Today, 33% of all public high school students are dropping out. Of those who graduate high school, upwards of 70% desire to obtain a college degree. The majority do not. And of those who acquire a college degree—of deflated value—within five to ten years 70% are no longer working in a field related to their major. Some of this is acceptable, but there should be much more fulfillment and greater movement toward the American Dream. So what is happening to the dream? First, let’s define what it is or, more specifically, what many believe it is founded in, and then we will get into the particulars.

For most, the American Dream is founded in a solid education resulting in a four-year college degree (or that’s the perceived belief, yet only 28% of the population has a bachelor’s degree). So the question must be asked, exactly what does “education” mean? If you are looking to obtain something, it is always best to first and foremost get it clear as to what it is you are attempting to accomplish. This begins with definition. If you want to “love,” you better know what that term means, more specifically what it means to you, an individual definition. If you want “joy” in your life, “happiness,” “challenge,” “reward,” whatever it may be, you better get your definitions down before you even begin to set specific outcomes or goals. This all limits to the greatest degree any unnecessary aimless drifting, which happens all too often for many seeking an education as well as in obtaining goals in general. And another reason to get your definition is because an “education” is often defined for you (by government, parents, college) without your thorough understanding–which often works to the disadvantage of the educated. More on this later.

So what is “education”?

First of all, let’s take a look at what the government defines as education because it is the one that offers or mandates primary and secondary education. Post-secondary, college / university, is a separate issue. Today, the main emphasis is on science and math to supply workers for careers in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). Since this is government sponsored education, it is about feeding the economies and not about the student, a key point I’ll focus more on later.

In 2006 George Bush announced the American Competitiveness Initiative because the need for scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in the 21st century is great. A main focus of education from the start has been to feed the economies, of course. America needs to make money and compete with other countries for that money via trade to maintain and improve living conditions. And training students in math and science is good, for according to the National Science Foundation (2004), half of all U.S. economic growth in the last 50 years is a result of scientific innovation.

However, what needs to be addressed here is the point that only about 5 percent of the workforce is currently employed in STEM fields. This is something that few if any are talking about, and it creates a major issue for the individuals being educated. Because of the great need for graduates in science and math to feed the economies, opinion leaders and the general public alike see these disciplines as important, of course. Generally, as you can see here, what is taught mostly in public high schools is math and science, and linguistics: three science classes (biology, chemistry, physics; alternatives are physical and life sciences), five math classes (pre-algebra, algebra I, geometry, algebra II, and trigonometry), four English classes, a few from the social sciences (world history, U.S. history, government, economics, and accounting), two years of physical education, and maybe some health and wellness classes.

The needs of the country should not be overlooked or slighted. There is a great push for STEM field workers for good reason, for the Business Roundtable (2005) believes that if current trends continue 90% of all scientists and engineers will reside outside the U.S. And since detail is critical to understanding, or being able to see a clear picture through detail and definition, here are the fourteen most burgeoning fields: Advanced Manufacturing •  Aerospace •  Automotive  •  Biotechnology •  Construction  •  Energy •  Financial Services  •  Geospatial Technology  •  Health care •  Homeland Security  •  Hospitality •  Information Technology  •  Retail •  Transportation.

Most of the information above comes from a report that was prepared by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration by Jobs for the Future (2007). To repeat, what the country needs is important, those competent in science and math; however, in an AP-AOL News poll 4 in 10 said they hated math, and I’m sure of the remaining 60% there’s not a lot of love being given complex equations. As a college instructor with over ten years experience, to get a bit of a pulse on students and their majors, over the years I’ve taken informal polls of incoming freshmen to see how many are math or science majors. Most of the time, if I’m lucky, I get one or two in a class of thirty, which makes sense, for there are currently excessive openings in STEM fields.

However, the question must be asked, of those who don’t hate math and can at least stomach it, has learning occurred? And if it has, is it being applied and to what degree? (More on this momentarily) It certainly would be nice to know if our taxes are going to good use, for we are so concerned about our children going to school, but do we really know what they are taking with them upon graduation or our ROI?

For most students, any math beyond arithmetic or a basic understanding of science is generally wasted; for really, there is little chance that even a lukewarm reception of science or math will take one far in a career and / or life. Even if most don’t use math in their careers, there are always the pro-math group that will say math is important by arguing, for instance, that one needs higher math to determine the size of one’s garden, the family budget, how to lay out the back patio and so on. The belief that a great number of high school grads will apply higher math (beyond arithmetic) to at-home applications is putting too much faith where only faith may be. Or in other words, not likely. For most people, according to uber-successful marketer Dan Kennedy, are selfish, lazy, and they’re right, meaning; once again, they are not motivated to extend themselves mathematically. Just think of the average person you know and how much they use math. You do the math.

Regardless, everyone’s been exposed to math in high school, at least from algebra to geometry to some trigonometry and pre-calculus. But to what end? Is there any surveying going on post-graduation to see how much of what has been learned (and what has been learned?) is used? Needed? Desired? Of practical, everyday, career or personal use to the graduate? Once again, I’m not saying math is unimportant, nor science. What I desire for the student is to have a more realistic understanding of math and science’s place in education. And remember, it’s the education the student defines, not anyone else. So if it’s in the student’s definition, fine. If not, fine also. The student decides. I’m basing this in the belief that we live in a free country where we are free to make our own choices.

But let’s get back to the student that doesn’t hate math and can at least stomach it, has she learned?

Most believe that because a person graduates high school or college that “education” has taken place. However, if the motivation is external, as in main interest being grades, one may get the grade but not learn, a lot of that going on. In addition, if the student is not interested in the material or doesn’t use it, it will dissipate and disappear in a short period of time. The “stickiness” of education or lack thereof is a critical part of the process that few consider. If you’ve seen that show Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? you know what I speak of. It’s got little to do with “smarts” but more to do with interest and frequency of use. Even if the student has interest in what she is learning, if it is not used on a regular basis it is forgotten all too quickly. So don’t think that because your child is being exposed to particular subjects that she is getting an education, in the sense that the knowledge is retained and used for the long term. Or, for that matter, that the high school grad knows how to apply the knowledge using the much maligned critical thinking. For most that get an “education” it is study, test, purge with little understanding as why the material has been learned or how to apply it.

To support, I remember going with my wife to classes offered by the state to help our son overcome his delayed-language learning issue. We attended for several months faithfully with about ten other couples. We learned the material, applied it somewhat, and once the class was over soon forgot all about it. And this is the typical response for even people who are mature and responsible, never mind young and inexperienced. I see my seventeen-year-old daughter finishing off assignments like a hot potato, tossing them to the side as soon as possible to be forgotten and never visited again, if she can help it. And being in education for over twelve years, mostly at the college / university level, it is something I often see, hear about, and have been told directly by students.

We can’t merely give the inexperienced great knowledge with little to no practical understanding as to its reason for being, first and foremost, nor an understanding of what to do with it all after its been learned and expect them to retain it never mind use it. Basic motivation says that to get someone to go somewhere, first they have to know where they’ve been, where they’re going, and what they need to do when they get there. We are giving knowledge like a gift to never be unwrapped, seen, or utilized. A sad state of affairs indeed.

Getting back to secondary education’s main purpose, to entice more to become science and / or math majors, so therein is the injustice of a STEM based education. Many are called but few are chosen to serve. So what of the 90-95% who don’t fit the bill?

As I’ve mentioned before, we should not negate the critical need for students to fill STEM jobs (again, many going unfilled at this minute), but a critical point to consider is that a student may not be made for the STEM fields. And if this is true, trying to insert someone somewhere where they don’t belong is counterproductive, regardless of need. For in the long run, if a person does not like what she is doing, she will not do it for long, not very productively, at least. I and tens of thousands of others have been there. My advice is just don’t do it, nor should students be conditioned to believe that if they don’t fit into the STEM education system that they are dumb or should worry excessively about fitting in.

Unfortunately, this excessive focus on science and math often conditions schools and their leaders to excessively force students to learn or comply with little subjective, logical reasoning. I heard of one case where a student attempted to pass a particular math class some six to seven times to no avail. This is an utter waste of time, for the student either has learning disabilities that must be addressed or no aptitude or interest, so pass the class to what effect?

But there are critical needs for certain general knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are essential for most everyone looking to maintain an income today.

Today’s needs are certainly different from those established during the Age of Enlightenment in the mid-nineteenth century when the concept of a free education for all arose, an education model that is still used today. Early in our country’s history, education meant preparing workers for their place in the nineteenth century economies, along with some understanding of civic pride and responsibility. If you were “educated,” you were considered scholarly—good communication skills, knowledge of the classics, and an understanding of civic responsibilities. But even though the pace of society has increased, needs changed, internationalism a cold, hard fact our education system has changed little.

Today’s classrooms are still focused on dispensing material to passive students who merely accept what is given as necessary and needed in their lives or by those who do little thinking about the why’s and how’s of their education. Some say that these “children” are not ready for such independence, but that is old-school thinking of a slower, less complex time. Things have changed. Back when government first mandated education, free at the point of delivery for everyone, it was all about the Industrial Age, mass production and manufacturing were king. Today, things have changed considerably. Today, creativity is king, that which requires greater student participation and autonomy, for greater creativity, knowledge acquisition and retention, responsibility, accountability, and so forth.

Today, half of all jobs ($1.7 trillion of GDP) come from the creative sector. And with the traditional classroom of listen, study, learn and regurgitate, there is little massaging of critically needed creative and critical thinking skills. Today, many workers are creatively designing for entertainment technology, devices and applications, like never before. Today’s workers can create software for gaming systems, phones, and computers. They can create movies, like those who work at Pixar. But it’s not just animators who work there. Pixar also employs mathematicians and scientists to get those amazing, almost more real than real life pictures. But there’s more than just STEM field jobs that require creativity. There is diversity in how one may earn their way today like never before. It is the most exciting time to live and earn.

