Letter: Education must be practical

“Government should be run like a business” is a phrase commonly heard these days. I think a rational person must weigh out the specific government function before flippantly demanding business processes and procedures be applied.

That said, I do believe our public education system could benefit by providing some “customer service.” As a graduate of the East Baton Rouge public school system, my parents were the customer, although I took ownership of the product, my education. The “company,” the EBR public school system, determined what I should learn, and in what measure.

Supposedly these courses were structured to help me with my future life. Correct? Yet in the 40 years since I graduated high school, I’ve never been part of a “customer service survey” to find out if my education has been of benefit, nor have I ever known anyone who was surveyed by a public school system to rank the effectiveness their education.

With all the debate about the fate of public schools, wouldn’t it make sense to go back and find out which parts of our education were actually of benefit? Which is more important to know, the state capital of Rhode Island or to be able to balance a checkbook? How has knowing Columbus “discovered” America in 1492 helped me in my career? Perhaps academics have strayed so far from practicality that it’s time for some “dumb” people to run the public school system.

John Singleton

machinery designer

St. Francisville

Comments

1) Comment by bourbon-soda - 26/10/2012

But they'll by God know evolution.

2) Comment by nimby? - 23/10/2012

the basics ; reading , writing , simple math . there are students in our local high schools who cannot do this , yet they have been promoted beyond their abilities ...

3) Comment by MBW - 23/10/2012

Mr. Singleton misses the point. It's not necessarily important that you know that Columbus arrived in 1492...and it may also be true that not everyone will need to calculus. But education is not just about cramming random facts into one's head. It's about learning how to think, how to problem solve, and how to understand the world around us. Sometimes, you need to learn those basic facts in the process of learning the more important underlying skills.

4) Comment by ScotB - 22/10/2012

Most people knew the Earth was round in Columbus' day, actually.

5) Comment by teacherguy - 22/10/2012

Mr. Singleton does not realize that businesses and higher ed pass down to the public schools what is needed as students make it into the workforce. The customer service survey does not come from the "product" of education, but the entities that use/improve the products. Therefore, public schools have been acting more like a business than Mr. Singleton is aware of...kind of like when a manufactured product, like a car, is revised each year depending on how it performed the year before. No one interviews the car, but the revisions take place none-the-less.

6) Comment by 8.3 - 22/10/2012

Agreed, idiots don't need to know much. Comes with the territory.

7) Comment by 8.3 - 22/10/2012

" “dumb” people to run the public school system. " Louisiana school systems are only the training grounds for running things. Read Mr. Singleton's letter if you are able.

8) Comment by 8.3 - 22/10/2012

If not for Columbus and his idea that the world may not be flat and that falling off the the edge of an orb was absurd, Mr. Singleton would still be grubbing to make a living on some God-forsaken tiny plot of land in England and that if he was fortunate. BTW, what parts of education are actually of benefit? would it be the coding of computers by punch cards which was of benefit 40 years ago or the need to to creatively think which has not changed in thousands of years? Lets ask Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Good to know that since Mr. Singleton was uneducated in Louisiana, and particularly the EBPRPSS , that the proud tradition of state sponsored and willful ignorance continues. Astonishing.

9) Comment by Bouncer - 22/10/2012

There is so much wrong with the strictly "utilitarian" view of education espoused in this letter that I don't know where to begin. I'll just confine myself to saying that education---even in those subjects that someone might not consider "practical"---is never a waste. The vo-tech mindset betrayed by this letter is symptomatic of one of the things that is horribly wrong in this state, i.e., its populace is by and large unbelievably anti-intellectual.

10) Comment by DMJ - 22/10/2012

“Government should be run like a business." Wrong. You know why? Because governments are NOT businesses. Businesses are businesses. Governments are governments. Governments should be run like governments and ideally, they should be run well, which is why we need to stop electing people to run government who say that government is the problem. It's such an obvious self-fulfilling, self-serving philosophy that I'm amazed people still parrot this silly talking point. And about balancing a checkbook vs. Chris Columbus... Education, ideally, is two-fold. It teaches you how to make a living and makes that life worth living. Besides, History is just as practical for some people as balancing a checkbook. Not everyone wants to work in a chemical plant.

