With the tools at our fingertips and the will to be better, the future of learning looks incredibly promising – and so much better than its past.
I am just going to say it. Education has sucked for a very long time. That may be a shocking thing to hear from a columnist in a learning magazine, but I stand by my assertion. I have been an education writer and editor for many years now. I have always tried to accentuate the positive and highlight successes. But the system has been broken since I was in school. And I am 65.
I was a genius kid with an ego to match. I disliked school so much that I only graduated so I could attend my 3 hour commercial art program in high school. Otherwise, I would have said the hell with it and just quit attending. I was a kid who at the age of 7 was reading on a tenth grade level. And I was even better at math. By the time I was 15, I hated everything about school. I failed my first semester eleventh grade English class because my teacher said I cheated on a paper – she declared that no 17-year-old could have a vocabulary that sophisticated. She retired mid-year and there was no recourse. This was before the Internet and there was no way I could have cheated even if I had wanted to.
So you know, the paper was all me.
I wonder how many bright kids have tuned out or dropped out because they thought school sucked as well. And with our utterly mediocre standards, we revel in the fact that we graduate almost four out of five in this country.
I thank God that I ended up in college after a year of construction jobs and other equally hard lessons. The hottest I have ever been is framing houses in Jackson, Mississippi in the summertime. 12 hours a day and no shade. Like Hell without the fun parts.
As much as I hated school, I loved college even more. It was a place of ideas – theirs and mine – and both up for discussion. I wouldn’t trade my liberal arts education for the world – even if it was not designed to prepare me for a career. It prepared me for any career.
So the past doesn’t excite me. But the future sure does. That’s why we created this Learning Futures platform. It’s sole purpose is to get good ideas into the hands of motivated individuals. The rest is up to you. And that said, we are actively looking for your good ideas to share with our readers. So please, drop me a line if you’d like to help.
And here’s to sucking no more. Now, let’s get to work.
