I wanted to say a few things…

All this education reform, all this Department of Education stuff, all this race to the top, all this hoopla, of this plan, that plan, this approach, that approach, this evaluation system, that evaluation system… has got to go… Throw it all out the window….

Every new approach is just another person’s idea. One he has to sell; one he gets rich if it gets adopted… And who says each idea will work? Private entities that stand to make lots of money if their idea gets accepted….

And kids know nothing…

They like their teachers… they know nothing.
They like going to school… they know nothing.
They like their friends,… they know nothing…

But with today’s technology, the “nothing” that they know, serves them well; they lead happy, prosperous lives……

It is time we rethink education. It’s time we talk practical.

Be honest: when you make a personal decision at your employment, does what you learned about Harriet Tubman apply? No? Then why are we requiring every Delaware school child to waste a months study every February on Black History?

Be honest: can you name every European Country? You can’t? No? Then why are we wasting a semester on Geography when if someone says Moldavia, we can in less than one second ID it exactly on a Google Map?

Be honest: Do you still remember how to do differentiations and integral calculations? (You were once going to be a scientist; now you call people on a phone). If so, why are we wasting young students time so our state’s school administrators can brag to other states administrators what a tough educational dick they were?

Seriously: you work; you have a job; you do some type of useful service to another… What do you need? What do you need from school to be able to not only do your job to minimum standards, but do it well enough to get ahead?

Seriously: WHAT DO YOU NEED?

I’ll answer for you.

You need to know how to read.

You need to know how to do basic math… Add, subtract, multiply, divide….

You need to know how to communicate so others can understand you….

That is it… Oh, yes, those in the business who prosper from money ill spent, whose livelihood is based on selling the impossible to public and private schools, will argue otherwise… We just need to roll our eyes, and say… “ok, if you are so right, why is it not working? Where are your facts?”

But the rest of us…. we know it’s true, especially if we’ve had children pass through elementary, middle, secondary, undergraduate, graduate, and now, are working a job requiring none of their skills…. we know it’s true…

And you know what’s missing? Especially with all this crap in our schools? And you can see it; just step into any high school?… It is so obvious, yet no one else sees it… …

I’ll leave you to ponder it with a story…

Recently a convention was held with the top vice presidents of manufacturing companies worldwide… The best, of the best, of the best….

The symposium facilitator, stood up, and said, “our first item of business, is to determine exactly what all of you had in common.. what happened in your upbring that would get all of you thirty or forty years later, willing to take a weekend to come out here at 7:30 Saturday morning on your own time, to talk about what’s missing in today’s education?”

After a few minutes of discussion a consensus emerged rather quickly… They all had a Gilbert Chemistry set… not the dumbed down version for safety, but one that could actually make the explosives… and… each of them had a high school teacher, who made chemistry exciting, explosive, and fun…

You see? The fun has been sucked out by the U.S and Delaware Department of Educations.. THAT is what is wrong with education today… It certainly is not fun for Governor Markell (he has to listen to Kilroy); it is not fun for the teachers (they have to undergo so much unnecessary crap); and it’s sure isn’t fun for the students (why are they making us do this stuff from 1960?)….

You want to make America great? Keep education stripped to the basics; keep it simple, and during the rest of time, focus on making it fascinatingly fun!