ANGRY MINUTE #0033: The Flavor of Education
When I go to the ice cream parlor I stand before their display and gaze at the flavors that ballet before my eyes. Maybe I will stick with the standard chocolate or vanilla; but maybe I’ll spice up my day with some rainbow sherbet or even the strawberry kind that has the big chunks of real strawberries mixed within it. But ultimately the only person who can decide what flavor is best for me is myself. I can ask others their opinion on the matter, but when that cold treat touches my lips it will be because of the pros and cons I have weighed. Mmmmm I love ice cream!
Education is just like ice cream. We offer our children different areas of education (math, science, computers, art, etc) and ultimately they decide what flavor of education is best for them. Some become Math majors; some become English majors; and so on and so on.
The problem with education today is that we are not offering our kids the right flavors. We still have that oldschool mindset that our children only need to have the basic academic flavors (Math, Science, Social Studies, English). Our society has evolved, but our educational system and those who lead the educational system are still dusty dinosaurs who don’t see the changes that have occurred in our society.
So where is my anger coming from on this subject? My fans know that I have bitched and complained about the poor education process and how our children are our future… yet we are not preparing them to LEAD our future.
One of my Angry FANatics (that’s what I’m gonna call my fanbase, FANatics) sent me a message a few days ago. Let’s call her Redbird for privacy reasons. Redbird expressed her frustration and anger over the changes and budget cuts many schools are making. But she had backup, she had PROOF of their incompetence. And it all starts with this video here.
Redbird recommended I start watching the video around the 7.5 minute mark and see if the anger boiled within my soul. I’m good with instructions so I dialed it to that spot this morning as I prepared for work. What I heard confused and ANGERED me!
This school system (the Kenton City School System) has to trim some fat this year as they are over budget. Nothing new there as schools are always fighting the budget crunch. But the approach and ASSUMPTION of these board members are endangering the children that attend these schools.
At the 7.5 mark a lady name Patti comes up and speaks about a recent cut that she (and others like Redbird) don’t quite understand. You see the school board has elected to remove the computer arts program from their local middle school. This basically boils down that these children won’t get any education on computers until they reach high school, and even then (as you watch after Patti it’s revealed that keyboarding/typing has been removed entirely from the school curriculum) these kids aren’t even taught HOW to type.
Now I can bitch about a lot of things in this video, but as a 27 year old working in society I can say without a shadow of doubt that I use my computer and the skills I learned from my education about computers to get myself a great job and the ability to move up the corporate ladder. Computers and the ability to type are INSTRUMENTAL in today’s world and without those skills people find they are VERY VERY limited in where they can go and what they can do.
And the school board president’s response? He just figures that since computers are “everywhere” that kids should already know how to use them. WHAT BS! What an ASSSSSSSSSSHAT! Assuming makes an ass out of everyone, and that is EXACTLY what this school board president has done.
What about the poor kids who don’t own a computer? I know in today’s society a lot of us take for granted that WE have computers and internet and all that… but there are people (especially in Kenton where the median income of households is $29,065*) that are POOR and cannot afford FOOD let alone a computer with a monthly charge for internet access. It doesn’t help that Kenton jobs have decreased by 79% since July 2008*. And there are 15% of households in Kenton that make LESS than $10,000 A YEAR*! With more then HALF of their income going to rent (that is on average of $381 per month*) are these families going to RUN OUT and buy a $500 PC and then an additional $20 per month for crap dialup? That’s almost a $750 expense right there or, 7.5% of that family’s income!
So Mr. School Board President; to just ASSUME that kids should KNOW how computers work just because they are around us MAKES NO FRAKIN SENSE! That’s like saying that since I eat a fish that I know HOW to fish, or that since I see stars in the sky I should be good at astronomy. Just because it is AROUND us doesn’t mean we KNOW it. I drive a car, yet I know jackshit about how it works!
I work for a Help Desk for a very successful insurance company and I can easily tell you the workers that don’t last are those who don’t have the computer experience and education. Without the ability to type so many words per minute or even the ability to understand where in a computer they go to perform the simplest of actions, they are let go and forced into jobs that give lower wages. But that fits RIGHT IN with Kenton, as their biggest industries for hiring works are Catering Services, Food Service Contractors, Convenience Stores, Blood & Organ Banks, and Clinics & Outpatient Services*. Yeah I guess computer education isn’t that big of a deal when your town offers these as their “bread and butter” professions. It even looks stranger when you see that the most commonly listed Kenton jobs include territory sales manager jobs and assistant store manager jobs, both which would require computer knowledge and expertise (or one who would have these skills would have an edge over those who don’t).
Kenton is your typical “Varsity Blues” type of town. They push their children to be football superstars, but then when their football career is over the majority of them do not have the skills to progress into a real job that makes them real money to survive. Then these kids have no choice but to move back “home” to Kenton and live in their parent’s basement and work at one of the multitude of fast food restaurant or even the backbreaking warehouse labor in the area for the majority of their life with little compensation.
If the Kenton School Board, or any small town school board, truly cared for their children they would ensure that those kids would have the best in computer classes. Because without these skills they will end up working at a dead-end job in a dead-end city. But that fits right in with Kenton, now doesn’t it?