The former secretary of education resigned from the department for what to me were political reasons. Political or not, she left the new secretary to navigate education’s admittedly troubled seas. Considering the huge waves it is up against and the critical role education plays in the nation’s overall growth and development, you would think the new secretary would hit the ground running.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like it. Instead of a bang we are not hearing even a whimper. With nothing stirring in the department, it seems very much like business as usual. We understand that government bureaucracy works slowly. But how slow can we afford to go in solving critical education problems that have plagued our nation ever since.
I am not talking of physical problems like, among others, the serious lack of classrooms, desks, transportation and food for poor and nutritionally challenged school kids. Those too, but there is money for all of those physical needs but the problem is one of political priority. There are reasons to suspect we don’t have the social philosophy that tags universal education as top priority. It brings up the question if we have a coherent philosophy of education at all.
Anyway, equally if not more important is the content and method of our national education program. If such a program is governed by an educational philosophy, this would seem to need a rather thorough evaluation for the purpose of coming up with a more relevant and effective approach to the nation’s educational problems at all levels for now and for the immediate future.
Our education system needs to produce responsible, productive and honest government and business officials not the selfish and dishonest types we have been getting from even the best of our educational institutions. These leaders, moreover, have to come from a citizenry that is critical, innovative and creative in relating to their elders and those in authority, not the unthinking and submissive products of the current education system. Unless education produces a new breed of officials and citizenry, we will continue to fail to provide the bigger good to the greater number of our people and thus fail as a democracy and, worse still, fail as a nation.
The evaluation of our education system has to be everybody’s concern. Earlier I advocated for an education summit to address this issue. Answering that call must be spearheaded by the new secretary of education. For now he can at least announce that he will set new directions for education, anything but business as usual. It will not be a bang but at least it will be more than a whimper.
One more thing, will Artificial Intelligence (AI), exclusively in the hands of the privileged class, just make it easier for them to make money? And will the citizenry be more oppressed for not having any access to AI? Or will we be educated to be as human as possible in the use of AI and whatever comes after it?
What now, Mr. Secretary?