This original page was created back in 2008. At that time, major cracks were appearing in the U.S. educational system. One of the favorite expressions of the time was "Tough Choices or Tough Times" Based on what is happening today, many would likely argue that the "Tough Times" side of the expression is coming or has come true.

Let it be known that except for a well rounded education in the school of hard knocks, I have absolutely no formal credentials in the education field. Motivation for this page, however, comes from the near continuous reports of substandard end products (students) being produced by our current educational system. I have no axe to grind. I just call things as I see them and based on my personal experience. We continue to throw large amounts of taxpayer money at a system that is, by many accounts, mostly dysfunctional.

Most of my commentary here is the result of my own experiences and what I did not like in school. The two single biggest challenges/factors to education in my view is first, keeping students motivated and interested in learning and second, demonstrating to students what rewards they can expect from their efforts. On the other side of the coin, of course, is the pain that will likely follow them for the rest of their lives should they fail to achieve a good education. I suspect the negative aspects of failing to get a good education are almost never communicated to students. The cost to society in this regard is huge. World wide, it is estimated that failure to get a good education is costing the planet somewhere in the range of $260 trillion in terms of lost economic gains.

The current mind set pretty much dictates that K-12 students be transported to a central school facility to receive their educational training. In rural areas, student busing is a major cost consideration with many rural students currently losing or having to pay for transportation to get to school. The cost of heating, cleaning and maintaining school buildings is another major cost item. In the current environment, I see continued pressure to reduce costs associated with the physical, plant side of education, especially in rural areas.

In the public K-12 paid-for educational system as well as university organizations, powerful teacher unions have been created to protect the interests of teachers at all levels. This has led to a backlash as demonstrated by websites such as this one. Are the complaints justified, in many cases I would say yes. I feel technology will eventually allow bad teachers and teacher unions to simply be bypassed and made irrelevant by far better teaching methods based on high technology. As in business, good teachers will thrive in the new high tech environment and the bad teachers will simply be dropped and made irrelevant. If it is not obvious to you, be advised that teachers are out to protect their own interests first with student's interests being secondary. This is not a criticism, it is simply a fact and something that everyone needs to be aware of.

The other side of the story revolves around parents and community school boards. A significant percentage of parents see the school system as having sole responsibility for educating students. This attitude simply make me mad. Students are the sole responsibility of the parents. The parents, not the teachers, are ultimately responsibility for getting their kids educated (and sharing in associated costs). Parents need to be crystal clear on what is required to effectively educate a child and then fully support and work with the teachers not against them. Teachers will push their own agenda. It's the parents responsibility, however, to be aware of the latest teaching aids and methods and insist the instruction of students follow a least cost route consistent with acceptable effectiveness.

This is a concept I fully endorse. As stated, it is that period of time after which 50% of everything a persons knows becomes irrelevant and useless. The world is changing quickly. It is a major struggle to remain educated and fully functional in a modern, fast changing society. In my experience, I have seen many students graduate from high school and then become victims of the knowledge half life effect. With what few skills they have to begin with, they quickly become obsolete and their potential to be a well paid productive citizen is never realized. I consider this a major failing of the U.S. educational system that is costing society many, many $billions if not $trillions of dollars.

Again, in rural areas there typically are no close-by prestigious universities where one can receive continuing educational training even if they could afford the increasingly high cost of classes. So, is the Internet a resource where one can stay current and updated in terms of job skills? I would say yes and no. The Internet will never be a substitute for the heavy-duty hands-on university level research and development labs present in many parts of the country. In many other areas, however, I see the Internet having the potential to be a near ideal teaching aid especially to rural students. I would say it is a near necessity for rural students in the K-12 areas. Course formats standardized and designed around on-line learning can be a powerful equalizer relative to students in urban areas with all kinds of close-by educational resources. I would like to see a system where student progress is frequently tested on a supervised basis and with the ability to do challenge testing for advanced placement. In the K-12 area, on-line students able to successfully test out at the various advanced skill levels should receive monetary reimbursement equivilant to their urban legacy schooling counterparts.

The introduction of PCs to the class room has been less successful than originally anticipated. A good percentage of students gravitate to playing games and electronic socializing rather than doing class work. In addition to PCs, tablets are the next big thing to hit the educational scene. Used properly and with discipline these represent fantastic learning tools. I blame initial failures in the use of PCs in the classroom on teachers that were largely computer illiterate. Teachers, especially in rural areas, can not be expected to have expert I.T. skills or be expert programmers. It is quite easy to both monitor and block access to the Internet on a per PC and/or per log-on basis. There is no reason undisciplined use of PCs can not be tightly controlled. Creation and publication of text books currently represents a highly lucrative $billion dollar industry . This needs to stop. K-12 course material including text books and lesson plans need to be standardized on a national basis and rendered free from any type of copyright restriction. The material also needs to be made available on an electronic and for free basis. I would like to see course material generated and made available much like military pay for play schemes work. Fund initial development and then reward based on the effectiveness of end products in teaching academic skills to students. In any case, texts, in electronic form, should be made available to students for no cost. Lesson plans are already available for free on the Internet. These types of resources need to be standardized on a national basis. Lesson plans and course outlines need to be transmitted to the parents along with specific skills that need to be acquired. It's the parent's responsibility to see that the needed skills have been acquired not the teachers. If the skills have not been acquired, it's the parents ultimate responsibility to make whatever changes are called for to achieve success.

One of the things I hated most was the situation of progressing no faster than the slowest kid in class. This has to stop. Students need to be challenged continuously and to the greatest extent possible. Again, I see the application of advanced technologies as the easiest way to accomplish this. Students that advance quicker and test out quicker obviously saves the taxpayer money. I feel they should therefore be rewarded for their efforts to some degree and in some manner.

This section is about reducing teacher total aggregate system hours worked while achieving as good or better results. It's about automating and applying advanced technology to the educational process and to the greatest extent possible. As stated above, teachers will push their own agenda . It's largely up to the parents and the community to see appropriate and effective methods are employed in the education of students. I fail to see the value of teachers with advanced degrees (which the taxpayers pay for) teaching grade school level courses to students with known limited levels of comprehension to begin with. I can maybe see the value of advanced degrees for teachers teaching the higher grade levels but not the lower levels. Like with creating text books, student tutoring is now a big business. I would like to see such tutoring kept in house and sponsored by qualified students. Together with on-line practice drills and other teaching aids, this can be an important resource for reducing needed total teacher hours. Tutoring by students can be reimbursed at much lower rates than paying a teacher with an advanced degree.

World wide the OCED reports that better education results would translate into $260 trillion in economic gains. As far as I am concerned, the parents of students primarily in addition to the teachers bear a major responsibility in getting students educated to an acceptable high level. Parents that don't want to get involved in their children's education and feel the education system provides a convenient baby sitting function should be penalized and/or heavily taxed for their attitude. It is far too expensive to have people that can't compete in the work place.

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