by Marsha Welch

Created on: October 29, 2008

The education system in the United States seems to be in need of an overhaul. Although there are many great ideas being discussed, not many of them are being implemented. There are several issues which need to be addressed:

-Flexibility in curriculum- All students are not equal. They may have equal rights to an appropriate education, but appropriate for a rocket scientist is not necessarily appropriate for any other field. Why can't education celebrate a child's individuality? Convenience? That hardly seems a worthy excuse, when we are deciding the future of a person. Cost? What about the cost we entail in stunting our future leaders, inventors and artists? Can we even put a value upon that? Individuality should be addressed and I believe that this issue may not be so inconvenient or costly if addressed with the modern convenience of the computer and distance learning. Each child should be able to access a teacher anywhere in the world, teaching any subject known to mankind.

-Mobility-Simply put, the information age has arrived with or without our approval or recognition. Most students can utilize this technology quite proficiently, when exposed to it. Taking advantage of that proficiency seems to be the key to restructuring our education system. Compact disks, DVD's and e-books use no paper, take up less room, and don't require our children to lug around those monstrous backpacks!

-Career planning- If the basis of a good education is desirable future employment, then let us address this early in a student's education. The career and technical schools have done many good things for students in high school, but what about middle school? High school is a pressure cooker of earning credits and passing graduation exams. Middle school students are old enough to develop an interest in a career, if some of the choices are placed before them. This would also give the school the opportunity to observe a student's like and dislikes, aptitudes and help them develop a good work ethic. Many careers are changing due to employers exploring new, more efficient ways of working, such as telecommuting, which saves fuel and requires a totally different skill set from those employed using face-to-face interaction. The education system stays behind in teaching careers because the education system itself is inefficient. By the time our educators are able to teach a hot, new career, the wave of the future has already passed.

-Multi-paced learning-All children do not learn at the same

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