We are told and perhaps many agree that our schools are turning out students with needed workplace skills and the ultimate cause of our woes in the global marketplace can be traced back to inadequacies in our schools. Really, are schools to blame?

Certainly, the schools are always failing. Even Aristotle was dissatisfied with the youth of his age, 384 to 322 B.C. The schools can always be blamed forever at any time is not to our liking. Schools are the perennial copout for every social need or malady.

We were embarrassed when Sputnik was first in space. Yet, we were first on the moon and the students of that age are among those most recognized today for outstanding accomplishments in science, art, literature, and more. In this sense, schools have always failed while serving us so well.

While it may be true to some extent that our students and graduates are unmotivated, apathetic, and unskilled, our problems in the global marketplace may well be the result of our relishing on “there’s more where this came from,” “the bigger the better,” and/or “the more the merrier” while our counterparts throughout the world have been focused on an unrelenting commitment to value and quality.

So, is it possibly that our proclaimed problems in global competition are the result of inept negotiation around the business table or the result of shortsightedness in process control? What would be the cause of that? Do we really know the cause of U.S. business failure in the international marketplace or are we being fed some kind of make believe?

It seems so convenient to blame our schools for just about everything. Could it be that we tend to place blame somewhere else when there is only one other choice? Regardless, we can and we must do better in educating our children so that our place in the world will be secure. We need our children as well as all the generations that follow to be good citizens of earth.

One by one, leaders in business have been voicing concern over the state of our schools. However, little seems to have been done perhaps because no one precisely knows what should be done. What should be done? What can be done? Shall we create a smokescreen that only covers what may be wrong or worse obstructs what really should be done?

Whatever else needs to be done, restructuring should begin with the implementation of a program of attitude enhancement coupled with a program for basic skills development. A positive attitude is the key to success in any endeavor. Students need a positive attitude, teachers need a positive attitude, and communities need a positive attitude. People who hold themselves in high regard are open to the interpersonal teacher/student dialogue that is crucial for learning.

Basic skills development is next on the ladder of importance. Students need facility in the three R’s, of course. Also, they need to learn how to learn. With this, all else follows. Similarly, teachers need facility in basic classroom skills and techniques. They need to know how to do what it is they committed to do, namely, teach.

Apart from working on the analytical skills and communication skills that must include the taken for granted skill of listening, students at best are only incidentally taught how to learn. Steps and processes in learning can be presented, practiced, and implemented for lifelong application. Likewise, teachers learn the art/craft of teaching only incidentally. Often, teachers teach as teachers have taught. We would perhaps like to believe that more is done in preparation but really it is not. In contrast, fundamental skills and techniques can be purposely applied. Teaching can be structured to achieve intended outcomes.

Community-Business-School partnerships for restructuring and transforming schools are becoming commonplace. These generate the environment for meaningful needs assessment that underlies instructional design, implementation, and evaluation. While there are no guarantees, requirements must be specifically defined. Methods and means can then be fittingly structured. Control over what happens is at least possible. But, precisely identified, improvement many times over can be anticipated.

Creation date : 11/04/2006 @ 04:58
Last update : 11/04/2006 @ 04:58
Category : Restructuring and Transforming Education
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