Students can be fully “college and career ready” and still be completely unprepared for adult life, and we rarely admit that.
Purpose and momentum drive academic success, but are completely reliant upon the foundational skills of decision-making, work habits, and trial and error.
Preparation isn’t about where you go next—it’s about how ready you are to stand on your own to make the next step attainable. These skills are actively abandoned in secondary instruction.
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I haven’t read the book, but I think nationalization of standards in education so much over the last 70 years is a big part of the problem. It’s great in so many ways that the country has “gotten smaller” as we communicate better with each other, but trying to homogenize our education while balkanizing our culture seems to be very detrimental.
The culture wasn’t ever homogeneous in the USA, even though mass media makes it seem so. And education reflected the needs of the local communities much better. Rural students had a much different and specialized education related to the needs and expectations of the local community. And the needs on one rural area could be radically different than other areas, even as close as in the same county. Forcing all of the “pegs” into the same sized holes hasn’t help us at all.
But we seem to still be on the same track of trying to solve all of the problems for everyone with the same blanket solution. And maybe it would be best to just quit trying to do so and let education become locally controlled again.
Whether a kid grows up ready for adult life or not is more dependent on how they are parented than what they learn in school. The habits and values they learn at home about responsibility, finances, self- care, and their values are deeper than any class can teach. For example, my kids and my neighbor’s kids attended the same high school, took the same classes in health, financial management, cooking, and general academic classes, but my kids were raised to clean up after themselves, take care of what they have, and work to earn money, pay for their own cars and for their own entertainment, make appointments for themselves, self- advocate for help when they need it, and take responsibility for their actions. My neighbor’s kids were handed everything they ever wanted, never had jobs, have no idea how to take care of themselves. Now they are young adults who live at home, expect their parents to do everything for them and pay for everything. It is not in the schooling. It is in the parenting.
I get what you’re saying. But is it really our responsibility to teach students life skills? It’s our job, in my opinion, to provide students with the educational knowledge they need to be successful in college and in their careers. But it’s their parents that should be teaching them the life skills.
So true! The parents pay the price for services not rendered.
When collaboration between educational stakeholders is in place we can teach not only academics but the foundations skills they will need for life. As it stands now… parents run the show.
Reach out for free chapter of my book on “Parents” or go to clkallis.com to contribute to my next book.
Thanks for your reply.