So it's come to light that there's a lack of engineers, scientists and other sorts who can tell their ass from an equation on the paper. This bothers me, but doesn't surprise me. I've argued with too many teachers who are easily proven wrong and been kicked out for it to really be surprised. Utah is sort of a bad example though. Well at least I wish it were. The kids out here barely know when there's an election happening let alone anything past their weed, their music and in some cases their religion. I didn't catch up to my 6th grade education in Fayetteville until at least the 11th here in Utah. I went from AP Science and Math, French and Spanish, back to doing my 3's multiplication tables. My work ethic for schoolwork took a tank and my grades suffered for it. My test scores tended to stay high and in hindsight I should've just done it anyway.
There are too many teachers here that barely know what they're teaching. There are exceptions and I could probably count them in one, or just over one hand. For every AP History teacher I had, I had history teachers that tried teaching that Black Powder wasn't big in the middle ages or that Jets didn't exist in WW2. I remember those so clearly because the teach lost my test papers after I called him on it.
For every debate teacher that could legitimately see both sides and be civil, I had an English teacher who wanted to push her agenda and if couldn't teach AP Literature if she had a guide in front of her. But, hey, she thought her feminist ideals were more important than teaching what the class was there for. I could keep going on this, but up until I started talking did I realize just how bad it was. We were the test case for No Child Left Behind. I found the tests to be insultingly easy. I scored above 95 on all of them. Or was that another standardized test... I honestly don't care, they were staggeringly easy. Talking to friends about it later though I found out many struggled or didn't know everything on them. We're talking stuff I learned back in 3rd and 4th grade, not anything abstract or truly difficult. And most of the teachers really didn't seem to care and those that do start to get burned out. I remember the sad look on my science teacher's face when he noticed that only 3 or 4 of us were consistently answering questions. That sort of defeated look.
How can we fix it? No clue. I'd start with tossing out any teacher that can't pass a general knowledge test on their own subject. Tossing the teacher's union and either reforming it from the ground up to be useful rather than agenda driven, or dismissing it entirely is another good start. I know this is a nerd thing, but seriously, toss the sports programs, or at least cut their funding. If they want more, look into endorsement ads, the companies will bite and the school would probably benefit if it's handled properly. Finally, let's get administration that are there as educators and not something driven by a sense of self-worth. Our Vice-Principle was an amazingly nice guy who always got stuck doing the shit work. Our principle only ever jumped when he believed he could make the news paper. Trust me on this one, he tried to pin my ass to the wall at one point and even mentioned calling the local paper. I earned a nickname for the incident from my friends and an eternal hatred of the school and the principle. Got to know the vice-principle decently though.
Finally, let's drop advanced education costs, professors in no shape form or way need that much god damn money and neither does anyone else running the asylums. Also stop handing out degrees in stupid shit and actually make sure they're getting an education. It almost feels like we should stop the standardized shit and start trying to place kids where they need to be to actually learn about the world. Actual, useful things like budgeting and critical thinking. I don't know.
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