IT Professionals

Gates Speaks The Truth

Posted by on Mar 7, 2007 | 8 Comments

Honestly, I don’t say this very often, but Bill Gates has a really good point here. My school years were some of the most unchallenging and mind-numbing ever to be experienced. During my schooling (1980s), I found that I was definitely not alone amongst the desire to feel like I was being challenged. Kids from both the high and low grade point averages were spending their time in the virtual hamster wheel rather than feeling enhanced with any sense of accomplishment or discovery.

Being a realistic sort myself, I am sensitive to cost and basic curriculum issues. But the fact remains that today’s school system here in the US is hardly proving itself to be that of a competitive force in the world landscape. More math, science, and perhaps even a tad bit more discipline in key subjects would do wonders. I believe that if we could implement higher standards from our students/parents/teachers, balanced with a challenging, non-sleep inducing curriculum, could potentially be the shot in the arm that today’s young people need.

What do you think? Are the kids of the US destined for a half-hearted lifestyle?

[tags]school,learning,improvement,curriculum[/tags]

  • http://fractalbeanstalk.blogspot.com/ Tim Hodkinson

    I’m a homeschooling parent, so I’ve thought a lot about education and one conclusion I quickly came to was that there doesn’t seem to be any direction or vision or goal to our educational systems, in general. What exactly do we want to achieve from 12 or so years of “educating” a student in school, or home, or wherever? What do we want a graduate of high school to be? and what’s the best, or what are the better ways to get the student there?

    There’s no real goal or direction to education today, just as I think you’re pointing out in your post.

    One thing I would suggest is that of more reading. Not just for the sake of reading, but to introduce students to more culture and ideas. But instead of ending every book with an exam or essay or time-wasting project, I would end it with a short fact-test simply to ensure the student read the book and then move on to another. Let some of the great minds of the past educate our students and the teachers keep quiet.

  • Keith Baddams

    Regarding Education,
    as I am UK citizen went through UK System
    I can see big major differences Between Europe Education
    and USA-Canada,
    First Grade 13 = UK Ordinary Level taken at 16 yrs old in UK
    hi Homework for 5 yrs from 11 too 16 no time during week for play at al, as study took 2 too 3hrs each nite,
    But as 16 yr old UK is equal to 18 yr old USA in education
    its worth it, means that 5 yr apprenticeship are finished at 21 yrs old, naking all 21 yr olds able to stand on their own,
    fully trained in any trade,
    instead of bringing in Europeans to work please upgrade USA & Canada education to match UK at least
    then all youth will be better off or Send all youth to UK for education, seperate Boys & Girls schools in UK
    No fooling around as seperated at 11 yrs old,
    bye Keith

  • Duane

    I had the most difficult time in school, not because it was challenging, but because it wasn’t. It was too difficult to concentrate on paint drying. What child or teenager wants to work or focus on something so boring?
    I think that our education system would benefit from trying some new things, and going with those that work the best.
    I’m not an expert, so I’m not sure what would work, but something out there has to be better then what we currently have.
    There is a quote out there that I think says it all “If you’ve always done it that way, it’s probably wrong.” –Charles Kettering

  • marc klink

    After reading the article, I agree with the spirit of what he says, but as for things like ‘no child left behind’ I see no help there. As the parent of a couple of teenagers, I see how little they are being taught, and how incredibly ignorant the general student is today. I hear myself saying all the time to my children “why don’t you know that?” or “we studied that [usually 2 to 4 years sooner] when I was in school”. It amazes me how we can say that we will lead in industry when the people that are coming out of school are so ignorant. The trouble is that most of the younger people I speak with don’t seem concerned about being ignorant, as if the knowledge will just be absorbed magically over time. I see no desire to learn, no thirst for knowledge that my teachers gave me…my children’s teachers are too worried about getting the material for the yearly testing covered, which is fine, but the tests don’t cover much, and there is much more needed to be considered educated. What I fear for my children is that the difference in knowledge will be so great between what is available in high school and what is expected in college that the chasm will drive them away from higher learning. I see teachers complaining about just about everything, but I also think they have it pretty good [this is probably the non-politically correct view]. They work less than 8hrs per day, have more holidays than anyone else, have made the school year 10.5 months so that they can be paid year round….and teach less with poorer results than ever before. I see no change in the process, so I doubt that any difference in educational quality will result.

  • marc klink

    I read the post above about education in the UK. It probably is true, but one thing I don’t agree with is the idea that assigning hour upon hour of homework is going to make things better. If the material is not covered in class, students will rarely do well at lower levels [I have had children at 10 with 2-3 hours of homework, with the material not covered in class] The teachers say it is the responsiblity of the parent to help, but then why do we send children to school? The teachers I have dealt with [California] seem fine with putting the blame on parents…I say that since teaching is their chosen profession, they should be better suited to it and should take some pride in the quality of their work.

  • Joe

    The problem my friend is not that they do not have a high enough standard, but that the system and schooling itself drives the desire to learn and discover right out of the child.
    If you have a child above 3rd or 4th grade you know exactly what I’m talking about. With so much home work and brain numbing worksheets kids dont have time to be kids, be challenged, curious, explore or find what interests them.
    With the public putting presure on the school system, the school board forwards the preasure to the teachers. The result is teachers dumping more home work on the kids while never properly introducing new concepts, and the kids loathing school.

  • Philip C. Kimball

    I taught at the elementary school level from 1952 until 1970, in California and Alberta. I felt, at that time and now, that the only solution was to abolish the public education system and leave the education to the parents and get the people who have made a farce of the post office, out of the education of our future leaders.
    If parents had the responsibility to provide their own children with an appropriate education they could see to it that the education was designed to allow their children to get individual education that would challenge their children and lead them in the proper direction instead of trying to make all children equal to the slowest of children in the class. Either private schools or home schooling could provide the proper kind of schooling.
    In the history of the United States, we had extremely well educated leaders back in the era of private schools and home trained pupils. Think of Benjamin Franklin. He was mostly self educated. Even Thomas Jefferson was largely self educated after some early private schooling.

  • Ron Leedy

    I grew up in the California education system in the 70′s. There were classes that I slept through. In my senior year I passed the AP exams for Calculus, Physics and Chemistry but graduated with the lowest GPA of a senior that year. Why? Because of my attitude toward authority figures.

    Skip forward 25 years….

    I now have two teenagers at public high school. Also, through family have had direct association with the educational system over the last 25 years.
    Its agreed there are a lot of kids who are spending wasted time in school. But there are also kids who on their own (driven by parents) are achieving excellence. My kid’s school is a National Distinguished Honor School but there are kids who are failing out or can’t even pass the California exit exam; which a hamster could pass. Why? Its the parents and the culture of the families that don’t allow the kids to excel. There is a girl at the high school that gets A’s on all her work and is brilliant but has incomplete in most of her classes because the family goes back to their homeland for 6 weeks over Christmas. There is no way a kid could excel but the parents feel their family’s past is more important than the girls future. There needs to be balance.

    Parents need to retake responsibility of their kids and their duties to make sure kids are getting the best education. Parents — Make an effort to be at the kids school other than Back to School night. Know the principal by first name. Most of them will make time for you outside normal working hours. If they don’t then go to their boss. Give it the same importance as your credit rating. Its worth more.