Should school kids today double down or leave the table?
June 26, 2013 3:46 PM Subscribe
It seems to me like school kids are having to run faster and faster just to stay in the same place. What's a teacher to say to them? Warning: extreme pessimism within.
The prospects for middle-class employment in the U.S. these days are grim and show no signs of improvement. Automation and globalization mean that fewer people are needed to work, and even fewer will be needed as time goes on. "Good" jobs are still available in top fields like engineering, software, and biotech, but even those are shrinking and will probably face a similar oversupply of labor in the next 10-20 years.
In light of all this, I've noticed parents pushing their children harder and harder to perform in school, get good grades, go to the "best" college, etc. -- in the hopes that a lucky elite few will earn the right to a decent job in those exclusive, selective fields. But that still leaves the other 95% of students up the creek -- even the A students! The competition is fierce and unforgiving.
With such a bimodal economic system looming large in the U.S., is the only choice to essentially tell all kids "Try harder, or you're doomed"? Or would it be better to lower their expectations/ambitions about life?
What kind of attitude is going to serve the majority of students best?
The prospects for middle-class employment in the U.S. these days are grim and show no signs of improvement. Automation and globalization mean that fewer people are needed to work, and even fewer will be needed as time goes on. "Good" jobs are still available in top fields like engineering, software, and biotech, but even those are shrinking and will probably face a similar oversupply of labor in the next 10-20 years.
In light of all this, I've noticed parents pushing their children harder and harder to perform in school, get good grades, go to the "best" college, etc. -- in the hopes that a lucky elite few will earn the right to a decent job in those exclusive, selective fields. But that still leaves the other 95% of students up the creek -- even the A students! The competition is fierce and unforgiving.
With such a bimodal economic system looming large in the U.S., is the only choice to essentially tell all kids "Try harder, or you're doomed"? Or would it be better to lower their expectations/ambitions about life?
What kind of attitude is going to serve the majority of students best?
This post was deleted for the following reason: Without a problem to be solved this is just a rant and/or chatfilter. Maybe email us to see if it can be rephrased? -- jessamyn
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I want my kids to know how to take care of themselves in whatever field they choose. That's half of an education to me. The other half is learning how to learn. And the other half (sorry!) is learning enough history to be able to put the events in the news into context.
posted by dawkins_7 at 3:53 PM on June 26, 2013