What are some of those fun, exciting, fulfilling creative jobs?

Life or career coach, Ferrari driving instructor (Really!), chocolatier, magician, disc jockey, sports writer / broadcaster, standup comic (did that myself for five years), cruise ship performer (I roomed with one who has his masters in mathematics from UCLA; makes about $2,000 a show and does dry land corporate gigs too), wedding planner, theme park designer, food or movie critic, interior decorator / designer, PR / marketing, movie / commercial director, meeting and event planner. And the list goes on and on. You can get creative yourself. That’s the beauty of this entrepreneur based society that allows each individual to follow his or her passion to great effect.  I have one client who has a passion for organizing. She tells me that when she gets a juicy job, like organizing an entire house, she gets so excited she can’t sleep at night. Now that’s not a job but a passion.

Certainly some of these jobs or careers are not traditional or difficult to make lucrative, but that shouldn’t be the reason to stop. I have met and know many very successful people who have given up very good incomes in more traditional jobs to do things they love, like selling wellness products, mustard, and scrap book building techniques. Odd as it may sound, these people moved away from their traditional jobs with very good pay for a good reason; they wanted to follow their passion. Considering that mortality is very brief, it’s much better to follow a dream to say it didn’t work out instead of should have, could have on your death bed.

But times have changed as well. No longer is it safe merely to go after the money via a job; for the job is dead what with corporate downsizing and an increase in contract and temporary work to cut costs. Today, a worker must become an entrepreneur of one creating great personal value, skills, knowledge, attitude, character to ensure a career in these economically unstable times. Jobs and economic sectors will come and go, but the worker must be a constant. And this is what each person above focused on to obtain their success. It is the only way to survive today. You must get much more than just mere tip-of-the-ice berg knowledge at college, you must build a personal foundation of great depth and breadth. I often say that most college students even upon graduation are still missing 60-70% of critical knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to succeed today.

However, many in the workforce merely pick from the existing job menu. And that’s fine for some, but not for many. Because too many are educated via the external–such as what society deems acceptable, parents, or peers, or even colleges–and not based in intrinsic desires or the individual’s desires and needs, the college student gets into trouble. Some students may just go to the college catalog and choose from there. Or some may attempt to satisfy deficiencies by seeking jobs that will provide respect, prestige, or status. All of these are greatly attempts at failure, for greatest motivation comes internally or intrinsically utilizing one’s unique talents, abilities, gifts to mastermind a plan not merely to gain income but to provide opportunity for growth, challenge, and purpose. According to motivational expert Dan Pink, the following three elements are the main features of motivation and achievement: autonomy (freedom of choice), mastery, and purpose. The worker cannot find long-lasting, sustainable success, happiness, and joy, even, without focusing on the self, or self-interest, in an effort to master a skill to obtain great personal purpose. This can only be found through optimizing freedom of individual choice. How can anyone find mastery or great purpose doing that which one feels lukewarm about never mind hates?

I find it sad that in a creative, problem solving, entrepreneurial based society, the development of entrepreneurial skills in education are virtually ignored. We don’t think in these terms because government sanctioned education has conditioned us to think language, math, and science. What of teaching comfort with chaos, dealing with uncertainty, taking risks and enjoying them, confidence, persistence and tenacity, acceptance of failure and the ability to learn from it. Some of these attitudes and skills would also be very useful for employees too, amongst many others that should be taught that are just discovered by chance by most in the workforce, often many years into existing careers.

There’s even a popular notion of skipping college education and learning more career specific skills via classes and hands-on training or apprenticing.  In many countries in Europe, students co-op their education, roughly 40-70% attend school and work, taking a few years not four or more years to train for a place in the workforce. Far too many students obtain mere knowledge and theory and not critical attitudes and skills needed today. A great place to learn them is in the work environment itself. In addition, there are many higher education experts who see this as a waste (see Bryan Caplan’s statement below).

I worked with an English woman who didn’t go to college, who was the VP of MIS and she found it odd that so many Americans have a college degree. Neither I nor most of the programmers I worked with had a college degree and we were making very high end salaries as programmers and programmer / analysts. She said, and I quote, “The only people going to college were specializing in fields like medicine, law, and engineering.” The cost of college is twice the rate of inflation. Total loans spent have increased in the last three years by 25% going from $440 to $550. Going to college is no place to find yourself or if you get a degree you damn well be sure that you use it if you’re going to spend thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars.

Because of all these issues with education, some are coming up with alternative forms of achievement, such as Tim Ferris, author of The 4 Hour Work Week, who wrote “8 Steps to Getting What You Want Without a Formal Education.” He speaks to the fact that most jobs (80%) are obtained via networking and only a small percentage (20%) via adverts in the newspaper and on the Internet. He speaks to not only getting a job but building a career by going to the informal job market or networking, establishing your own credentials via experience and research, that employers require skills not degrees. Ferris is basically saying that unless your need specific training–such as one needs to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer–there are alternatives.

Here are a few more looks at education issues and the debunking of myths and mis-notions about the same from the experts at The Chronicle of Higher Education from the article “Are Too Many Students Going to College?”

Charles Murray, political scientist and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute: It has been empirically demonstrated that doing well (B average or better) in a traditional college major in the arts and sciences requires levels of linguistic and logical/mathematical ability that only 10 to 15 percent of the nation’s youth possess. That doesn’t mean that only 10 to 15 percent should get more than a high-school education. It does mean that the four-year residential program leading to a B.A. is the wrong model for a large majority of young people.

Marty Nemko, career counselor based in Oakland, Calif.: All high-school students should receive a cost-benefit analysis of the various options suitable to their situations: four-year college, two-year degree program, short-term career-prep program, apprenticeship program, on-the-job training, self-employment, the military. Students with weak academic records should be informed that, of freshmen at “four year” colleges who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their high-school class, two-thirds won’t graduate even if given eight and a half years. And that even if such students defy the odds, they will likely graduate with a low GPA and a major in low demand by employers. A college should not admit a student it believes would more wisely attend another institution or pursue a non-college postsecondary option. Students’ lives are at stake, not just enrollment targets

Richard K. Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity and professor of economics at Ohio University: A large subset of our population should not go to college, or at least not at public expense. The number of new jobs requiring a college degree is now less than the number of young adults graduating from universities, so more and more graduates are filling jobs for which they are academically overqualified.

Bryan Caplan, associate professor of economics at George Mason University: There are two ways to read this question. One is: “Who gets a good financial and/or personal return from college?” My answer: people in the top 25 percent of academic ability who also have the work ethic to actually finish college. The other way to read this is: “For whom is college attendance socially beneficial?” My answer: no more than 5 percent of high-school graduates, because college is mostly what economists call a “signaling game.” Most college courses teach few useful job skills; their main function is to signal to employers that students are smart, hard-working, and conformist. The upshot: Going to college is a lot like standing up at a concert to see better. Selfishly speaking, it works, but from a social point of view, we shouldn’t encourage it.

Caplan: College attendance, in my view, is usually a drain on our economy and society. Encouraging talented people to spend many years in wasteful status contests deprives the economy of millions of man-years of output. If this were really an “investment,” of course, it might be worth it. But I see little connection between the skills that students acquire in college and the skills they’ll need later in life.

Murray: A large wage premium for having a bachelor’s degree still exists. For everything except degrees in engineering and the hard sciences, I submit that most of that premium is associated with the role of the B.A. as a job requirement instead of anything that students with B.A.’s actually learn. The solution to that injustice—and it is one of the most problematic social injustices in contemporary America—is to give students a way to show employers what they know, not where they learned it and how long it took them. In other words, substitute certifications for the bachelor’s degree.

Murray: Who should pay for students to attend college? Ideally, students themselves. If that means delaying college for a few years to save money, so much the better—every college professor has seen the difference in maturity and focus between kids straight out of high school and those who have worked or gone into the military for a few years. The ideal is unattainable. But somehow we’ve got to undermine the current system whereby upper-middle-class children go to college without having to invest in it.

Murray: We have a moral obligation to destroy the current role of the B.A. in American life. It has become an emblem of first-class citizenship for no good reason.

Caplan: From a moral point of view, far too many students are going to college—just as far too many people stand up at concerts.

So what are some of these critical skills, knowledge, and attitudes that today’s employers want but students aren’t getting at college?

Most employers are looking for good communication- critical thinking- and complex reasoning skills (that which so many students lack; therefore, the majority of employers now pass over U.S. undergrads for the demanding jobs to hire those with masters degrees or foreign educations). But there is more. Since today’s graduate will change careers, not just jobs, some three to five times over a working lifetime, he or she will need to learn how to think critically, creatively, and intuitively like never before.

And I know I just mentioned creating your own business or situation, but unless you are really motivated (because it’s hard out there), best to get some experience and connections under your belt before doing so, thus a job.

As mentioned previously, half of all salaries and wages in the U.S. come from the creative sector ($1.7 trillion); therefore, it is critical to be a creative problem solver / solution finder, a creator of original ideas, a creative leader–creativity being at a premium today. In addition, the very nature of the system in which we work, capitalism and its creative destruction—destruction and creation of jobs, even economic sectors—resulting in greater turnover in these most economically turbulent times, requires one to be creative. The presence of capitalism’s creative destruction is a good reason to not merely follow job trends in choosing work, never mind a career. For soon the inherent better service / product nature of capitalism will result in, for example, Net Flix making video stores like Blockbuster obsolete, Amazon forcing Boarders to close its doors, or technological advances empowering musical artists making record companies much less significant. Therefore, one must be more agile in one’s ability to not only problem solve on the job but between jobs, even between careers, or moving from one career to the next several times over.

