education is a waste of time

Education today, to a great extent, is wasting time, money and effort, the time and effort of the student and, to a great extent, the money of the parents.

Let’s start by debunking the myth that teachers (for now let’s talk about primary and secondary) are all that and a bag of chips. Teachers are not only given too much credit, but also too much blame. Currently, the movement is toward greater teacher accountability for student outcomes based on assessment criteria. What does all that arcane jargon mean? Simply that teachers are increasingly responsible for student grades. That, my friend, is good. Almost as funny as the one where a minister, a priest and a rabbi walk into a bar. . . Let me explain.

To a large degree, teachers have a workload that even the hardest worker would bend and break. Not only do they have to prepare lessons, attend meetings (teachers, administrators, parents) and have a life, if they can fit into it, they have a workload that makes them work an average of 57 hours per week. In addition, she finds that working as a teacher is stressful because there is no time to relax. As a teacher, you are in charge of teaching, policing, cajoling, organizing, training, motivating, disciplining, etc. From start to finish of the school day there is little time to relax, and most of the time you are working at full sensory capacity. That’s why there’s a huge teacher burnout. You have very little time to relax and withdraw into yourself (like a desk jockey or a cubicle cubicle). So on top of all of this, the teacher will now be responsible for chasing down 100-200 students to make sure they are doing their homework and learning what they need to learn.

But consider that there are now other factors that weaken the teacher physically, emotionally, and authoritatively. It is the last element I want to focus on here. Students and parents have largely undermined the strength of the teacher as an authority figure, one of the reasons why 3 in 5 teachers now entering the field (K-12) see teaching as a stepping stone. I have a lawyer friend who did just that.

When he began teaching, he was told by a grizzled veteran that “either you will give in to the demands of the students or you will resign.” To cite an example of this loss of control, in a general assembly a student was misbehaving. My friend told the student, who was not his, to calm down. The student challenged him and said, “I don’t care. You can even call the police. Nothing will happen to me.” Another friend, a classmate in grad school, told me that she was no longer a high school teacher because after 13 years her authority in the classroom had all but vanished. Add to this parents who are no longer very supportive of teachers. Many parents, if their child gets a bad grade, they blame it all on the teacher, and the student gets away with it.

Teachers are not, should not, and should never be viewed as the primary educators, motivators, or guardians of their students or children. Kids? What does that word naturally imply? Of course, parents. It is the parents’ responsibility to make sure their children are doing their homework and doing it well. Get off the couch and be the teacher you are meant to be.

I have numerous friends who have taken up teaching their children through home teaching. A topic of much discussion, but I bring it up here to show how the problems of the K-12 school system have gotten so out of control that parents are taking matters into their own hands.

It is essential that parents not only teach academics (i.e., check homework at a minimum), but also other vitally important topics of interest, concerns that last a lifetime beyond all the math, science, history, and English they teach. they are forgotten too soon. Some things that should be on that list are a work ethic, responsibility, patience, perseverance, respect for authority, cooperation, tolerance for difference, sacrifice, charity, humility, and more. If these things were taught by parents, as they should be, perhaps the number of problems we now face in school and society would be reduced.

Continuing on the theme of educational need and change, I would like to propose an academic review. This topic is quite complex and is something that I delve into in my next book Education is a Waste of Time, but I would like to touch on a few points here.

Think that in 24 hours we forget 80% of what we read if we do not review, and even more so if we do not pay attention, we have acquired the ability of better retention, and most importantly, we do not care, how much does our non-student retain? -what-stays-behind? Well, according to my eight-plus years of teaching, mostly at the college level (or as I like to call it, housekeeping college) and concurrent statistical evidence, less than 1/3 of all students entering community college have enough math, reading, and writing skills. The keyword here is enough. Considering there is a push for more math and science majors to keep up with the 6 countries producing students who out-prep our students, it seems we don’t have much hope. Although the push for students is ill-founded due to the small number of existing careers that require high-level math skills, the numbers do not bode well.

Taking all this into consideration, how important it is that we teach our students specific and closed studies: math, science, history, English, etc. I will often address this point by asking my students to repeat in the queue, from the first minute to the last, everything they learned in a class that day before coming to my class. Most, if not all, arrive completely empty handed. One thing we don’t teach or inspire our students to do is pay attention and acquire skills that help them focus on key material and be able to remember it. Where is that class in high school? We just throw it at it and hope it sticks. Maybe I miss the peak. Do teachers, parents, and administrators even consider having hope?

Another thing we have forgotten to do, as any good salesperson should do, is to ask. What happened to our authoritarian, empowered, leaving no student behind? The overly liberal shift of power from teacher to student is being wasted if we don’t ask the empowered what they want. And if they don’t know how, well, work on it. Many parents, teachers, and administrators will say, “Well, they’re kids. They’re not mature enough to know. Let them experiment in school (ie, K-14). It’s one of the reasons we want them to study the three r’s.” How about this? We ask them often and we ask them early. Consider the following. Please, naked with me.

On average, 1 in 10,000 has perfect musical pitch. In many Asian countries, where pitch determines meaning (ie going up at the end of a word means one thing, down another) 1 in 100 has perfect pitch. My point? Practice. If we make students think early and often about what they want to do with their lives, and more know they don’t, then that’s where they should focus and not struggle, spend most of their time in classes that don’t interest them, right? is that so? you are not motivated to participate and, in short, you will end up wasting a lot of time. Consider this, ten years from now, 70% of college graduates will be working in fields they weren’t educated in (as far as personal acquaintances, that number is low). And considering that many employers now only use a college degree as a dividing line (a way to weed out candidates with less potential), why not get a degree in something you love? Don’t waste those four years.

There is much more to this topic, such as the addition of financial classes, soft skills classes, success classes, etc., but our K-16 system is in dire need of repair and updating. Now, before too much time passes and more time, money and effort is wasted. I know that all of this is quite idealistic and difficult, if not impossible, to obtain; however, it is a goal or a target that we have to aim for. We have no alternative, remembering that it is not perfection that we seek but improvement.