Education is broken. Here's how I'd fix it.

If we're going to fix the American educational system, the first step will be to let go of some well intentioned, but misguided ideas that have attained dogmatic status in American education.  I should note that these are the ravings of a teacher on hiatus.

Misguided idea #1:  "ALL students must go to college." Let's get real. Not every kid WANTS to go to college, and many haven't developed the academic skills and self discipline necessary to succeed at the collegiate level.  Add to that the students who simply don't have the intellectual capacity, and we are at a much smaller fraction of our high school graduates.  These students will have a much richer collegiate experience if their less apt cohorts are in the workforce, rather than the lecture hall.  This delusion stems from a related thought : "A college education is necessary for success".  This in and of itself is completely erroneous.  The list of jobs one can do without a college degree is long, and many pay extremely well.

Misguided idea #2:  "ADHD medications are a Godsend." This is not only misguided, but cowardly.  Too many classroom teachers lack the disciplinary skills to effectively run a classroom.  ADHD medications treat the teachers' symptoms much more than the students.  Rather than learning and working on discipline techniques, these cowards actually take it upon themselves to diagnose ADHD in children who they cannot control.  Talk about ridiculous.  These people can't even TEACH, and many parents trust their "diagnoses"  Doctors have to go to 4 years of medical school before they can diagnose diseases.  Arrogance mixed with cowardice has lead to a generation of over-medicated kids.  While they are too tired to misbehave, they are also too tired to learn.  Check out the "quality" of the work your kids bring home.  IF they bring any home at all!  Most of it is utter crap and busy work.

Misguided idea #3: "The cream rises to the top."  This is true in dairy based applications, and almost nowhere else.  In the educational system, it is most certainly not true.  This misguided idea leads educational administrators and the general public to believe that principals are selected from the finest classroom teachers, and superintendents from the finest principals.  In fact, the Peter principle is the law of the land.  Principals are, in fact, built from those who couldn't hack it in the classroom, and most certainly couldn't hack it anywhere else.   These people couldn't teach their way out of a paper bag, much less lead an in-service designed to improve instructional techniques.  Superintendents, sadly have only two talents: pocketing taxpayer money, and power brokering.

Misguided idea #4 : "Education is a business, and should be run accordingly."  Education, in its purest form is an act of self sacrifice.  The Teacher sacrifices time, energy and talent to assist the student in strengthening their mind.  The student, on the other hand sacrifices instant gratification in order to attain self improvement.  Too often in education, there is power play.  Teachers who fail to realize that education is a voluntary process are guilty of using intimidation, humiliation, and a host of other "motivational techniques" to assert their dominance in the classroom.  Administrators use the exact same tactics on teachers, so I'm not sure this is not a case of "trickle down" harassment.  Public education is funded with taxpayer money.  It should be considered a public service.  Too many Egos have been artificially inflated with the "power" that a job in education affords them.

More to come as I think of them.

Now that we've let go of the misguided ideas that have lead us to the quagmire in which we find ourselves, let's fix things.

1)Restructure the educational experience to better match brain development.

• HEAVY focus on language in the early years, which tapers off as the children age.  This is based on my personal experiences, having gained nothing out of high school English or foreign language.  Our brains are prepared for language acquisition very early on.  Take advantage of this fact and make English and foreign languages THE focus in the primary grades.  Let's say till about 4th grade.
• HEAVY focus on Math and Science in the later years.  This is when the students are more likely to encounter highly qualified teachers in these subjects.  How many dinosaur and solar system units did you have to endure in your early education?  Our brains just aren't equipped to handle abstract thoughts when we are in elementary school.  Save it for when we're ready.  Start simple math about 3rd grade, and increase the focus on it every year until graduation.  Look at your child's math book for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade.  I bet you don't see much difference.  I'd like to see every kid take algebra in the 8th grade, and I think it can be done if we don't turn them off with so much repetition.
• Focus on History and fine arts throughout.  And please, please, let's acknowledge that the events matter a whole lot more than the dates on which they occurred.  Music, drama, debate, sculpture, painting and the rest are valuable, and should be explored as we develop.
• Increased focus on physical fitness.  Your brain works better when you exercise.  We messed up a long time ago when we changed the name of "gym" to "physical education".  This opened the door to learning about, but not actually doing physical activities, and the de-funding these programs because they were without merit.  Enter the Obese nation in which we live.  Time for us to get off our collective fat ass, and get moving again.  Kids should be in some sort of strenuous activity for at least an hour a day.  And while we're on the subject, give them recess back too.  A post recess class is much more attentive because they've burned off excess energy.  I'd bet it helps to stave off the post lunch sugar crash too.
• Offer Vocationally specialized educations.
• Sample child's day under the new system:
• 3rd grade:  1 hour physical activity, 3 hours language(English, reading, and another language) 1 hour fine arts, 30 minutes history, 30 minutes math
• 6th grade:1 hour physical activity, 2 Hours language(composition, grammar and literature in both languages, 30 minutes fine arts, 30 minutes history, 1 hour math, 1 hour science
• 12th grade(college plan):1 hour physical activity, 1 hour math, 1 hour science, 1 hour history, 1hour language, 1 hour elective academics
• 12th grade(vocational):  1 hour physical activity, 1 hour history, 3 hours vocational studies, 1 hour elective academics
• All student schedules assume 1 hour for lunch/recess. 

2)  Get rid of schools of education in favor of training aspiring teachers in a postgraduate setting.  The best teachers I've ever met never intended to become teachers, and got a degree in the subject they taught, rather than an education degree with a minor in their subject area.

3)  Get rid of compulsory education.  I'm not kidding.  No one values education because we force it on them.  look at countries like the Philippines and Japan where kids fight to get into the best school possible.  How much education do you need to collect garbage?  Drive a truck? Do construction work? Stock and bag Groceries?  I could go on forever.  We would improve the education of the students who want to be in school by allowing their friends who don't want to be there to leave once they've mastered the ability to read and write.  I'm not advocating forcibly kicking anybody out, but I think that there ought to be a lot more choice here.  If you don't want to come to school, fine.  Get a job.  I think we'd be surprised how quickly attitudes about education would change.  I predict it's in the one generation range.