Educators Passed Used by Date
The debate about who should pay for education is missing the point. It is not who pays, but rather: what are we paying for?
Education as providing a service to society is failing. Educators are not doing their job. Our schools and universities are not preparing students for a full active role in tomorrow's society. Some say not even for today.
The poor level of service has many causes, but it is fair to say that most teachers are incredibly unaware of the trends and shifts in the wider political, economic, social and cultural world, and the future directions our economy is taking.
Most senior educator/administrators/politicians do not know about these trends either. They do not know about the world they are supposedly educating people for.
Imagine the reaction if you offer for sale only a calculator when a computer is required! You would be out of business instantly. It is time the education system did a reality check.
Ask your average thinking teenager about the world as they live it and then the world as it is presented in the classrooms of the nation. You will be given two very different worlds. Which one do you think might be the more accurate description of life in the year 1997, 2000, 2005?
How can we pretend to be educating young people for their future when we are not keeping pace with their present?
Our education processes and content have passed their Use-By date.
We are hearing the question of paying for this service, whether education should be user-pays or society-pays.
If we asked: What world are we educating for? we might then discover that the education system as it exists is incapable of delivering a quality service of educating people for tomorrow's world.
We are, in fact, leaving it up to young people to prepare themselves for their own jobs.
No wonder our youth suicide.
Business News 7 June 1996
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