Why Didn't You Teach Me That?

A great article appeared in a recent Newsweek magazine concerning the lessons that the writer did not learn in college. The author graduated from a great and well-regarded university with a sparkling 3.9 grade point average, but was feeling victimized by some lessons about the real world that were never mentioned in her educational career. How do I manage my money? How do I get and keep a job? (In this case she had a job as a waitress at a bowling alley.) How do I fill in my tax return?

I believe that this is just the first wave in what will prove to be a flood of graduates who are stunned by what they need to know in the “real world.” This is the beginning of the “tested” generation. Academic success has been measured and narrowly defined for students using specific quantifiable benchmarks. If children progress through these at a passing rate, their academic progress is deemed successful! While this is currently an elementary, middle and secondary school phenomena the trend is threatening to enter the world of higher education too. The net result of all this testing is a body of students who have only been required to pass a minimum standard. What are they learning?

The author in the article is sending us an early wake up call. Here is the first indication I’ve found of the result of an educational policy that congratulates and considers successful those who manage to pass a minimum standard. Gone is academic rigor for the best and the brightest and gone is remedial education for those considered too low in academic progress to be able to pass the test. Gone are incentives for teachers to better themselves. (A recent study was done on NPR showing that teachers who are National Board Certified are not anymore successful at raising test scores than teachers fresh out of college!)

The author should feel victimized! Her education was the best it gets; yet she didn’t know how to find out what she needed to know to fill out her tax return. She didn’t know how to LEARN! She didn’t know how to manage her money, but with all the information available to anyone with a small nest egg or who is just starting out there is information everywhere! She couldn’t organize or synthesize the information that she needed to join the world. To those who have pushed the policy of No Child Left Behind, be careful what you’ve wished for. You are gonna wish you had taught them something!