Students must learn how to be self-educating, for more than ever before education is not institutional but individual. With corporations staying leaner than ever before in a turbulent world job market, the new worker must see herself more as an entrepreneur than employee. The individual must be 100% accountable for his education, career(s), and life like never before. She must also emphasize such skills as being adaptive, open-minded, and self-reflecting like never before. Reliance on the government for education, a single job stream for solvency, and educational institutions for guidance and all one needs in today’s complex world no longer applies. Today’s worker must be an entrepreneur, a company of one, regardless of whether an employee or employer.

So let us get more into the specifics of these ever important skills: critical, creative, intuitive thinking.

Critical thinking is the ability to go beyond surface meaning, being able to look between, above, below, and around the lines to greater, greatest understanding, evaluating and judging, going deeper, deepest to more thorough problem solving. It’s all about learning to ask the right questions.

Creative thinking is at the foundation of critical thinking; it is divergent thinking, being able to see many possible solutions to synthesize current knowledge, understanding, and experience to create a bridge of new understanding to solution.

Finally, there is intuition, creation’s cousin. Intuition, or gut instinct, is a source of understanding or insight that resides outside the individual’s conscious mind. Some say the intuitive lies inside us in the subconscious. Others say intuition lies outside of us in the divine. Regardless, because of the current increase in knowledge, complexity, and speed of change in many fields, one can hardly rely on the limited rational mind, that which has evolved little and has not kept up with the rapid technological advances.

“Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data” John Naisbitt, best-selling author, future studies

“All human knowledge thus begins with intuitions, proceeds thence to concepts, and ends with ideas” Immanuel Kant

“The only real valuable thing is intuition” Albert Einstein

“Without creativity, knowledge would not exist” Albert Einstein

No amount of education, knowledge, or understanding will help us in many situations where problem solving is critical, for we have relatively remained the same in our capacity to take in, process, recall, and retain information while knowledge is forever increasing and technological advances proliferate. Keeping track of all this information and dealing with these rapid advances in technology adds stress, enhancing our limitations.

Consider the following example.

Because of the ever increasing knowledge gains in medicine, for example, one would think this naturally to be a good thing. The logic being that with increased knowledge there is increased chance for remedies to disease and injury. However, quite the opposite has occurred. Knowledge has increase and technology has advanced, certainly; however, the human instrument over that same time period has remained relatively the same in its extreme limitations to take in, process, and recall all this new information.

According to Dr. Atul Gawande (endocrine surgeon Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston; associate professor Harvard Medical School), “Scientists continue to report important new genetic findings, subtypes of cancer, and other diagnoses—not to mention treatments—almost weekly. The complexity is increasing so fast that even the computers cannot keep up” (The Checklist Manifesto 23). He goes on to state that it’s not just clinicians that suffer this fate but “software designers, financial managers, fire-fighters, police officers, and lawyers.” Because of this, Dr. Gawande came up with a simple, yet elegant solution: the checklist. Einstein said, “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius–and a lot of courage–to move in the opposite direction.” Dr. Gawande imparts an important aspect of problem solving here. His simple solution has proved to be quite useful.

The above is one reason why 90% of employers rate “written communication, critical thinking skills,  problems solving and complex reasoning as very important” (Academically Adrift). To process and analyze information, problem solve, and communicate in today’s complex and knowledge swelling world, one’s mind must be in tip top shape. However, most undergraduates don’t have the above mentioned skills and because of this are often overlooked for the more complex, better paying jobs.

Way too many students come to class today without the necessary curiosity and passion needed for learning and problem solving that is critical in today’s highly complex, quickly changing, and vast world job market. But if there is a desire to think well, to discipline the mind, it is only through consistent reading, reflecting, and researching that today’s successful student will be able to find some semblance of career(s) security. Processing, manipulating, managing knowledge, the continued working of a well-tuned mind muscle must be flexed in these complex, quick paced, multiple-career times. Great achievers have done as such, but it’s more important today to the average worker than ever before. There is greater opportunity than ever before, but the destruction and creation of jobs–jobs that are generally more interesting, rewarding, but demanding and complex than ever before–demand one to be prepared and in top notch condition.

Now that we’ve gained some additional insight, let’s go back to secondary and post-secondary education and take a more detailed look at current issues and concerns.

As mentioned earlier, the number of high school dropouts has reached epidemic proportions (one out of three public school students), for many are bored or don’t see the relevance between what they are learning and the real world. They know something is wrong, not quite right, but can’t put a finger on it. And few are helping them to see what is truly afoot, that their government is focusing on STEM field jobs thus only two of the eight intelligence types (linguistics and math or logic), and if certain students don’t fit the bill, it’s their loss. This is an extremely limited education considering the variety of lively options that lie outside STEM fields. And of those who do graduate and go onto college, more and more are not graduating, or if they are graduating, they are not learning.

So what’s happening? Let’s take a deeper look.

There are more career, life, even entertainment options than ever before. There is great diversity and liveliness in today’s experience, what with television and its hundreds of channels and entertainment options; movies with tremendously appealing and fanciful visuals; the interactive Internet with its social media and video sites in which the average person becomes the involved creator; the wide variety of theme parks; and so much more. Yet to a great degree, we still teach our children the same knowledge we always have with little curriculum modernization in content or delivery, as well as to the greatest degree keep our kids in a passive, non-creative, lack of control state of being. Autonomy, as a reminder, is that which enables not only greater learning but optimized knowledge acquisition and retention, creativity, and personal accountability and responsibility, that which is most needed by today’s worker / entrepreneur. To feed our economies today, we must enable this active, creative, reflective student in the class room. The passive student is passé. In one experiment by a Duke University professor, she had students interact on a blog, commenting on each other’s writing. Interestingly, she found that without the teacher there, or having to do more restrictive, less interesting, less subjective essays, they thrived, doing some of what she discovered was their best writing.

With all this stimulation and the need to sit for hours in boring classrooms, should we wonder why so many kids in recent years have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder?

In our secondary schools, if children are found not to be interested or able to pay attention in class, an attention deficit diagnosis is assigned and the appropriate drugs prescribed, drugs that often, like most drugs, have serious side effects often creating outcomes worse than the alleged disease they are attempting to remedy. Even in general society, if one is depressed or unable to focus and concentrate, drugs are often seen as the answer. The number of over-the-counter drug commercials on television and in print media today reveals our nations comfort with the prescription. Apparently, there is a great disturbance in our youth. They can’t sit and listen, and they are so discontent with education that they are dropping out in record numbers. What is going on?

Considering that the third leading cause of death for those ages 15-24 is suicide, one must ask the question, why? There is an excess lack of motivation, hope, and commitment to education today. A great cause for suicide is a lack of understanding, a sense of drifting without purpose. In 2011, Academically Adrift came out speaking to the issue of the serious decline of higher education. A key point from the book that I’d like to focus on here is that “students stay in prolonged states of directionless shift, delay characterized more by indecision than motivated reflection, confusion than the pursuit of clear goals, ambivalence  than  determination” William Damon, psychologist.

Anyone who is young and inexperienced, who is “directionless,” full of “indecision,” “confusion,” and “ambivalence” has a greater tendency than not to lose hope. What needs to be done is to provide that hope, meaning that we need to define, explain, and inform what this thing education is really all about to the deepest level possible, the nature of the economic system they will work in, and possible difficulties and encounters in career and life that will arise. A more informed person is a more secure person; knowledge is power; and so forth.

I provide that service to my college students and clients, and you’ve never seen such an attentive, rapt group, learning things that are fundamentally true and critical to understanding to lessen indecision, confusion, and ambivalence, but unfortunately are rarely addressed. Students, the young and uninformed, need to know more about the second most important commitment to time, money, and effort that they will make in their lives–career only second to family. If we are not as transparent as we can be about education, giving as thorough an explanation to its in-and-outs in minute detail as possible, then we do them a great injustice and disservice. We are simply contributing to their confusion, ambivalence, directionless, and indecision.

Contributing factors to public high school dropout rates also has to do with the economy, where financial survival takes precedence over education. One of the core issues being the economy, of course. Education takes a back seat when mom and / or dad lose their jobs and the only chance of survival is the of-age children going to work. But the high divorce rate doesn’t help either what with there being two households to pay for rather than one. I could go on, but these are some of the major concerns.

At the college level, maximizing the student’s understanding of education and what it means is imperative, and the economy’s effects are equally as upsetting to college students, but there are some concerns regarding higher education that differ from those of high school.

What are some of the key issues affecting students today that are directly related to colleges and universities?

Some of the low graduation rate and diminished learning can certainly be blamed on universities that reward faculty more for scholarly pursuits than teaching under-graduates, but students must take some of the blame as well. The learning that is not happening can be attributed to students who have learned to “manage” their education, often taking easier classes or teachers who require less work for good grades or those that can be manipulated by students. Most of this change has occurred over the last couple decades as a result of money changing hands. Instead of money going to universities, now it goes to the inexperienced student-consumer in the form of financial aid, students who often merely go to college by default because it is the thing to do or that which his or her parents, peers, or society has advocated. Thus the student is not properly motivated and sees “college” as an obstacle to simply be navigated as quickly as possible (Academically Adrift).

But another reason for this is that no longer is a degree seen as a “sure thing” to a job and steady career; as a matter of fact, as mentioned previously, there are more with degrees than there are job openings that require a degree. This in itself is creating a lot of anxiety, doubt, and confusion.

The above lack of learning has resulted in more and more employers complaining that those with a U.S. bachelor’s degree do not have the necessary critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing / communication skills needed for more complex, demanding jobs. As a matter of fact, it has gotten so bad that many employers in the states have relegated rudimentary non-technical jobs to those with U.S. bachelors while hiring those with graduate degrees or from foreign sources for more rigorous, higher paying positions (Academically Adrift). I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.

So what’s the result of all this?

Many business leaders are concerned that today’s graduates don’t have the skills to ensure economic competitiveness. As mentioned previously, it is technology and science that drives the U.S. economies. STEM careers require complex and critical thinking skills. But even educators believe that recent organizational changes have undermined core education functions.

