Compared to the rest of the world, U.S. high school education leaves much to be desired. The United States ranks 16 out of 20 industrialized nations in the percentage of students graduating from high school on time.
People seem to be trying to solve this problem, though. A coalition of 13 states, including Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana and Texas, has already issued a requirement for all high school students to take a college-prep curriculum and take exams that will gauge their readiness for college.
However, this change affects only one in three U.S. students. While it’s a start, it’s still is not sufficient to solve the problem.
Poor high school education may cause short-term problems, which eventually leads to long-term disasters. This is not just about being unprepared for college-level work, which most of us experienced our freshman year. The problem is much deeper and can be a cause of weak future workforce.
Do you think a present high school student whose knowledge in math is limited to balancing a checkbook will grow up to be an outstanding finance manager? I don’t think so. Even if he or she becomes one, I still would not like to work with him.
Of course there are examples of the people who were not A-students but ended up to be a geniuses, such as Newton and Einstein come to my mind. But, of course, 90 percent of their genius came from hard work.
In fact, college students themselves usually wish they had been held to higher standards in high school. They feel this would have made things easier and made their high school diploma worth more.
However, such a significant change for high schools in the United States requires both solid financial support and essential political and legislative work. It will affect parents, teachers, school boards and legislatures. Governors, school chiefs and business executives will conduct it.
Besides making classes more rigorous and matching their graduation to college standards, the nature of classes being taught to the young adults should also be changed. These include basic classes that teach how to start and run the business, fundamentals of finance management and essentials of vocational and career skills. These should be useful for somebody who doesn’t desire a college education and for future college students, too.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates called U.S. high schools “obsolete,” saying, “United States is falling behind [in the international competition of workers] who can communicate clearly, analyze information and solve complex problems.”
Do you trust Bill Gates? You should, since because he supported his words with $1.2 billion of his charitable foundation committed to the high school reform.
Everybody should better understand the importance of academic quality of high schools and the role of pre-college education in general now. No child should be left behind.
Milana Karayanidi is a freshman in general business administration. She can be reached at [email protected].