School.

Question: How can we make society more educated and productive?

Answer: Get rid of ...Schools?

Ok, not exactly. But it is unfortunate that greedy investors and lobbyists will spend millions brainwashing kids to think that if they don't go to school/college they will somehow fail out of life. The following are 3 myths that I hope will shed light on our modern definition of this thing we call education.

1. The Department of Education (DoED) is crucial:

October 17, 1979, education in our country drastically changed with the formal establishment of the DoED. Ever since, education has become the most prominent "social policy" in our nation forcing every human to become a cookie-cutter mold of the next. The DoED has done nothing more than to expand America's debt hundreds of billions, all while de-inspiring and de-motivating pliable young minds. The DoED's approach to education has punished the student who was blessed with high energy (thus doesn't have a preference for sitting and learning one subject for hours on end). The DoED also has punished the students who are not good standardized test takers, yet were blessed with a myriad of other talents. All of this has resulted in many kids with diminished confidence and low self-worth.

In the 1980 presidential election President Reagan ran on a Republican ticket that was pushing the dissolution of the DoED. Unfortunately, it never came to pass because of a democratic majority in congress. However, if the passion could revitalize, the presidents and the congress could actually work together for once, and the DoED was abolished it would mean we just found a way to save $71 Billion per year on the national budget and perhaps just a fraction of that money could be given to the states to handle education locally. For goodness sake it is not the distant federal government that lives in our towns, goes to our churches, knows us personally, and attends PT meetings. But THEY know what's best for our kids, not the local agencies, right? Wrong.

2. Only the "A" students are successful.

Every subject, in every college, is way to vast for the most intellectually gifted of students to learn perfectly in the short semesters they study. For a law student to say he has mastered the subject of law after 3 short years of studying centuries of legal theories, evolution and dicta is like saying I counted every rain drop in the thunderstorm this afternoon. It just isn't possible. This is true for medical students, science majors, mathematics or engineering students, et cetera.

A professor years ago addressed my class on the first day of school. He grabbed his chin and asked "Who in here are "A" students?" A few proud nerds had their moment in the sun as they wildly threw up their hands. "Good, good. Now, who in here are "C" students?" Another group of kids, indifferent to the judgements delivered by their classmates sheepishly raised a hand and rolled an eye. The class was stunned, and some offended as the professor sincerely exclaimed "All you "A" students look around at the students that now have their hands up, these are the men and women whom you will be working for in the near future!" The professor understood the value of student abilities beyond the "cramming and regurgitating" trait which is modern education. No exam ever administered, has been able to test the ability of long-term subject retention.

So, even the "A student", without the ability to be a life-long learner, is no further ahead of a "C" student than a newborn is ahead of an infant. Which leads me to the final myth about higher education.

3. School teaches students to be leaders, lifelong learners, and innovators:

This is just all kinds of false. Partly because there are so many disinterested teachers out there. All school does is introduce you to a subject. Even "Entrepreneurial" majors don't teach students to be innovators, critical thinkers and inspiring leaders. That has never been the job of education. It always, and forever will be the job of the family and church. The short of it is this: law school teaches you to be a junior associate at a law firm, not to be a leader and start your own firm. Likewise, a marketing major will teach you the standards of current marketing strategies and advertising forces, it doesn't teach you a method for creating new innovative marketing strategies. That would be better left to the Mark Zuckerberg's (Facebook-college dropout) and Larry Page's (google-college dropout) of the world. To be a life-long learner you must find daily inspiration in life. People can teach about the benefits of life-long learning, but it is up to you to truly be able to learn it (Tip: read the inspired word of God in the Bible)

Proposal: Abolish the DoED and make primary education a function of local and state governments. Prohibit "for-profit" schools of any kind (see previous blog "gainful employment"). Implement more ways in which students can hold apprenticeships in specific trades. An example of apprenticeships is this: I have learned more about the law in a short 3 months of working in a law firm than I have in the previous 2 years of law school. Which only leads me to rationally conclude that I would learn more about practicing law if I could work as an apprentice for 3 years than sitting in a stuffy classroom while I'm force fed nothing but instructions and semi-practical legal theory. Analogy- how do you learn how to play Monopoly? Do you read the instructions? I have, it is the single most complicated piece of literature I have ever seen. Or do you just up and start playing? Exactly.

-KG