Perspective

 "I'd Like a Side of Perspective, Please"

In a conversation with a friend, I understand that the back and forth is still hot and heavy on social media sites.  I would have thought that with the summer there would be a diminution of this type of activity but apparently not.  Perhaps one thing that is lacking here is perspective.  Having stepped back a bit, allow me to offer some now.

I am going to use one simple measure to make my point.  The ability to read is one of the most fundamental human abilities and marks our ascent as a species for the last 15,000 years.  Our ability to absorb, retain and transmit knowledge is directly related to our ability to read.

So the average world literacy rate is 84% of people 15 years and older.  The United States has a average national rate of 99%.  Think about that for a second; almost our entire adult population can read proficiently.  We are 15% better at this that the world average.  There are 65 countries below the world average.  There are another 105 below the US average.  That means there is a total of 170 that have the ability to read less favorably than the United States.  Most of these countries are in the developing world but that number also included China and India the two most populous countries on earth.  Think again about this; nearly three quarters of the worlds population does not read as well as we do in the United States.

Now you would think that this fact proves what a great job we are doing and how well the current system is working.  Unfortunate, that is not the case.  Time to break out a few more numbers.  The United States is 55th in the world on spend for education as a percent of GNP (Gross National Product).  We spend 5.5% as opposed to say Cuba that spends twice that amount.  And what do we get for our money.  We are 14th in the world in reading, 25th in the world in math and 17th in the world in science.  South Korea, Japan, Finland, Canada, New Zealand  Australia, Belgium, Norway, Poland, The  Netherlands, Switzerland and Iceland all perform consistently better across all measures then the US.  Germany, France, Ireland, the UK, Sweden and Denmark also perform better in some categories than the United States.  All these countries actually spend less of GNP then the US.

So let's take a specific example.  How does Finland which spend approximately $10 billion annually have the highest literacy rate (100%), highest math score (548) and highest science score (563) in the world?  Could it be that Finland knows something that we don't?  Do they work together as a single nation to put education first?

Compare that to the US which spend more ($807 billion) then the next 10 nations combined to come out somewhere in the middle.  We have a very literate population which speaks to a culture that values something about education but we spend billions more then many others for only average results.  What are we doing wrong compared to the Finland's of the world?

Here's what I take away from all these numbers.  We used to be a nation that put more then money into education, we put our best minds and efforts into it.  The entire society saw value and was invested in the educational system especially from a family perspective on up the chain.  We didn't have to throw money at a problem 60 years ago because we approached it like many problems in the country; we got together, rolled up our sleeves and got to work solving the issue.

And it worked, we created a system that was the envy of the world.  A system the turned out a great product at regular intervals for a national and global which we dominated.  Then we sat back and said our work was done.  We watched as the world changed around us and more disturbingly as our social values changed.  The one thing that needed to change and didn't was our educational system.  And as we now seem to do, rather then look at fundamental, systemic change based on working models around the world; we decide to throw money at the problem without a coherent plan or unified approach.  So we have a system now that is run on inertia.  Like a chicken with it's head cut off, our system is running around flapping while it dies.

There is hope though.  If we can just reach back a little to a time when parents worked together, took responsibility for the education of their child, emphasized that education over everything else and were the change agents themselves; then perhaps the systemic changes being proposed now would find greater traction and have better results.

Or we could continue to bicker amongst ourselves about minutia while the rest of the world passes us by.  The day a kid in a third world country with a stub pencil and a supportive family and burning desire to learn as a better chance at a prosperous life then our kids do will be (is) a sad day.

Just sayin'

:)