Education, Always Education

“My family is the largest single contributor of soft money to the national Republican Party.”
Betsy DeVos

Education, Always Education

A lot of our Democratic politicians are running on an education ticket. Whether it is wiping out student loan debt or making college free; the ideas are being tossed around with little thought to the purpose: education.

After George Bush created No Child Left Behind and its huge test-taking bureaucracy, we see that education is not better; we see a lot of people getting rich. Giving out free education on the federal government’s dime will see costs spiral up — and the No Child Left Behind guys getting even richer.

As I learned from my Dad and Mom, education starts with the parents. If the parents are involved in the beginning, the kid has a huge head start. If the parents rely solely on the schools to raise their kids, the kid will play catch-up his whole life.

Now, if the Republicans would allow the Infrastructure bill to pass without lining their own pockets with gold, our education could have several paths including a wonderful life-time improving our country with roads, dams, orchards, bridges, docks and more. An education in Road Planning and Engineering would lead to a great job outdoors and in the sunlight.

Putting our people to work has always been the solution.

England has a pretty good education plan. They figure out early a good path for the student to take. England doesn’t really teach “follow your dream” and I appreciate that.

The Republicans are not always to blame but we won’t forgive Ronald Reagan for breaking the unions. Big business is making the little guy a slave to his small paycheck. But, raising taxes to have the Feds pay for everything is unhealthy too. Which is why we have a two-party system.

The problem with a two-party system is that some things are hard to recover from and balance back out. Like the Fairness Doctrine, shot down by: Ronald Reagan. We are deep in the dirty water of information wars now, it is ugly. Bring it back!

We need to revamp all of our schools to be adaptable to the fast changes in our society. New jobs are replacing old jobs and training for old jobs is a dead end. If someone says that 90% of the lawyers can be replaced by software: believe them at least a little bit.

I got my master’s degree in Theater right in the heart of Los Angeles. The actor’s training was solely for the stage. Zero ideas on facing a camera or doing voice work or theme park character work or digital gaming or green screen and that was twenty years ago! Astonishing how the possibility for a trained actor to get work has multiplied in the past years.

With the acting example it is easy to see how a teacher can expand the potential of training in a field. Too many teachers are teaching their same class every year.

We need to look forward, starting with the parents and their kids at an early age to develop a flexible mind. We need to teach understanding more than hard testable facts.

But, most of all, we need to teach hope. Our students need to be tasked with saving the world, not living in despair that it will end in their lifetime.

How? Pay the teachers, make small classrooms.