“Colleges and universities, for all the benefits they bring, accomplish far less for their students than they should. Many students graduate without being able to write well enough to satisfy their employers . . . reason clearly or perform competently in analyzing complex, non-technical problems” Derek Bok, former president of Harvard

“The quality of student learning in U.S. colleges and universities is inadequate, and in some cases, declining” Secretary Commission on Higher Education: A Test of Leadership

It’s complex and may take years before any substantial inroads are made by colleges and universities and the government into solving core issues, if they come at all. Here is a quick look at why change is not forthcoming. The statements all come from “Where Will Innovation Begin?” by Jeff Selingo, editorial director of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Mel Schiavelli, a former provost and interim president at the College of William and Mary, and a former provost at the University of Delaware, has recently come up with an innovate approach to higher education. He is the president at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.

First, there are “No departments. Academic departments are silos built by faculty members to further their research and careers.” Second, no tenure. And finally, no frills to cut costs: no campus (a single building), sports teams or dormitories. When Seligo asked Schiavelli if any of these innovations or similar ideas could be used at other existing universities, he states “So much of the debate about higher education in this country is driven by R1 research universities and their research needs. It’s not about teaching, and it’s not about the needs of today’s students.”

Seligo also states that “innovation just can’t happen at new universities. The last thing this country needs is more universities.” But because many administrators are afraid of losing students or investors, change, if it does come, will come too slow and too late for many students.

But the problem is that students in college now, and those shortly to come, don’t have the luxury of waiting. And that is why I and others in the private sector are coming forth with solutions today. It is critical that students are, first, made aware of the core issues of education—defining what the govt. and colleges define it as, and then specifically matching the student’s basic talents, gifts, abilities to the student’s definition of education—discovering what employers needs are, and then matching the student to the particular career, industry, and specific environment she can thrive in while supplying her with the skills, knowledge, and attitudes for adaptability. Making students the center of understanding, creating greater awareness of the true nature of education, and setting them up as self-sustaining, self-educators not mostly reliant on institutions is critical to not only overcome current education issues, but to enable their ability to thrive in these complex, volatile world job market times.

What’s the effect of not enabling students NOW with the tools they need to succeed?

“Many students come to college poorly prepared for highly demanding academic tasks . . . But, more troubling still, they enter college with attitudes, norms, values, and behaviors that are often at odds with academic commitment” Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, Academically Adrift

It is critical that students have a razor sharp, focused plan based in a solid understanding of the current education and economic environment, so that they can obtain maximum motivation, stick to a plan and carry it out. In addition they must have extensive hands-on and book knowledge about their chosen occupation, the educational requirements, and future demands for chosen occupation, as limited as that foreknowledge may be.

But what also has to be instilled in students are a serious understanding of values, morals, and ethics. These things used to be taught, like what you saw in The Social Network, the Winklevoss’ treating Zuckerberg with kid gloves even though he is the offender. They felt it wasn’t like a “Harvard man” to attack another Harvard man.

Colleges and universities used to teach values but have not done so for some time. Therefore, we can look at an indicator of how this has affected students. Consider that from 1963 to 1993 admitted cheating of students went from 26 to 52%. Employers do not want those steeped in cheating, cutting corners, and dishonesty working for their organization. So it is critical that students learn necessary values for today and the future: honesty, accountability, appreciation, awareness, commitment, completion, consistency, cooperation, decisiveness, duty, efficiency, fairness, generosity, and so forth.

So what else is there regarding education that is wreaking havoc with today’s student? How about the financials of the here and now into work and retirement?

Considering that total college loan debt has gone up 25% from 2008 to 2011, $440 to $550 billion, should give you a clue. Today, like never before, the American Dream is not being fulfilled by college but destroying it in debt. More and more grads are running not only into insurmountable debt, but with the rise in the cost of living and tax rates, decrease in savings rates, and deflated salaries that experts say won’t recover until 2021, it is getting more and more difficult to get by on merely a job alone. How many students getting into a major have even a clue what their chosen career will provide for the short- and long term into retirement? Students should at least have some idea of the financial situation to come, as only a common courtesy to the student, of course.

But what do students know about achievement and success? Overcoming difficulties and trials in work and life that they will certainly have? What about setting goals and understanding how to overcome failures so as to not give up? Learning how to ask the right questions for greater problem solving in career and life? Overcoming poor, debilitating habits and weaknesses that will take down a career or life quicker than you can say, failed thinking? Learning proper attitudes needed to achieve and maintain success? How to be productive, accountable, pro-active, committed, persistent, present, self-sustaining, self-educated, motivated, focused, self-inquiring (the intuitive to greater, greatest achievement, happiness, and joy). And more.

What are the three key principles to greatest motivation and achievement?

According to motivational expert, Dan Pink, they are autonomy (ability to maximize self-choosing), mastery, and purpose, as mentioned previously. To obtain the later two you need the former. And as one looks to mastery and purpose, she will find her innate skills, abilities, talents, gifts, and desires and fulfill them in a purpose that will be discovered to greatest happiness and joy, to the tune of not only the family and self but all those she comes in contact with. And as she does so, she will discover the inert in her, character and passion, not previously seen but only learned of by taking risk in serving self-interest to the maximization of the individual and all those she comes in contact with. And as she does so, she begins to expand, exponentially if she learns to always challenger herself and grow in this power evolving universe to produce greatly for self and the hundreds, thousands, millions she comes in contact with as she grows as nature desires it, exponentially coming to the aid of self and society as best she can.

Most fail because they never prepared “themselves for the harsh lessons the Creator set for them on life’s path to strengthen their spirit and make them fit for life. Unlike the warrior who accepts harsh discipline as a privilege and honor, these people are like pieces of grain caught in a millstone, ground down by the wheel of life in agony and pain” Chin-ning Chu, author of Thick Face Black Heart

We all desire magic in our lives; it is an innate desire for all, yet few believe it can happen to them. It is always for someone else. But in those quite times, during the day or at night before sleep takes over, we know deep in our hearts that we all desire the greatest, deepest, most satisfying, life quenching fulfillment that we could ever imagine and more. It is out there for everyone. Belief in it must be practiced over and again, as Neo did in the Matrix. He is the One or savior, but upon asking the Oracle if he is she states, “You have the gift, but you seem to be waiting for something,” as most of us are. But we all must be brave and reach forth, to practice in our minds, as Neo does in virtual reality or the matrix, and then take it to the real world, as Neo does later in the trilogy taking down a machine with the wave of a hand.

It is all up to us and it is within us, so we must be to the greatest degree self-educating, self-sustaining and maintaining. We must look within to find our genius, our unique roadmap to success and greater, greatest achievement.

Don’t let life happen to you, let you happen to life. If you are selfish, lazy, hopeless, fearful, doubtful, anxious, shy, unproductive, irresponsible, immature . . . practice overcoming. I have. Growing up I was shy, introverted, hopeless, anxious, angry, depressed, suicidal, addictive, but I overcame through taking the hard road, the challenging road turning 180 degrees from fully unproductive to maximized productivity of unrelenting, razor sharp, focus, commitment, integrity, and honesty.

“Most commonly accepted standards of behavior are arbitrary, and the arbitrators themselves are often flawed individuals who, under the guise of virtue, have perpetuated their own weaknesses and fear” Chin-ning Chu

Be aware of truth in perspective and understanding. Become an empowered seer of truth and understanding so that you are able to do whatever you know you need to do to obtain your goals, righteously and honorably, without allowing what others do and say detract or hinder you in any way. YOU are in charge, for people will believe what you broadcast to the world, and what you broadcast, that which everyone sees first and foremost, is your inner value. Your character, intelligence, spirit, and soul. Create value in yourself and pass that value onto the world. Don’t take short cuts or any one else’s’ path. You are unique and put here for a reason. Discover it. Nurture it. Embrace it. And follow it to the greatest life imagined. But don’t focus on what makes you feel good but what will make you great, which often entails great sacrifice and doing the unlikeable and unwanted to greater character, empowerment, and strength.

Good luck. Good education and career. And god bless.

If I can help with anything, please don’t hesitate to call.

Peace!

Why is all this happening? Well, let’s begin with the beginning.

To begin to understand what has happened, we have to go back to the sixties with open enrollment or allowing anyone into college. Community colleges have done it all along, but in recent years four-year universities and colleges have followed suit. This has resulted in many students slacking off believing that hard work isn’t necessary to get into college. Unfortunately, along with several other factors, it has resulted in the majority of students entering community college not being able to meet accepted standards in reading, writing, and arithmetic.

In addition, at the secondary level power has shifted from the teacher to the student in the classroom. From my two years of experiences and conversations with other teachers as a K-12 substitute teacher, along with dozens of stories told to me by friends, family, and graduate seminar students getting out of teaching, the lack of control in the classroom is killing the teaching profession. According to a recent survey, three out of five going into teaching use it only as a stepping stone to another position or profession, as my lawyer friend did several years ago. He told me that the majority of teachers at his school were either new or ready for retirement—few in-betweens, for the reason stated above. He was even told by one of the experienced teachers, “Either you’re going to do what the students want or you’ll quit.” At an assembly, he asked a student to behave. The student’s response? “You can call the cops if you want. You can’t do anything.”

But there’s more to the story than loss of control in the classroom and liberal ideals. There’s the reality of the economy, a considerable rise in the cost of living and decrease in the savings rate, along with a great number of divorced parents now being financially responsible for dual homes—main reason many students drop out is to help the single-parent pay the bill. According to a report titled The Silent Epidemic by John Bridgeland (CEO of Civic Enterprise, a publicity group that lead a 2007 national dropout summit), 80% of students surveyed said they dropped out because of a need for “classes that are more interesting and provide opportunities for real-world learning.” As a father of a sixteen-year-old in advance placement classes (her homework level is equivalent to that of a college student), I see the impractical, irrelevant materials being studied and ask the question myself, “What’s this got to do with anything?”

