or two (teachers’ unions who fight change, increased contributions to retirement plans, and tenure), or three . . . . . Pull the red lever.
It seems there is a thread of getting back to personal responsibility and making government agencies in charge of education accountable for results that are demanded by the public ...but more so by the employers. Can this be done?
ReplyDeleteIf high schools prepared students for the work force rather than passing some standardized test or going to some college to get a degree in Panda Belly Smelling then that would be a starting place. In saying we should take back America...what we mean is taking back those systems that built America. Does that cover everything? NO!
We still have to define the objectives....what we want...more like need...to achieve.
I know the local schools are missing art,ethics, civics, history music, physical education...seems like frivolity but those course help install creativity, fitness, discipline and and appreciation of organizing something by looking at the big picture...in a major way those are the icing on math, writing, reading and science, and provide the enhanced tools to deal with the work and personal social world, set objectives and be successful.
In our middle schools the focus is on self esteem...not building it because one completes a task successfully but rewarding one for breathing...or Johnny ..it OK you are a good person. Instead of saying you have to get it right to go to the next step and you are responsible for the outcome.
In each of our communities we have to get back to being responsible and accountable to the public for the exercise of public funds. In this case and this application of those funds education is the underlying baseboard to rebuild and fix our broken system on.