To Revamp Public Education or to Keep Status Quo?

Before we get into how we should revamp public education, it’s time for a pop quiz!

Q: If you’ve been out of high school for few years, how much of all that education do you use on a daily basis?

A. All of it
B. Most of it
C. Some of it
D. Barely any of it
E. None of it

Would you feel cheated if you were told the correct answer is D or E?

Why We Need to Revamp Public Education

It’s time we revamp public education. Isn’t it crazy how we have 13 years of education, yet we have so many dumb, ignorant people? Generally speaking, one half of America thinks it is so smart and thinks the other half is so dumb. That goes both ways. Isn’t it strange how there can be two extremely polar takes on an issue? What causes this polarity?

After going through the K-12 system and being out of it for 2 decades, it’s hard to believe how much of that information I don’t use.

Think about the above pop quiz. What knowledge of your thirteen years of education are you truly using?

Personally, I had to read so many books in which I had no interest. It was hard and I had to spend a lot of time on reading and writing about things in which I had no interest. I barely can even tell you what books I read through K-12. Once I shipped off to the Army, I’m not even sure how much I could tell you back then!

We also need to consider how much the current public education system costs.

So what should we do to revamp public education? Teach the necessities.

How to Read and Write

This is a no brainer. These are the foundations of everything else school should be teaching. You wouldn’t even understand any of this post if you didn’t know how to read! Whether it’s blog posts, social media, or even road signs on your way to work, you’re reading every day. Most likely, you’re sending texts, posting on social media, or writing emails every day as well.

I have tended to perform well in school. I think this is in part because my grandmother helped teach me how to read and write before I even got to kindergarten. The emphasis by my parents played a role as well.

But to what extent should we be reading and writing? Of everything that I had to read and write in K-12, I can tell you I enjoyed very little of it. Reading fiction just wasn’t interesting. Doing a couple years of reading some books and writing reports with critical feedback would do great, but how many years before I max out in something I’m not interested in?

Harvard Business Review has some good tips on studying something you find boring. Although, I would suggest to not be fully reliant on extrinsic motivation. Find something internally that creates the need or want of you to study.

Writing to Clarify

I’ve thought about revamping the education system for years now. Until I started writing about it for this post, I didn’t realize how deep it would be. It’s also requiring a lot of focus on persuasion because I’m constantly thinking about opposing points of view.

Writing is important not just for communicating to others, but to communicating to ourselves. Dr. James Pennebaker on an episode of Speaking of Psychology spoke about his work in using expressive writing to assist your mental health. Utilizing critical thinking, writing only even a handful times a year may be able to help you work through stressful times.

We have so much in our brains. Thoughts are zooming around all the time. It helps to slow down and actually write what we are thinking. It helps focus our attention and collect our thoughts. We need to do it more for ourselves than for others!

Basic STEM

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics are the way to the future. For many, these are the most boring subjects. For a few others, these are the most exciting.

First off, math. Why did I learn Functions, Statistics, and Trigonometry that carried over to what I wanted to do out of high school? Why did I take and get an “A” in Pre-Calculus? That sucked because that took a lot of time! I didn’t have a lot of interest in math, so I didn’t retain a lot of it after high school. Everything I did for over two decades after high school only required basic math skills.

When I worked as a cash register operator (it sounds cooler than just “cashier”) at Kmart, one thing I did for customers was count their change back to them. For example, if a customer had to pay $5.32 and handed me a $20 bill, here’s how I would count it back:

“So your total was $5.32. Three pennies make $5.35, fifteen more cents make $5.50, two quarters make $6.00, four ones make $10, and a ten makes $20.”

I received so many compliments and “thank you’s” counting back. It was just basic math, but it ensured my register wasn’t missing a penny and the customers were getting every cent back. That math had a real world, common usage. However, I don’t believe I learned this in school. I picked it up at my first job.

Also Read: Why Do We REALLY Have a Student Loan Debt Problem?

Focus on Those Math Basics!

Basic percentages, fractions, and geometry should be required as well. With all the math education I had, I was stumped that when I made it to college (10 years after I graduated) that I had to take College Algebra. I ended up having to relearn some math stuff to get an “A-” in that class, which was only hard because I didn’t see the point. Since then, I don’t think I’ve used a single thing I learned in that class.

A student asked the instructor why we, especially as art students, would need to know College Algebra. His reason was that our degree demanded it. Was he right? I don’t know for sure, but never have I ever been working or hearing about any algebra while doing anything film or video related.

Is it worth teaching all this math? We have so many programs or apps that can do it for us.

