Thomas Friedman is on to Something with Invent, Invent, Invent
Posted by Michael A. Kamperman on June 28, 2009
In today’s New York Times, columnist Thomas Friedman said “we might be able to stimulate our way back to stability, but we can only invent our way back to prosperity. We need everyone at every level to get smarter.” He is right that the long term solution to having America become a better and more prosperous society for all is to focus both on having all of our teenagers graduate from High School and on raising the bar on what counts for excellence. But other than offering a superfluous suggestion from Craig Barrett that “any American kid who wants to get a driver’s license has to finish high school,” he doesn’t explain how we can get from here to there. Who would be surprised to see High School dropouts drive without a license if we made such a ridiculous law? He also says “lately, there has been way too much talk about minting dollars and too little about minting our next Thomas Edison…” No, there has been too little talk about printing dollars to stimulate our way back to stability. Mr. Friedman needs to understand that we cannot put the cart before the horse. Yes, we can tackle both problems at the same time. But if we don’t restore stability and have a job waiting for the kids that graduate from High School and College, then we will never get them to stay in school. And we want them to want to learn something, not coerce them.
The Congress should enact a second stimulus bill focused solely on making America’s 1st through 12th grades the best education for young people in the world. Yes, this will take money. But it will also instantly create a couple of million new jobs, which is nothing to sneeze at. The depression already is forcing many school districts to lay off teachers. Right now only 1 in 5 of this spring’s college graduates found a job before graduation. There is no reason to believe the prospects are any better for next spring’s graduates. Let’s get some of these bright young people off of mom and dad’s couch and into a classroom. Research has shown that one of the best ways to improve performance in a classroom is to lower the student teacher ratio. We should double the number of teachers in America and cut the student teacher ratio in half. We should also up the budget for science labs and other educational resources for schools. This will improve the potential performance for both our high achievers and those who plan to graduate from High School without further assistance. And with more teachers per pupil some who may have dropped out will graduate instead.
However, this will not be enough to come close to having every kid stay in school. We have many high schools in America where two out of three 9th graders never finish the 12th grade. Most of these are at risk kids. There are very few national honor society students who fail to graduate. We need to find a way to have these teenagers feel a connection to learning and to their school. One thing that would help would be a return to vocational training where English and math are the only required academic courses. No student should fail to advance to the next grade because they cannot pass some minimum proficiency exit exam. As long as the student attends school and puts forth an effort they should advance with their grade. Not everyone was born to be the next Thomas Edison. And the next Thomas Edison that will invent America’s next breakthrough is not going to take beauty shop class rather than physics, chemistry, or biology. But the next potential dropout might. Additionally, we should find a meaningful club for every student. How about starting with an extensive intramural sports program so that every kid that cannot make the varsity can still play on a team? If a young person feels connected to an activity and has friends in school and isn’t shamed, then they will be more likely to stay in school. Lower student teacher ratios and better resources will aid out top students. To aid our at risk students we need to give up on the idea that everyone was born to be an academic genius. I love and play basketball. I can tell you that at 5’9” not everyone was born to play in the NBA.
