What Will Mend the Education Rift?
In the wake of privileged education scandal, student loan defaults and struggling public schools, U.S. students continue to lag behind other rich nations. Why?
NYTimes said: “The perennial debate about the state of public education starts with a single, seemingly unassailable fact. American students sorely lag their peers in other rich nations and even measure up poorly compared with students in some less advanced countries.”
Ashton Kutcher, in an interview with Robyn Jackson at ASCD empower19, an education conference, proposed ideas that may seem privileged to some in the audience. First Kutcher said students need help finding their sense of purpose, and then they need to learn to fail. Kutcher said he would reach out to Elon Musk, request a free Tesla X plus some starter cash and use it to inspire students to create something of value for the car company. Sure… Wait, maybe that is not so far-fetched. Remove Elon Musk and Tesla and substitute local tech and manufacturing firms. Reach out to the community and create a common project that gives immediate benefits to local businesses. And if the program works, it will yield future joint projects and draw more students back to the area by offering employment that encourages creative thinking.
Joint community projects are not the final answer, but the American Education system could use some fresh thinking on how to make our education of the masses more effective and dynamic. The discussion needs to continue and to evolve to fresh resolutions.
As we consider new plans of actions, there is still today’s education issues to be addressed. Parents have found their own way to help their children if they can afford it. Students with the fiscal capacity are looking for help from outside the system in the form of tutors. Tutors are legal, as opposed to cheating to gain entry to prestigious schools, which is not legal. Cost may still be a problem. The cost of a private tutor can range from $25 per hour to $1,250. That’s a pretty large range. But tutors range from those helping students with a difficult subject to tutors who carry the entire curriculum plus help with other needs such as rehab, learning disabilities.or assistance to achieve entry into higher education opportunities. Until the broken US education system is mended, tutoring seems to be the best legitimate way to give your child the hand up they may need.