Most schools don’t take into consideration real-world economic situations. Since most grads going into the workforce will have three to five, and some experts say up to ten career changes, the real need is for learning how to learn, think critically and independently, and creatively. This is not the industrial age nor is it the information age, it is the recommendation age where people are in critical need of the aforementioned skills. Considering that half of all wages and salaries are currently being made in the creative sector one can see that sitting passively in a classroom in which undesirable material is forced on students without explanation as to its need and application is problematic. Where is the motivation for the student?

More than ever before schools need to be student centered in the sense that the student gets to know himself / herself thoroughly (intelligence and personality types, strengths / gifts, weaknesses, values, and so on) and advisers / teachers work to an outcome of specific match between knowledge, student, and career. Reliance on archaic methods that no longer apply in a dynamic work and economic environment isn’t going to work; the way our children are educated K-college needs to be revamped, scrapped, or parents must take a greater role in educating themselves as to new needs and take a greater personal role in the educating of their children.

But that’s only part of the picture. Most graduates, even college grads, according to employers are lacking real-world skills and attitudes that are critical in today’s turbulent world economy. Employers complain of new-hires lacking the ability to work to deadlines and work well with peers, entitlement issues, inability to see the bigger picture, and so on. But there’s more. Recent grads also lack an understanding of the lengthy commitment a career demands. If the employee does not have a passion for what he or she is doing, especially in these economically trying and hyper-competitive times, then the chance of lacking the energy, commitment, and focus to maintain said career will result in unemployment. There is a way to be irreplaceable, but most of the “educated” lack 80% of what is needed to succeed in today’s employment market.

There are no easy answers, but relying on government or school systems to figure it out is dangerous, for the pace at which change may occur–and there is no promise it will happen–is too slow for your child’s current needs.

If you’re interested in what is needed, please contact me for further information. Your child’s financial and emotional welfare depends on it.

The real problem lies in the economy. What with a marked rise in the cost of living, an alarming increase in divorce creating the need for dual-household income, outsourcing, multinationals that are richer than most countries creating CEOs that earn 1500% more than their generational predecessors, and so on. It’s just gotten downright ugly.

It used to be that with one job you could buy a house, a couple cars, and provide the essentials for your family. Now with both parents working in 70% of U.S. homes, it still doesn’t provide financial security. Like the get-a-college-degree-job-security myth that many still feed in to, even with both parents working the safety-in-numbers myth provides little security as well.

Why?

Consider this, the top three reasons why there are over two million foreclosures in the U.S. are divorce, job loss, and illness. Regardless that it was a 40-year low in interest rates that got most there, outside of this there lies another, more deep-seeded problem. One income cannot do it anymore. Even two are struggling to get by. Here’s a sobering report from Elizabeth Warren, author of “The Middle Class on the Precipice” (Harvard Magazine, Jan. / Feb 2006).

“By 2004, the family budget looks very different. As noted earlier, although a man is making nearly $800 less than his counterpart a generation ago, his wife’s paycheck brings the family to a combined income that is $73,770-a 75 percent increase. But higher expenses have more than eroded that apparent financial advantage. Their annual mortgage payments are more than $10,500. If they have a child in elementary school who goes to daycare after school and in the summers, the family will spend $5,660. If their second child is a preschooler, the cost is even higher-$6,920 a year. With both people in the workforce, the family spends more than $8,000 a year on its two vehicles. Health insurance costs the family $1,970, and taxes now take 30 percent [ it's actually 42 to 50%] of its money. The bottom line: today’s median-earning, median-spending middle-class family sends two people into the workforce, but at the end of the day they have about $1,500 less for discretionary spending than their one-income counterparts of a generation ago.”

More and more middle-class citizens are falling into the lower class, many by way of foreclosure. I was watching the news last night with my wife at a friend’s house. A man and woman had just lost their home and were sitting outside their new trailer home with transplanted lawn jockey, pots, and planters. Through teared-up sobs, the man explained how disheartening it was to work so hard for a dream only to see it lost with little chance of recovery.

What is the solution? Well, instead of going to a job factory (university / college) to learn a craft or skill only to end up working for the government (40 to 50% taken in taxes), banks, and credit card companies (average American owes $10,000) our students should be learning about finances, more specifically, how to own a business and invest.

Time and time and time again, I have gone to wealth seminars and heard former mortgage brokers, insurance agents, Kentucky Fried Chicken managers, teachers, the homeless (sometime the same–I know!), talk about dire times, skimming for nickels and dimes in the change jar to pay for groceries. It is a sad state of affairs, and some, like Hillary, feel that the government needs to do something about it. Well, if you know how the government moves, I’m not waiting. So what do we do?

Instead of working for a company, one which tells you when to come, when to go, how much your worth, and whether or not you’ll be working; instead of never even seeing 45% of your income; instead of being caught in the education matrix; instead of relying on the pain of scrimp and save to no safe solution; the only alternative is to let your money and the government work for you. Here’s how.

Consider the following trend. Most micro-business owners represent:

99% of all employers

50% of all employees

44% of all payroll dollars

70% of all net new jobs

Today, one out of six people that you meet are taking matters into their own hands and have joined the ranks of the “better-off,” if not secure.

If you want to get your taxes down to single digits, start a business. It can even be a part-time online business selling knitting techniques. Really! The tax write offs alone are worth it. Here’s a few examples:

Home Office Deduction: You no longer have any non-deductible commute. All of your mileage is now business related.

Pay your child up to $5000 to help you run your business and pay no taxes (fica, fed., state) and get $2500 back from Uncle Sam.

Convert other medical expenses from itemized deductions to business expenses. Convert limited health insurance deductions into fully deductible business expenses. You save not only on federal income taxes but reduce self employment taxes as well. Save up to 45% by deducting payments that you are already making.

For retirement, up to $45,000 / year can be deferred. Invest in your future and the IRS will reward you with lower taxes.

Why let your Bad Uncle take your money when your Good Uncle is only a business idea away?

How else can you win the money game? Real estate . The government wants you to do two things: start a business to create jobs and feed the economy and to provide affordable housing. And you don’t have to be “The Don” when it comes to real estate. But keep in mind that 7 out of 10 millionaires own real estate. It’s the safest and most profitable way to make passive or leveraged income. And by the way, the government is dying to give away money, provide the down payment, even forgive loans (yes, there are forgivable loans that don’t have to be paid back; hell, they’re forgiven!).

Need a home? Here’s a possibility. Try the 203 (b). It’s the purchase of a four-plex, where you move in to manage for a year before selling or keeping as an investment. And the good part? You live for free as you build equity.

Bottom line, the government wants you to help out, and if you do, they’ll help you, in a big way . There’s many ways of getting ahead. The limit is only in your ability to imagine.

So even though there’s a lot of bad news out there (foreclosures, job loss, cost of living increase), if you keep your eyes open there’s always a way out. With a little shift in thinking, a willingness to change, you can not only get back on top but rise higher than before. Good luck and God bless.

There are six regional accreditation agencies, but there are also national accreditation and specialized accreditation agencies. The six regional accrediting agencies cover the United States and review the programs, campuses, and education delivery of their respective, regionally located colleges and universities. National accrediting agencies perform the same functions as the regional agencies; however, they generally focus on for-profit schools. Some of the national accrediting agencies are Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology (ACCSCT), Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS), and Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). They also accredit faith-based colleges and universities. Lastly, students studying in such fields as dentistry, medicine, nursing, and law generally need to graduate from accredited programs with specialized accreditation from professional associations.

When people speak of accreditation, they generally are referring to the regional accrediting agencies because they cover the majority of traditional colleges and universities. And for some reason, students and parents believe that because an institution is accredited that if they study a particular curriculum it is preparing them for a particular career. Not always the case.

Personally, my undergrad and graduate degree are in English; however, none of the courses prepared me for teaching: composition, literature, technical writing, critical thinking, and so on, or that which I have taught (a point of note is that I was not required to take one grammar or composition course as an English major). Even when I studied to obtain a position in the computer field, the curriculum did little to prepare me for the type of programming I ended up doing. In addition, I have met, spoken to, and read about numerous business professionals who mention that their business degree has been of little use to them. Even my lawyer friend-the program he enrolled in received specialized accreditation-speaks to the fact that there is a great difference between what he learned in school and what he is now doing on the job.

My point being that, certainly, there is a great difference between theory and application, but more importantly, the majority of time students attend a college or university believing that the education received will prepare them for a particular career. That is often not the case, except in more rigorous or specialized fields like medicine and law. In order to be successful, to avoid wasting years and leaving 100s of thousands of dollars on the table in lost salary, it is critical that students do their research to discover not only what they want to do but what the job they’ll be doing requires. And this involves more work than one may initially perceive.

To limit the poor education to job or career match, first one must thoroughly know one’s talents, abilities, and gifts, for it is here where one will not only find a career but in exploiting these personal attributes find life-satisfaction and self-actualization. But this is an involved process and even after discovering what one was put here to do, it is imperative that he or she stick to it.

For example, Albert Einstein knew what he was put here to do; however, he went a good decade of seeing his great insights ignored. At times he was so despondent he felt little desire to carry on. At one point he even considered going into sales. Imagine seeing Einstein at your door selling encyclopedias. Even the great politician Abraham Lincoln had to put aside his talents, ambitions, desires, and gifts for close to three decades as he failed time and again to get elected to office. He finally succeeded at the young age of fifty-two. Imagine where this country would be if he had given up?

So after one truly discovers and, most importantly, commits to exploiting one’s talents, abilities, and gifts, he or she must understand the success principles involved that will aid in the achieving of one’s goals: self-control, focus, accountability, doing more than one’s asked, how to profit from failure, and so many more.