Basic Science, Engineering, and Technology

From math, basic science and engineering should take notice.

Is the periodic table considered basic? I think I went over it in grade school, but just never took interest in it. Why would I? But some students will, and they shouldn’t be held back from pursuing their interests.

Requiring students to learn some things in which they may not be interested I can understand. However, the vast amount of subjects presented to them when they have almost no life experience is a bit much. Science, engineering, and technology are important and interesting, no doubt. Exposure to the subjects is necessary.

Technology, since it’s consistently evolving, I’m surprised isn’t taught consistently. I know people can just go on the internet and learn, but especially for older folks, what should they be learning? If I had my way (old man talking), there would be an annual class or two at a community center that goes over the latest updates in technology and how it can be applied to daily life. Ideally, it would be given in the last few days of the month to not only bring the year to a close, but motivate people to make better New Year’s Resolutions!

Critical Thinking – the Main Focus of Revamping Public Education

If you want to graduate from the revamped public education system, your final test would be in critical thinking.

There are so many instances in which critical thinking is absent. One needs to look no further than “viable” social media videos.

Social media has its uses. It’s worst use, however, is it’s use to share live events as they happen.

The Roe V. Wade case overturned abortion rights by the Supreme Court of the United States. We’re seeing protests break out around not just the U.S., but the world.

As with the Black Lives Matter protests and other similar events, we are bombarded with short video clips on social media. These clips often show one side with the subject being victimized. In the video below, the clip starts right as actress Jodie Sweetin is pushed down by the cops.

The LAPD just manhandled actress/activist Jodie Sweetin at a pro-choice protest pic.twitter.com/FMJNfjUMBW
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) June 26, 2022

The replies show an extreme lack of critical thinking. Very few are questioning anything, and the ones who are I think are missing the mark.

I searched for video about how she ended up in that situation in the first place. Access Hollywood interviewed her with her recollection of the incident.

.@JodieSweetin responds to the viral video of her being shoved by police during an an abortion rights protest in LA. pic.twitter.com/jm9zN3H5H1
— Access Hollywood (@accesshollywood) June 27, 2022

More on the Jodie Sweetin Protest Incident

“We were there protesting and I was standing there with my blowhorn and had come around the, sort of the back and they were walking me through that police line there and, um, one of the officers grabbed the handle of my backpack and threw me from behind as we were walking by.” – Jodie Sweetin via Access Hollywood

Need more clarification, I found on NBC Channel 4 Los Angeles‘s website the following:

“Author and journalist Shaun King shared the video, originally posted to Instagram by @belikemike, on his own Instagram page.

“That’s my friend @JodieSweetin – who many of you know from Full House – being assaulted by the LAPD,” King said in his post. “Jodie was literally trying to lead people OFF of the freeway.”

A video embedded on the page contained a Zoom interview with the person who filmed the incident, Mike Ade. He states,

“She ended up behind the police line. I don’t know how that that occurred…she was communicating with officers back there. She was on her way back to join the group of protesters and lead protesters away from the free way, and it was at that point that she was shoved in the back by two officers.”

More video from the protest showing police beating some protesters

Questions Linger

After looking for more information on what happened here, I can’t find really what happened. I’m not trying to discredit Ade and I think it may have been just a poor choice on NBC’s part (or possibly cut for time), but the way his statement was edited could have created this confusion. It also doesn’t really coincide with Jodie’s statement from the Access Hollywood interview posted on Entertainment Weekly.

It’s unfortunate there is no video of the time before Jodie was shoved onto the ground. The statements from Sweetin and Ade lead to tons of other questions from me.

If Sweetin negotiated to lead the group off the freeway, what happened to that?
There was no reaction from the police at all from that action. Why didn’t the officers she negotiated with step up?
Why didn’t she even attempt to tell anyone what she had negotiated? I could understand that she may have been rattled, but she had the upper hand in negotiation here because if she was simply just going back to lead the group off the freeway, she should have approached the police and ask to speak to whoever she negotiated with.
If she was meeting with police, isn’t it weird absolutely no one found that worthy to video?

Revisiting Nathan Phillips

I’m just shining a spotlight on this incident because it was hot news when this post was first drafted. There are so many videos from protests and so many other incidents throughout time that barely tell the full story. The Nathan Phillips / Nicholas Sandmann incident was a big one from 2019. Vox reported through the Washington Post that Phillips claimed:

“…that guy in the hat stood in my way, and we were at an impasse.”

That’s the only video we saw when this situation took off. If you were paying attention at the time, you know Sandmann and those kids took tons of flack for it.

