by JACK LINDEN
Have Americans made education the scapegoat for all of our ills? Why are Americans so willing to accept dictates about education to be passed along without questions?
What is missing in our current educational system? Is our current education truly applicable to society? Are we pushing math and science too much?
How often does the average person use trigonometry or calculus? When do we use solid geometry? Does all that chemistry come in handy for a truckdriver in his semi? I don’t remember the last time I heard, “Gee, I wish that I knew more about solid geometry” or “Boy, I certainly wish that I had learned that periodic table better.” Certainly, there are fields where knowledge of science and math is important. But, does the entire population need to take courses, not only in college but in high school, as well?
When we get down to the basics, the issue revolves around how well our math students are doing compared with students from other countries – at the high school level. Perhaps we are testing at the wrong time or at the wrong stage of our educational endeavors. Have you seen any comparison of our college graduates in math and science with those from other countries?
But math and science are not the only areas that are important in our society. A lot of ignorance comes from the fact that we demand that our students spend so much time studying math and science – and not enough in the liberal arts. Liberal arts open our minds to new ideas, old ideas that may be germane to today’s living, and a tolerance for others’ ideas.
Our push to immerse students in mathematics and science and not in the liberal and fine arts can be detrimental. It is through the arts that we are able to hear other viewpoints and then draw from them to create our own beliefs. It is not the memorization of formulae and equations that helps in the articulation of ideas. It is the exposure to many ideas and interpretations that give us the ability to draw our own conclusions.
I do not blame the decline of American society on mathematic and scientific education. I do believe that Americans have become less tolerant of others’ ideas and beliefs – because we are not exposed to opposing ideas. This lack of liberal arts education has caused us to become solidified in our thinking. We are a less cohesive nation now than we were in history. We are rapidly becoming a nation of dogma-adhering people who refuse to listen to any other ideas.
We have also become more likely to reject other people’s ideas. This is so evident in the halls of Congress and in our religions. In many ways, it is belonging to the latter that causes us to be so dogmatic. We need to look no further than the turmoil that is going on in today’s churches.
Yes, we have forgotten the true purpose of education – to expose us to other ideas and philosophies and to make us aware of the fine arts. Our schools have become trainers and do not create thinkers and life-long learners.
Our schools need to expose our students to the broad spectrum of education during our young learning years. If we continue on the road of only “training” students, our society is less for it. If we continue to train and not educate, we will lose one of our nation’s greatest assets – a populous that can discuss ideas, is not easily brainwashed, and can look at all humanity humanely.
We can be that again. But first we must once again truly want an real education.