Bottom line, it is the individual’s responsibility to know the limitations of education, what he or she was put here to do, how to stick to the plan or goal of exploiting and capitalizing on those gifts and talents, and to build an accurate match between education and career. No accrediting institution will do this work for you. And equally important is to avoid going into a career simply because a parent has done so or they advises you to go into a career against your better judgment (for how can you do that which will occupy one-third of your life without passion?), or because that’s simply where the prestige or the money is, and so on; go into a career because you know that is where you need to be to not only satisfy your desires but to come to the aid of all those you may touch as you apply your craft in a focused and impassioned manor.

Please choose wisely and knowingly, for the world is in great need of those who do more than the minimum. Pick up your torch, the reason you were put here, and through your passion build a better community, state, country, even nation and world.

Here’s to your success!

First, to set the stage, let’s start by saying that most believe education to be critical. Education here meaning high school since it is compulsory and everyone is required to attend. But specifically the content of the “education” spoken to by the majority is quite different from what is essential to survive in today’s competitive world. (More on this later.) Nevertheless, the popular content of the general high school curriculum those in the media, political and public arenas speak of entails arithmetic, science, language, phys ed, history, and English.

And most have been conditioned to believe that this type of education is necessary or critical or that a child without a high school education and, in most cases today, a college education limits the average child’s chance for success in the job market. And this is true to a degree but less so than most believe. But to continue our definition, it should be pointed out here that education gained usually translates to “job,” meaning that the belief is that high school and / or college are preparing the student for her life’s work. But this is not true and our youth are being shortchanged. For after twelve maybe sixteen years of education, then what? Education stops because institutional education is complete?

Today such thinking is disastrous, for with the opening of the global job market and greater competition–therefore the greater creative destruction of capitalism–one needs to be on the ball and constantly updating skills, even deleting and re-learning new skills, a situation that requires less of educational standards and a greater understanding of the critical need for developing one’s self-education skills that readies one for the great changes ahead–not only numerous jobs but careers that are sure to come. Never before has it been more critical for students and workers to understand the need to keep one’s skills, attitudes, and knowledge in tip-top shape, up to date and forever expanding.

And of course, as I’ve mentioned before numerous times-but bears repeating-high school grads and even college grads are lacking fundamental skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are more critical today than ever before: self-educating skills (as mentioned), critical and intuitive thinking, financial IQ, honesty, integrity, work ethic, success principles (upwards of 64 of them!), ability to work well with others, public speaking / leadership skills, and so much more.

Why are these intangibles, these often over looked skills, knowledge, and attitudes so important? Well, it is just the foundation of these very intangibles-which are rarely addressed in education-that will keep the average graduate on solid footing in regards to the many career changes guaranteed to come. After all this is, as Allen Greenspan states, the age of turbulence. The new grad must be adaptive, focused, work ready, and basically a company of one, ready and able to adapt as change occurs on the job, in the world national and international, and in ever changing career shifts. How market ready are you? How valuable and adaptive are your insights, skills, and attitudes? No longer can one rely on just one degree, skill, or job to see them through to retirement and its pension (by the way, pensions will have nearly evaporated by the time those who are just entering the work force have retired if current trends continue–they already are weakened and dissappearing).

This now brings us to the current state of education and belief that a standard high school education is necessary. Let’s bear down on the point at hand.

We often hear that schools are doing poorly or doing well in regards to testing and grades in the standard disciplines mentioned above–math, science, English, etc.. And it is generally taken for granted that we need these courses and that our children will benefit by taking them. However, how do we know this? What tangible evidence, research and verification tells us that what our children study is benefiting them five, ten, twenty years down the road?

As far as I know, there is none. To ensure that an education is critical it first must have value for the consumer, for if it holds none its hold on the consumer will be short lived. If we looked at the truth, we will find that not only are most not using that which they’ve learned in school and even college but they have little to no desire to retain it in the first place. Here are a few direct quotes from current and former students of mine.

“Got labs today. Can’t wait to purge this junk once the test is over.”

“Dude, that class is a joke. Do what we all do. Get the grade, dump the junk, and get on with your life.”

“Whoever thought we needed half this crap [knowledge gained from classes taken] should be shot, run over, then shot again.”

Some of these statements I’ve overheard or seen posted on various social media. (I’ve left out  the numerous comments that have an “R” rating or higher.) The point being that there’s a lot of precious “knowledge” out there that has little value for many in high school and college.

Why is this allowed to happen in the first place?

Well, most education is not for profit, meaning that if it were there would be a lot of asking of the customer what she likes and doesn’t like, as well as what is useful and not useful to not only retain  customers but to encourage them to come back. There’s little if any of that concern in education at any level. For emphasis, just consider where you get optimum service, at the DMV, US Post Office, or INS? Or maybe more so at Blockbusters, Wells Fargo, or Vons Supermarket? Yes, where the customer is king, in the private sector.

Most education is run by states and, therefore, talked about by those governing the country–those with short-term agendas to get elected or re-elected–not with the long-term picture in mind. And this bears out the point that most have little interest in or concern for what happens to grads after they’re gone and whether or not what they’ve studied is needed or necessary. Even schools and colleges are guilty of this offense. Have you ever been approached by your school or college with a survey to discern your consumer satisfaction? Then my question is, how do they have any idea that what they are doing is right? Good? Of merit or quality? Of need, even?
On top of it all, students attending school and college and their parents just take it for granted that authorities and governing bodies (regional accreditors that are academically oriented and not tied into the realities of the private sector) have selected curriculum that is appropriate for ever child’s needs, a ridiculous proposal at best. Does anyone ever question what they or their child is taking in school and / or college and how it specifically applies to them, their abilities, talents, character, skills, and desires? Trusting so much in governing bodies that do little to no checking to see if that which they are requiring students in schools and college is beneficial years later? If private companies were run like this they’d be out of business quicker than you could say “failed thinking.”

It is critical today more than ever before that consumers-students-understand thoroughly not only what education means, and its limitations, but what they need to ensure success not only in the workforce, but in their families, society, and spiritual life. There is so much that so many are missing out on with the current state of the education nation. It is in a sad state indeed and only its privatization or the seeking of a proper, thorough and adequate education by individuals in the know of what is needed will truly reform education. As consumers of education, we certainly need to be better trained in what we are receiving, what we need, and how to go about getting it.

Going with our original example, now flash forward a couple decades or more, what do you see? Around the age of thirty, maybe thirty-five your words and phrases, and mannerisms become familiar, and for good reason. Why it takes so long for us to realize (or are these things time released?) that who we are hearing and seeing is our parents I don’t know. It is our mom or dad or both. We may hear them when we get mad at our kids, run into frustration at work, or even in the joy we express; it is our parents coming alive in our own words and actions.

Now let’s get to the issue at hand: best teacher ever, greatest influence in our lives.

Well, of all the dozens of teachers I’ve had through elementary, high school, college, into grad school, who do I remember? Who stands out in my mind? Some teacher I think of now and again as I learn and move forward in life? Not one of them. But there is one teacher who comes back to me time and again through the good and the bad and the ugly, for our relationship as student / teacher was never a smooth one, yet one of the most personal teacher / student relationships I’ve ever had.

It is funny to me all the praise and great value we place on school teachers, as if their influence and words will be remembered through the years. It is like a great conqueror who desires to be remembered through the ages when he is lucky if people give him a few thoughts a few times a year for all his bloodshed and efforts. Greatness is fleeting if it is sought after without the focus being on the giving not the taking. And the best school teacher is one who works in the shadows to the betterment of the student.

“A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.” ~~ Thomas Carruthers

“The kids in our classroom are infinitely more significant than the subject matter we teach.” ~~ Meladee McCarty

“The teacher is but the catalyst, the poker and prodder, the tweeker standing quite in the shadows, a magician casting spells, the child thinking she has done it all herself.” ~~ Jeff Brown

“Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner; put yourself in his place so that you may understand what he learns and the way he understands it.” ~~ Soren Kierkegaard

But my teacher is one I remember, my father, for he was with me always. Little did he leave my mind when I was younger, and little does he leave my mind now as I achieve, as I come to understand it was the curiosity and imagination he instilled in me; the discipline he formed; the tenacity laid in foundation; the honor and honesty that keep me at my best; responsibility and sticking to the task at hand, all that he taught me, my greatest, my only teacher, that has enabled me to succeed at work, in public, and at home. For what school teacher is close enough to teach the essentials, the critical lessons of life, love, and home to make the better man the best-of-all men?

“The one real object of education is to have a man in the condition of continually asking questions.” ~~ Bishop Mandell Creighton

“He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet.” ~~ Joseph Joubert

“You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.” ~~ Clay P. Bedford

My father taught me those things no teacher can, things of the heart that are not, unfortunately, fiscally in demand but oh so much more important.

“Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.” ~~ C. S. Lewis

As the years go by, school teachers we’ve had over the years will fade in our minds, few if any ever coming to the forefront again. So if you want your child to succeed, if you want the best education your child can have to come to light, teach him all that you know and everything will turn out alright in your imperfect educational role, a parental delight.

“Spoon feeding, in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.” ~~ E.M. Forster

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” ~~ Aristotle

“Children learn to smile from their parents.” ~~ Shinichi Suzuki

“It is the responsibility of every adult to make sure that children hear what we have learned from the lessons of life and to hear over and over that we love them.” ~~ Marian W. Edelman

If we desire our children to get the best education, then we must desire the best from us and to pass it on, to encourage and instill in the child a solid sense of self, character, responsibility, work ethic, honesty, honor, accountability, tenacity, discipline, focus and all that goes along with success, for if we don’t prepare the vessel and prepare it adequately regardless of what we put in it, that which is so secondary, it will not matter. For the vessel will spill over all that it has taken in and never achieve regardless of all the knowledge, ability, skill, gifts and desire.

It is time for parents to take responsibility for teaching their children and teaching them well all that they need to know to prosper them to the end of their time.