Critical thinking is so important. Taking in perspectives and realizing there might be a reason for something is pretty paramount. However, I think most people just find it easier to come to their own conclusions. After all, all the brain wants is to make sense of the world.

Life

More classes on life in general was something I thought would make a great addition to revamping public education. Teaching kids to be more self-sufficient and not just preparing them for more education should be more important. After all, once kids stop going to school, how much of their education do they actually use?

There certainly is the argument that expanding critical thinking is done through analyzing information and working through problems. Great! Let’s use that energy to write, discuss, and think about problems we encounter today and in the future.

Auto shop, wood shop, management, cooking, physical and mental fitness, travelling, cleaning, and so many other topics could be covered in life classes. Students have found great utility in just learning how to manage money.

How much of your life do you spend at work? If you work from 18 to 65, that’s 47 years! Yet, how much about management, business, and psychology do you learn in K-12? Not as much as you learn about history, math, or even possibly science!

But what is something you use every second of every day? Psychology! Knowing who you are, what your brain is doing, and making guesses on what is going to happen is something useful to you everyday. Why isn’t psychology more focused on in school?

Part of the reason I think creating short films is great experience because it’s an opportunity to test out management skills. You’ll see what I mean in the Art section below.

Art

There is plenty of data out there showing how art can benefit students, such as the most important subject – critical thinking. Being a former film major and as someone who loves movies, there is a project I think every student should take on.

In today’s age, filmmaking is extremely accessible. Cell phones have decent cameras, other hardware can be low cost and still perform well, and editing software is much more affordable.

Directing or producing a movie is basically a project. It’s a great way to teach project management with a physical end product. Every movie or documentary has multiple roles that need to be filled, and they’re filled with a variety of people. It would be a program that would have some structure, but it would allow students to think creatively. Film and Television is interesting to most people – I have only met one person in my life who has rolled his eyes at the idea of watching a movie.

Students making a short film — Film projects are great ways students can learn how to work together, manage, and create something fun. Until AI can learn how to make a simple photo of students making a film, maybe we should leave filmmaking to the humans!

Film Projects to Revamp Public Education

Every week, I would have a group of students rotate positions. We would have a list of scripts the director would get to choose from. The director then spends a day workshopping how the film will be made. Other members of the group will learn the basics of their roles, i.e. audio, editing, cinematography, lighting, etc. while the director is in preproduction.

During all of this, the instructor would emphasize and communicate how working on the film would connect to working in the real world. In the Army, we did After Action Reviews, or AAR, after everything we did. Here, there would be a couple hours dedicated to an AAR after production and after post production.

At the end of the course, a screening of all the projects would be held for anyone to view!

What Would Replace the Schools If We Revamp Public Education?

Again, I ask this question: So much in this entire world has changed since K-12 was implemented, so why hasn’t K-12 changed?

Since youth won’t be going to school full-time, what do we have for them? This isn’t an easy answer with tons of possibilities!

What about more community centers? Instead of having one large community center (school) with lots of different subjects or activities, would smaller community centers focused on specific subjects be a good idea? One for STEM, athletics, art, business,

Then there comes the accreditation. That’s another concept I haven’t fully thought out. What I have always found a little concerning is how a GED is a substitute for a High School Diploma. According to ged.com, there are four sections tested for a GED:

Math
Social Studies
Science
Reasoning through Language Arts

There’s tons of evidence that high school graduates are much more successful in life than those who don’t graduate. How much of that is caused by stigma? There’s also plenty of anecdotal evidence of people without any formal education becoming successful. If GED’s are a substitute for a high school diploma, why isn’t there more encouragement towards GED’s?

Sure, what I’m proposing is more towards a GED, but why wait until their late teens?

What about the Abandoned Schools?

What’s sad are the number of schools in America that are abandoned. From 2021 to 2022, 755 schools closed, but 15,127 have closed since 2010.

Schools are closing for a handful of reasons, but it looks like the major reason is due to underperformance. Another reason is low enrollment. There are plenty of schools that just sit abandoned, which is sad! I think the first thing we need to do is find a way to repurpose those schools. I’m willing to bet they are still somewhat functional or structurally sound when they are shut down.

In the interest of sustainability, we can’t continue to let these abandoned schools just go to waste! One use that has been popular is converting them to apartments. Former schools made up 2.9% of converted buildings to housing in 2022! One school was used as storage before it was torn down.

Conclusion

It’s just hard accepting the current system, which has been the same system since pre-internet times, is still carrying forward. Of all the projects and things you learn through your K-12 years, how much of that do you actually use? What do you know now that you wish would have been pounded into you when you were 16?

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