Rescuing our schools, Part 3: The Purpose

It may come as a shock to many Americans when they learn, for the first time, that our school system wasn't a by-product of the idealism that underlay American democracy within a republican context. No, we inherited our educational context from Europe for strictly practical reasons: To provide obedient, skilled workers to industry.

When the American Revolution was complete, the Age of Industrialism was about to explode as the driving social and economic forces in Europe and England's recently liberated colonies. Almost overnight, no longer was it possible to operate industries with the independently minded lads and lasses possessing their specific, rudimentary skills (shoe making, basket weaving, etc.) they may have acquired from within their families or as apprentices to the Guilds. No, industries now would need armies of disciplined workers who would leave their homes, receive training in individual industrial skills, and completely submit their lives to the industrialist.

One will recall that these armies of workers were so well disciplined by their half-dozen years of basic education that they were too easily manipulated and abused by the industrial magnates. As unions and social activists began to diminish the tensions between industrialists and the work force, education begin to reshape itself in generally positive ways--by extending the number of years of mandatory schooling, expanding its curriculum and codifying standards of education that became generally accepted throughout America.

Meanwhile, however, in case we forget, a great shift has taken place. America lost virtually all its industrial base to other comers like Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, India and now China--and there are more comers. As we now know, that massive shift was abetted during the past couple of decades to corporate "outsourcing" and their transfer of remaining industrial operations to foreign countries in an effort to enhance profits through lower labor costs. But no matter how much hand wringing some of us are doing over that evolution, a surprisingly lucrative economic force filled the vacuum left by our diminished industrial base: America's entrance into the New Digital Age--a shift of our economic force into service industries that became centered around computers and related high technology. Unfortunately, however, our education system failed to match that massive shift, remaining stuck in the old rut of the Industrial Age.

What is now needed, in recognition of America's new economic force, is a parallel paradigm that will educate people to the demands of the New Digital Age; Bill Gates is a significant leader in pushing for an education system that will be responsive to the new demands of high technology. But something else even more demanding and urgent is taking place that will place heavy demands on the us--the shifting demographics of human population. As populations grow and ebb, huge new problems will continue to impose heavy responsibilities on society's governors and mechanics (economists, politicians, industrialists, educators, law enforcement--in a word, by the entire social apparatus), namely, how to deal efficiently with ever more complex problems that spin off of shifting populations.

What are "ever more complex" problems, you ask? Is it because high-tech industrialists, headed by the likes of Bill Gates, are consciously driving this transformation for the sake of profit, as some cynics suggest? Not at all! Population growth has given birth to a growing radicalization. Radicalized populations are already demonstrating our confusion in the face of new problems that so far are only slowly being recognized, but that are far from being solved. Almost overnight "jihadism" has evolved so dramatically that we're just becoming aware that the underlying causes must be dealt with swiftly if existing social orders are not to fall into utter chaos.

Little wonder that China, India, and other fast-growing populations (including the Muslim world around the planet) are frenetically searching for new natural resources, while simultaneously pushing science and technology at break-neck speeds.

But at the same time, the corollary of growth is also grave cause for concern: declining population (and its consequences). Europeans, whose birth rates are approaching historic lows, seem blissfully unaware why radical Islamic elements are beginning to ravage their traditional European social values and institutions. Indeed, some voices today teach that by mid-century Muslims will have completed a massive cultural transformation of most European societies into Islamic entities. The most incisive non-academic voice is Mark Steyn, a self-educated journalist who has become a star in the printed free-world media. Steyn's article "It's the Demography, Stupid" is urgent reading.

If, then, we can agree that the real purpose of education has changed radically during the last half-century and that we need to get in step with the Digital Age, identifying and outlining the new K-12 education system won't be such a difficult task. However, it will take the collective will of our society, beginning with a strong movement at the roots--namely, concerned parents-- in order to induce our politicians at all levels to make the necessary fundamental changes. This will initially involve purging the system and its guardians of old pedagogical habits learned during the now defunct Industrial Age. Resistance to this fundamental change (we could accurately call it a "revolution") will come from those schooled and exercised in the old mindset, and maintained by the powerful education unions that have canonized and politicized it.

So far, the conditions have not existed in sufficient force to overcome resistance from the status-quo folks. And our citizens are in a state of blissful ignorance or denial. But that's no reason to throw up our hands and cry "uncle." Even if it takes a generation or two before changes are in place, we must make the effort. While still unheard and unheeded, there are powerful and convincing leaders ready to support the "education revolution." Make no mistake about it, our survival is at stake. And the task is made more urgent when we realize that time and demography are working against us.

SUMMARY: The old, now defunct "education paradigm" that served the Industrial Age that produced disciplined, humble, dependent workers for assembly lines must be replaced by one that will produce highly intelligent, independent thinkers who will recognize and anticipate societal problems, and then deliver to societies' future governors and engineers the high tech solutions they can use to solve problems created by demography. From this perspective we can suggest an outline of the new educational paradigm, along with some details that will characterize what our new K-12 educational system will look like.

But hold onto your hat! My outline of a new educational mindset may surprise some, or step on others' toes; if they're a relic still stuck in the Industrial Age, it will definitely ruffle their feathers or even evoke severe condemnation.