Teach your children well,

Their father’s hell did slowly go by,

And feed them on your dreams

The one they picked, the one you’ll know by.

Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,

So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

Crosby Stills Nash Young — “Teach Your Children

According to Kathy Kristof, “Crushed by College,” the above attorneys were “victims of an unfolding education hoax on the middle class that’s just as insidious, and nearly as sweeping, as the housing debacle The ingredients are strikingly similar, too: Misguided easy-money policies that are encouraging the masses to go into debt; a self-serving establishment trading in half-truths that exaggerate the value of its product; plus a Wall Street money machine dabbling in outright fraud as it foists unaffordable debt on the most vulnerable marks” (Forbes, Feb 2, 2009).

There’s also the myth that if you go to college you make about $1 million more on average than a high school grad, once again, failed thinking. The belief is that it is college that is enabling the individual to make more money. Maybe it’s just that smart people go to college and are more likely to make more money than high school grads because of their smarts, and it has little to nothing to do with the degree. It’s failed cause effect thinking. There are many who have never gone to college or dropped out, like Bill Gates from Harvard, who don’t have a degree who are making cash hand over fist.

Even if you get a degree, there’s no promise that you’ll use it, need it, or that it will prepare you for the work you desire to take up. For example, I hear time and again that those who are now in business have little use for their business degree. Personally, I obtained a certificate in programming and had to get in at the entry level shuffling reports. I eventually got into programming, but I didn’t use any of the languages I learned and acquired all of my know-how on the job. Even my BA and MA in English did little to nothing to prepare me to teach grammar, mechanics, punctuation, and composition, all of which I learned on the job, once again. Interesting to note that an English major was not required to take even one grammar or composition class.

But there’s more to the story.

If you add the expense of going to college (tuition, fees, books, room & board: $46, 700 / yr. public schools; $99,000 yr. / private schools) what isn’t taken into consideration is that the “$1 million college over high school grad” advantage doesn’t kick in until the grad has been out of school twelve years or more (don’t forget to include the four years of college where no money is earned) before the loan is paid off.That is if you graduate (half entering college never do), don’t default on your loan (17% write offs), aren’t delinquent (upwards of 24%) and pay without interruption (many defer payments or file for hardships while interest continues to accrue).

On top of all this is the fact that private lenders add 10% “origination fees” onto 18% variable interest rates (there’s no legal limit). These private loans are now twice as profitable as government loans and has attracted financial institutions like Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo.

The arm of abuse extends far, for according to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office, investigations have discovered “troubling, deceptive and often illegal practices . . . involving lenders, educational institutions and financial aid officials.” So those “sacrosanct” college and university staff are not as many perceive them to be.

Another thing that colleges, universities, and other institutions of learning (for profit) don’t tell American Dream hopefuls is the reality of what their degree can actually get them. Often times, as stated above, the curriculum to job or reality match is not even close. Some students are preached to about the great paying jobs they’ll get only to discover that it is those with years of experience or a greater degree and years of struggle that has “ensured” said success.

Here’s another sobering factoid:

“One in four college grads takes home considerably less than the top quartile of high school grads, according to a College Board study” (Kathy Kristof, “Crushed by College”).

Also, if you’re thinking of taking the traditional path to “job security” and the American Dream through being a doctor and opening up your private practice, think again.

In a recent survey only 18% of physicians deemed their practices financially stable. What with liability, exorbitant student loan debt ($155,000 average which has jumped from 20% of their average pay to 60%) and the fact that the self-employed don’t get considerable tax breaks like business owners or investors, the American dream here has moved into nightmare territory.

One day at a McDonalds, my wife and I were sitting next to a nanny with two children. Speaking in Spanish, she told us that she worked for a couple with private practices. They worked from seven in the morning until seven in the evening seeing their children for an hour before putting them to bed and going to bed themselves.Why? To survive.

Another consideration is a single income stream and its overall disadvantage. Even if the employee happens to be a college grad who has optimized her income (some $30,000 / yr. over what high school grads make), what happens when that steam dries up in these economically challenging times? where cost of living to income ration is the worst it’s ever been for single income employees. Never before has it been so challenging just to pay the bills never mind put away a little money for a “rainy day.” If the employee can’t work any longer for whatever reason (health, business or industry collapse, competition), what is a single-stream income employee to do?

It’s old thinking, out-dated thinking, failed thinking, and most of all, dangerous thinking. Never before has it been so critical, so essential that the individual understand that he is responsible for his financial future and that financial IQ is one of the most important elements of his ongoing education.

The American Dream has changed along with the economy and few are aware. There needs to be an awakening to the facts that achievement of the American Dream through college and “job security” are things of the past and that people need to quickly get up to speed as to what needs to be done to survive financially through the working years into retirement. Little of what is needed relies on a college degree. Just ask the experienced. They’ll tell you the truth. No lie.

Teachers . . .

If you listen without judgment and with your child’s best interest in mind, they can tell you a lot. And remember, they are not the enemy. What? You think they went into teaching for the power, fame, glory, and prestige of it all? No. They do it because they love teaching and they love your children. Help them by listening to what they have to say below. This is a compilation of thought from experienced teachers from several states.

But if we really want to improve education, we may turn to another source . . .

Students.

What’s wrong with the system? Since they are on the receiving end, you’d be amazed what they can tell you. Maybe adults too far removed from the process in experience and in mind (PhDs over-thinking with impractical theory) don’t really get it.

Why we’ve stopped listening and supporting teachers and never really gone to the source in asking students what’s wrong may just be two of the most important steps we can take in improving education.

So take a listen at this juncture to at least hear what one half of the solution has to say, won’t you?

What Your Child’s Teacher Won’t Tell You

1. My first year of teaching, a fifth-grader actually threw a chair at me. I saw him recently, and he told me he just graduated from college. That’s what makes it all worthwhile.

2. I have parents who are CEOs of their own companies come in and tell me how to run my classroom. I would never think to go to their office and tell them how to do their jobs.

3. We don’t arrive at school 10 minutes before your child does. And we don’t leave the minute they get back on the bus. Many of us put in extra hours before and after school.

4. We are not the enemy. Parents and teachers really are on the same side.

5. The truth is simple: Your kid will lie to get out of trouble.

6. Encourage your child to keep reading. That’s key to success in the classroom at any age.

7. We can tell the difference between a parent helping their child with homework and doing it for them (especially when they’re clueless in class the next day).

8. Teaching is a calling. There’s not a teacher alive who will say she went into this for the money.

9. Just because your child says he did his homework doesn’t mean it’s true. You must check. Every night.

10. Teaching is not as joyful as it once was for many of us; we get jaded too. Disrespectful students and belligerent parents take a toll on us.

11. Parents give their kids the pricey gadgets and labels, but what kids really crave is for you to talk to them. They want to know you are interested in their lives.

12. We spend money out of our own pockets to buy things our students need, such as school supplies and even shoes.

13. Supportive, involved parents are crucial. But some are “helicopter parents”–they hover too much.

14. Having the summer off is great, but many of us have to take on extra jobs–teaching summer school, tutoring–to make ends meet.

15. Success is not achieved by just making kids memorize flash cards and prepping them for an Ivy League school. Sensible parents know there is a college for every kid, and that responsibility and good citizenship are what really drive success.

16. Nobody says “the dog ate my homework” anymore, but we hear a lot of “I left it on the kitchen table.” And then Mom will send in a note to back up the story.

17. We wish parents would make their kids own up to their actions instead of pressuring us to bend the rules.

18. Please stop doing everything for your child and allow them to make mistakes. How else will they learn? Kids are not motivated to succeed because they feel their parents will bail them out every time.

19. There are days when I just want to quit, but then that one smile from that one kid, changes it all.

Sources: American Federation of Teachers; interviews with elementary and middle school teachers in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota, New York, and Texas. Adapted from interviews with teachers by Neena Samuel

The term “No child left behind” is often bandied about by politicians when talking reform. But can that federal ideal be achieved? when how children are educated and what they learn is not determined at the state level or even the district level-of which nationally there are roughly 15,000-but rather at the school and classroom level, even.

Why is this true? To get to the answer, let’s get a little history first.

Teachers used to determine on their own how to teach the chosen content going from one fashionable method to another: from students sitting in rows and columns to circles; from quiet classroom to lively, controlled classrooms; and so on. But amongst all this, it was still up to teachers as to what should be taught as well.

However, over the last 20 years states have generally begun to agree on standards, but the problem is defining clear and teachable standards that are not too broad or too narrow which often creates confusion. Ironically, this confusion often results in the states putting the responsibility of what to teach back on the teacher.

But even if a “standard” is determined, how is it determined? It’s generally done so by groups consisting of teachers and content experts. However, the proof is in the pudding. How do these groups know that what they are having children learn is actually used in the workforce to the greatest degree? Are these education-standard decision makers lost in pie-in-the-sky academic theory or feet-on-the-ground practical application?

How practical and useful is the education today’s grads receive?

Personally, I’ve done informal surveys in my classes and have asked students if they feel they will have a “great need” in their lives / careers for, say, algebra, geometry, chemistry, biology, English literature, history, and so on. Rarely do I see more than a hand or two go up for any discipline I choose. An interesting result.

Administrators and trustees may come up with educational guidelines and content standards, but how many surveys are taken five years or so after graduation to determine how much of what was learned is used by students and to what degree? Maybe a realistic analysis will not only take the guesswork out of building curricula but also motivate teachers and administrators to teach to a “practical” standard curriculum.

To take the informal analysis a step further, let’s look at what’s being taught and whether or not it’s actually needed by the majority who go into the workforce. Let’s begin with science and math, certainly twin stars in the eyes of educators and parents alike (“If only my little Johnny were into math or science . . . ahhhhhhhh . . .).

