WARNING: Rant ahead.

Our education system has failed us. It’s not set up for learning, it’s set up as a means to get compliance. Put children in their seats in nice straight lines like a factory. Ensure everyone follows the rules and is prepared for workplaces that operate the same way. Memorize dates, places, and times because “this will be on the test.”

And while there are teachers who know better and do their best to give students real learning, the system is a machine built for creating reliable workers who will do as they’re told. 

What has it given us? A numbers game (standardized testing) that promotes regurgitation rather than application. We’ve made knowing when Abe Lincoln was born more important than understanding how he led. We’ve made memorizing formulas more important than being able to look up the right ones and use them to solve big problems.

This is a real issue because the challenges of today’s world are huge and interconnected. We need big problem solvers, not compliant drones. We need people who can work in teams, see possibilities, and defy the status quo. The system was not built for that and desperately needs to evolve.

So, what do we need? To prepare them for the big world and the immense complexity of the challenges at hand and those to come, we need our children to…

• Be able to problem solve and think critically
• Be able to look at things in multiple ways
• Be able to work independently as well as with others
• Be creative (yes, the arts matter!!!!)
• Be able to use the world around them to find answers
• Be able to speak well, write well, and work well with numbers

…not just blurt out memorized answers on a test.

We also need our children to be able to fail. We have coddled and shielded them from that reality for too long. I was a school teacher many moons ago and found that so many barriers were put up to protect delicate sensibilities that it made teaching almost impossible. To say little Johnnie or little Susie was failing was just not done and you got your wrists slapped if you did. 

Life is full of failure. We learn by failing. If we build a too-protective bubble, our kids will never cope. I think we are seeing the results of that in the increase in mental health issues and the over-dramatization of just about every little disappointment.

So… want better employees? Work for better, more meaningful, and useful education. Rally for the open book (the real world is not closed book). Rally for project work (no one fills in bubbles with a #2 pencil in the workplace). Rally for tests that require real-life application rather than spitting out largely useless memorized (and easily forgotten) data. Rally for more work in teams (that’s how we develop collaborative skills). Rally for honest feedback when students are failing (real life is full of it so they need to be prepared).

If you want better, smarter employees, we need better learning …that’s matched to the real world.

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