11) Comment by krl777 - 22/10/2012

Those who don't know history are easy prey to those who distort history for ideological ends. For example, Cleon Skousen, Rush Limbaugh and Dick Armey, and now ScotB, tell us that the Jamestown settlers practiced socialism until they starved, at which point, Capt. John Smith told them, "Work or starve," switching them to free enterprise farming, under which they flourished. A historically ignorant person might fall for this myth. The Jamestown settlers were contractors, many of them indentured servants, to a corporation, the Virginia Company of London, and were dispatched to find gold for the company. Their way of life was corporate-communal, not socialist communal, and echoed a long history of European serfdom and servitude. The year of starvation was as much a result of misdirected energies spent looking for gold, coupled with drought. When John Smith proclaimed, "Work or starve," he was not unleashing the powers of free enterprise; he was ordering servants of the company to redirect their efforts from their primary mandate of finding gold to the secondary directive to survive. In doing so, they were not acting as free men. They were just following orders. A similar myth is concocted for the Plymouth settlers, with which Jamestown is sometimes confused by those who take John Singleton's view of history, but that case was different -- for one, the pilgrim's at Plymouth didn't starve, which is why they had a feast.

12) Comment by nimby? - 22/10/2012

and what of those who choose not to educate themselves , thus becoming lifetime wards of the state . how do we speak of them ?

13) Comment by [e-mail] - 22/10/2012

As a history major who thankfully took a course in early computer programming and later in life found himself mired in robotics I can say that a varied and thorough education, albeit basic, is essential to the development of any person no matter the particular path that is eventually chosen by that individual. However that fact does not preclude schools from concentrating on a pragmatic scholastic agenda that prepares a student for the basic skills that all of us face in our quest to make a living. If a student decides to commit to further education after graduating High School, then it's up to that student to prepare properly.

14) Comment by spqr - 22/10/2012

Some things to consider, John. Upon graduating from high school at age 17-18 one does not know which courses taken will prove most invaluable later in life. All courses and subjects are important, including Columbus' discovery of the Americas. One cannot move into the future successfully unless they understand the past. Lastly, who said the current system does not offer a practical education? John, are you offering society voluntary ignorance?

15) Comment by bourbon-soda - 22/10/2012

This opinion is reminiscent of the old aversion to educating people "beyond their station." Educating people "beyond their station," or at least giving them an opportunity to be educated "beyond their station," should be a goal of public schools in a republic. While we're at it, one does not graduate high school; one graduates from high school.

16) Comment by Bighug - 22/10/2012

I agree with krl777. What a dull existence it would be for knowledgeable people to have to live with others who only knew how to do things like balance a checkbook or measure a board. There are plenty of them, plus many others who aren't even that smart.

17) Comment by ScotB - 22/10/2012

Understanding history is important as a reference to current events. Many of my liberal friends probably don't know the history of Jamestown and how that community almost didn't survive due to socialism and good intentions that had terrible consequences. That colony and its story played a big role in shaping America's character and identity. But your basic premise is accurate. The existing educational system at the K-12 level is not concerned with customer satisfaction as much as worker satisfaction, a recipe that seems pretty standard in government and not often seen surviving in the private sector.

18) Comment by krl777 - 22/10/2012

Let's not create a false dichotomy -- you should know how to balance a checkbook AND know that Columbus "discovered" America in 1492. If you learn this fact and dozens of other facts of history, geography, paleontology and anthropology, and reflect on them enough, you might have some understanding of what human beings are and where we have come from. If you don't, then you will live in a timeless, dimensionless present with the comprehension of a dog, in which all of human history is reduced to "yore", all human beings outside your own community are strange "others", and your life, however pleasant, is as pointless and meaningless as an insect's.