Let’s be practical. It’s wishful thinking to believe that the majority will use higher math (algebra, geometry, trigonometry, etc.) or science. Of course, the current desire by our government to encourage more math and science centered students is merely economical. It believes that the more people we can get into high-tech jobs the more competitive (read more money) America will be. Bottom line, will we catch up with the six countries we lag behind.

Certainly there are jobs in major occupational groups such as computer and mathematical; architecture and engineering; life, physical, and social sciences; but according to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics that’s roughly about 5% of the labor force, give or take a few percentage points. The majority of jobs are in management, sales, health-care, protective services, food preparation and service, office and administrative support, construction, maintenance, production, and transportation. When is this reality ever addressed?

As an aside here, one reason we get lost in an inadequate perception of educational need is the peer pressure put on teachers and administrators to not only support popular ideas but to perpetuate their own jobs through self-fulfilling propaganda. Here’s an example:

According to Karin Chenoweth, senior writer with the Education Trust and author of How It’s Being Done: Urgent Lessons from Unexpected Schools, she states that “To be ready for, say, a plumbing apprenticeship or to get a job on an automobile assembly line or as a sales representative requires that students have fairly high reading and writing levels and have mastered math at least through Algebra II.”

Hardly.

If they desire to move up out of these positions, maybe. However, sometimes even the very successful need little education or desire to be educated beyond relevant or specific knowledge that directly pertains to their skill.

I personally know a man who did graduate from college–a prestigious California college– barely, and avoids books like the plague, but has developed a successful commercial real estate business. Another friend of mine never graduated from high school but runs a successful tree business that employs 80. And how about Bill Bartmann? a high school dropout who eventually went to college and graduated without a grade higher than “C,” then went onto law school, graduated to became a lawyer, quit that job and moved into business where he has made billions.

Learning how to learn, to think well (critically, intuitively, creatively, etc.), to build one’s knowledge base, skills, a productive attitude and good character are critical to success. But a formal, standard secondary education? One needs to understand its limitations, first and foremost. And the fact that no student is going to be forced to learn, or better yet, retain anything that is not of interest must be considered. Therefore, schools that unrealistically focus on what “We want kids to learn” is failed thinking and leaves out the most important part of the equation: the recipient. Do schools ever really focus on what the student wants? For once the formal institution’s influence is gone, the student left alone unto herself will in most cases begin to see what she desires and focus and build from there regardless of any institution’s “want.”

Another often forgotten point is the fact that even if a child loves a particular discipline all is lost if that knowledge is not kept fresh through constant use. Consider that within 24 hours 80% of what one reads is forgotten if not reviewed, then where does a high school grad stand months after graduation, especially graduation with grades that represent knowledge crammed in and spit out as quickly as possible after testing? An all too common event. Very rarely if ever do I run into students who focus on knowledge gained. The majority work to the grade not to the knowledge (another issue educators don’t address or overlook all too often).

But let’s get back to the national focus on math and science and finish our thinking on this issue.

Sure, I’d like an ideal world where we all have great paying, challenging jobs (utilizing high-end math skills, science and so on), but it’s not practical. The majority of jobs don’t require anything beyond arithmetic, something the majority of politicians, school board members, and parents don’t talk about. Math is pushed like everyone should learn it and that once that happens we’re in a safe haven, it’s the end-all and cure-all, life is good. Utopia here we come. But believing that marketing and selling math and science will get more interested, forget it, I’ve seen the level of math anxiety of anti-math students. It’s not a realistic fit. And also consider that less than a third of incoming college freshman are proficient, I said proficient, in basic math and writing skills, therein lies a major inhibitor in the belief that we are going to have an abundance of math and science students to fill the void.

Nevertheless, there should be a standard, and what the specifics of that standard entail should be determined by following graduates into the workforce seeing what is greatly needed and what is not. But once that’s accomplished that’s only the beginning.

Next, you have to get every teacher in every school in the nation on the same page which will greatly smooth out transition for the millions of students who move to a new school each year. Consider that not only does the new student have to adjust to a new culture, routine, students, but new curriculum as well. With a national standard, at least here the student will find familiarity.

By creating a national standard that means that teachers will have to collaborate. However, that’s not something that is part of the teacher’s professional development. And certainly teachers get together for meetings, but these meetings are often unfocused and waste time. By getting together with other teachers to discuss how to teach the new national standard, consult with each other and experts about a systematic, detailed way to teach it is, unfortunately, going against the norm. A complete overhaul of educating educators will have to be made in this regard.

And in order to get these norming sessions into practical action, teachers must focus on the controllable and on instruction not wandering into complaining or gossiping or rambling on about things not addressing instruction.

But other issues concerning what is not taught in schools that is so essential to our youth’s education that goes beyond standard curriculum are rarely addressed. Here’s a short list:

1) Finance: few students have the slightest inkling as to what they will need to survive on or thrive on while working toward and through retirement. Financial IQ is such an essential aspect of a responsible citizen of society it should go without saying, yet with the average American $10,000 in credit card debt and 95% of retirees relying on family, government, friends, and poor paying jobs to get by you’d think someone would have added this to high school curricula decades ago.

2) Relationships: One’s ability to get along with others is priceless. The number of employers, colleagues, and peers who prefer likability over skill and know-how (much more easily taught) should point to the dire need for relations and relationship building to be taught in high schools. And with the foundation of any society relying on the family and with the divorce rate hovering around 50% . . . need I say more?

3) How to Deal With Adversity: What happens when one loses their job? What happens when a business goes under? What happens when a rift occurs at the work place? These critical situations must be discussed and worked through as best as one can without having actually experienced them to at least prepare the individual so he / she is not completely caught off guard when a difficulty in this regard arises.

4) Character: No amount of education, talent, ability, skill or gift can compensate or make up for the self-sabotaging nature of poor character.

5) Ongoing personal development

6) Understanding and utilizing motivation

7) Self-improvement for personal and professional gain

Leadership skills to optimize one’s overall potential

9) Goal setting and achieving to optimize one’s knowledge, skills, attitudes

10) Self-confidence

11) Imagination and critical / intuitive thinking

12) Self-control; concentration / focus

13) Tolerance

So there’s a lot of work to be done, a lot of rethinking, retraining, and re-opening of minds needed. This issue is complex, critical, and won’t go away. All of what I listed in this article and much, much more is involved in getting our children up to speed for their transition from the dream / theory based world of academia to that of the harsh work world. May those with insight, courage, and level heads lead us to where our education system needs to be for the benefit of our children and all our children’s children.

Here we’re not talking about faculty or staff but those who make the decisions. They are trustees (board members) and presidents. And this is a problem. Why? Because they do not live lives similar to that of students, faculty, or staff. Most live in comparative luxury looking to better their lot by keeping themselves–decision makers–around. If cuts need to be made, they will be done at the low end, getting rid of adjunct and fulltime faculty, staff, and by increasing fees, tuition, and so on.

Here’s an example to elaborate.

Years ago, I was working at a community college and joined a group to get a union on campus, for without one teachers will get near nothing. Even with one they often don’t get enough, but a union helps. But sometimes they even help in major ways, life saving even. In my case, I was between insurances when I was told I had cancer. And only with the help of the union was I able to get health insurance. The union had ensured people in my situation that even with one foot in the grave they would get access to good insurance. Most employers do not have such strong insurance obtainment policies for employees. To this day, I am literally alive because of the AFT (American Federation of Teachers). After that the AFT continued to help me on several occasions to obtain fair treatment. To continue the example.

At the time I was attending board meetings, the economy took a dive and cuts had to be made. Who was affected most? Faculty, staff, students. Classes were cut, adjuncts (non-guaranteed, semester to semester contracts) were left unemployed, fulltime were asked to retire early, and tuition fees were hiked. That may not be so bad in itself, but on the other end, I sat in meetings during this time while the president gave herself consecutive, back to back annual $25,000 increases while board members were giving themselves $7000, $10,000, $14,000 annual increases and so on.

More recently, during the fiscal pay-calendar shift (where pay is usually the last of the month but shifts in July to the 10th so teachers are going more than five weeks without pay), teacher after teacher was discovering that their pay was not coming on the 10th of July but the 31st, basically going two months without pay.

Upon calling the AFT, I was told that Payroll intentionally did not specifically warn instructors with a memo about the change (it was buried in the new contract with some vague language, that which the chair of my department had to read several times before she could make sense of it) because the district wanted to cause hardships so that the teachers would complain thus enabling a greater opportunity for additional monies to be place in the state budget for community colleges. Of course here we’re talking about monies that would not necessarily be distributed to faculty or staff. It may be earmarked for them, but monies allocated by the state do not always get to their intended targets.

In effect, since the change was stated in the contract, no matter how vague, the AFT couldn’t do anything, at least according to the president of the AFT local I spoke to.

Another thing to consider in your child’s mistreatment and lack of regard expressed by the actions or inactions of the trustees is the fact that part-time faculty or adjuncts outnumber full time faculty by 60 to 40. The majority of teachers are adjuncts or temporary, semester by semester employees of a district so that money can be saved (i.e.: less money spent on pensions and benefits). This is solely done to save the district money.

Sounds good?

Guess again.

Because of this, along with the rule that an adjunct cannot teach more than 9 units in any given district, adjuncts (the majority of teachers) become freeway flyers, often going not only from college to college to college but district to district to make enough money to pay for the necessities. Along with this, most are not compensated for office time to meet with students. Some districts do compensate for an hour a week, but that’s rare. Most give nothing or one district pays for one hour a month. Not many student issues can be addressed in such a short period of time.

So the problem is that students don’t get the attention they deserve and teachers don’t get the motivation they need to keep teaching. It’s basically a lose / lose situation.

There are other injustices being incurred by your children too numerous to mention here, but the next time you hear colleges spouting a great mission statement be careful of the hype that most likely lies beneath it.

Nothing is as it seems? Yes, we can say that here, for certain.