On Education....
Before the Civil War, the idea of public education was still
controversial. Conservatives argued that education was the responsibility of
parents not the government. The result was that rich families sent their kids
to private schools, or hired tutors, and poor families sent their kids to work.
And guess what? The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Liberals argued
that a better educated populous would help everybody.
When Kansas became a state, the idea of free education was
written into the state constitution. Settlers flocked to Kansas with the
promise of hundreds of free public schools within walking distance of everyone.
People have been moving to Kansas because of the outstanding education system,
including state sponsored colleges and universities, ever since.
Along with education comes things like better health, lower
crime, higher per-capita income and better quality of life in general.
The subjects that are taught have often been controversial.
Industry was generally opposed to universal education until they realized that
teaching people to read and follow instructions and show up on time would be
helpful for productivity.
Since World War II we having been moving away from the
industrial economy toward a knowledge based economy. Those whose education
consisted of learning to show up and follow directions are being left behind.
The number of well-paying jobs that require only high school are getting to be
few. The result, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Creativity is the
new “must have” skill. Schools must be teaching people to think clearly, learn
how to solve problems, and most importantly, giving them a desire for life-long
learning. This generally happens only at the college level or at the best high
schools.
The next step the government needs to take is to move to
provide free or affordable college level education for all. Community colleges
and state universities are already in a position to make this happen. But there
is a problem. People who have gone into debt or worked hard to pay for a
college education are not going to be open to suddenly making this free to
others. The legacy idea of having to pay for an expensive education will take
much political effort to overcome and is probably not possible in one generation.
It took many years for the idea of free elementary and high
schools to be accepted and then only happened on a state by state basis. If
Kansas really wanted to give the state economy a boost, offering free college
tuition to all residents would be the best thing we could do. Reducing funding
to schools would be the absolute worse thing.
An underlying question that begs to be answered is “What is
the purpose of college?” Is it to teach a marketable skill such as medicine,
engineering, or accounting? Is it to make contacts and build relationships that
will be helpful and fulfilling all through life? Is it just a prestige thing
that you can point to open doors? Or maybe it is to open our minds to art and
literature that will enhance our entire life.
I think it is all of those things. I've always contended
that the main purpose of higher education is to show us what we don't know.
This gives us a desire to learn more, and the more we learn the more we realize
what we don't know. A common characteristic of uneducated people is that they
think they know it all.
In today's culture, to be successful we need to have a
desire and ability to be continuous learners, be flexible problem solvers, have
the ability to work with others, and be able to relate to a wide variety of
people and situations. This might happen in 12 years, but with our current
education system, at least 16 years is required.
