Friday, December 10, 2004
Outsourcing and No Child Left Behind
This has nothing to do with the Beavs or sports for that matter but is based on an editorial I read today on education and my own experience in outsourcing.
Being a father of a child who is about to enter the public educational system it has been important to me and my wife to explore the options for her education. Should she start early or wait and be old for her class? Should she go to a public school or private? One thing that has disturbed us most is in regards to the "No Child Left Behind" program, which has been described to us by others with children already in the educational system as "No Child Gets Ahead". This alone is disturbing enough, but then as I look around at work and the landscape of American business this becomes even more frightening. Allow me to elaborate.
First the schools. Due to the stiff penalties and/or labels a school might get for not achieving defined levels of "success" in this testing the curriculum has become focused on preparing students for success on standardized tests. Not success in college or the real world. The focus being on getting every student to a specific level of achievement, no matter how much time/energy/focus it takes for the teacher to get that last student to that level. What happened to getting all students to the highest level they are capable of achieving? What happened to teaching children how to learn? The answers for these tests are known and a teacher can use this to get a child to be successful. The answers in the workplace, and the real world these students will someday occupy, are unknown and will require thought and creativity to solve.
Speaking of the workplace, over the past five years I have been around, and in fact have driven some projects where the result was the loss of U.S. jobs to low cost countries (LCC). Now personally I do have some conflict with this, but being a fiscally responsible employee I was unable to justify otherwise and moved ahead with the projects. Now the concerns sets in when I look around to what my future employment might look like, not to mention my kids.
Whenever outsourcing is talked about the common answer is that this frees up more creative American minds to develop new technologies, products, gizmos, whatever, that can then be built cheaply overseas and sold for bottom dollar from WalMart. Don't get me wrong, I am like 99% of the rest of America. I want as much stuff as I can possibly squeeze into my house, and I want it for cheaper than the other guy paid for it. LCCs enable me to do so. However, my problem is believing this creative revolution will drive us and our economy forward for the next 100 years just as Henry Ford did when he set off the industrial revolution at the turn of the last century.
Do you see the conflict yet? Banking on independent thinking, creative minds to be our major contribution to the global economy, yet having an educational system that rewards conformance and minimum level achievement for all. Where is the drive to succeed? To be better and to frankly be the best and brightest at anything?
I have the same issue with youth sports and not keeping score, but I'll save that for another blog and just summarize by saying; we are not all created equal, sometimes someone needs to lose. Ideally it will push them to be better and in turn raise the level of competence for the entire population. Think survival of the fittest. Is it fair? No. Does it allow for the best chance of a species prolonged existence? Yes. If we are all driven to be equal, where is my incentive to be better? Let's just keep the bar low and that will be the least amount of work for me.
This is not the kind of thinking we need to lead us forward and not the kind of thinking I want my children to grow up with. Of course my kids won't have that luxury, at least at home. I don't care if it's old maid, chutes and ladders or candyland, daddy is playing to dominate the dojo. Yes, I feel sorry for them too.
Being a father of a child who is about to enter the public educational system it has been important to me and my wife to explore the options for her education. Should she start early or wait and be old for her class? Should she go to a public school or private? One thing that has disturbed us most is in regards to the "No Child Left Behind" program, which has been described to us by others with children already in the educational system as "No Child Gets Ahead". This alone is disturbing enough, but then as I look around at work and the landscape of American business this becomes even more frightening. Allow me to elaborate.
First the schools. Due to the stiff penalties and/or labels a school might get for not achieving defined levels of "success" in this testing the curriculum has become focused on preparing students for success on standardized tests. Not success in college or the real world. The focus being on getting every student to a specific level of achievement, no matter how much time/energy/focus it takes for the teacher to get that last student to that level. What happened to getting all students to the highest level they are capable of achieving? What happened to teaching children how to learn? The answers for these tests are known and a teacher can use this to get a child to be successful. The answers in the workplace, and the real world these students will someday occupy, are unknown and will require thought and creativity to solve.
Speaking of the workplace, over the past five years I have been around, and in fact have driven some projects where the result was the loss of U.S. jobs to low cost countries (LCC). Now personally I do have some conflict with this, but being a fiscally responsible employee I was unable to justify otherwise and moved ahead with the projects. Now the concerns sets in when I look around to what my future employment might look like, not to mention my kids.
Whenever outsourcing is talked about the common answer is that this frees up more creative American minds to develop new technologies, products, gizmos, whatever, that can then be built cheaply overseas and sold for bottom dollar from WalMart. Don't get me wrong, I am like 99% of the rest of America. I want as much stuff as I can possibly squeeze into my house, and I want it for cheaper than the other guy paid for it. LCCs enable me to do so. However, my problem is believing this creative revolution will drive us and our economy forward for the next 100 years just as Henry Ford did when he set off the industrial revolution at the turn of the last century.
Do you see the conflict yet? Banking on independent thinking, creative minds to be our major contribution to the global economy, yet having an educational system that rewards conformance and minimum level achievement for all. Where is the drive to succeed? To be better and to frankly be the best and brightest at anything?
I have the same issue with youth sports and not keeping score, but I'll save that for another blog and just summarize by saying; we are not all created equal, sometimes someone needs to lose. Ideally it will push them to be better and in turn raise the level of competence for the entire population. Think survival of the fittest. Is it fair? No. Does it allow for the best chance of a species prolonged existence? Yes. If we are all driven to be equal, where is my incentive to be better? Let's just keep the bar low and that will be the least amount of work for me.
This is not the kind of thinking we need to lead us forward and not the kind of thinking I want my children to grow up with. Of course my kids won't have that luxury, at least at home. I don't care if it's old maid, chutes and ladders or candyland, daddy is playing to dominate the dojo. Yes, I feel sorry for them too.
