“The best way to predict your future is to create it”
Abraham Lincoln
A couple of years ago, I was listening to the “America’s cheapest family”, the Economides family, and realized that I have already made mistakes with my daughter. The father asked whether we all wanted to raise responsible adults or perpetual children. The two Economides parents advised that even if the parents were financially comfortable, they should not allow the children to buy and live at the parents’ spending level, because by doing so the children would be “locked” into a likely unsustainable lifestyle. It is quite possible that the children would not have the income that the parents make. Of course, this does not mean that the children would be less happy than the “richer” parents. After all, the millionaires and billionaires are not much happier than the average American. However, if the children have lower income and yet, spend at the level of the rich parents, happiness is unlikely.
This trajectory of thoughts brought more questions about the future. Would our children have any job stability? It has been predicted that in the future, there might be only temporary job contracts; people would rarely stop to live in one place, since they will be in pursuit of their next job/contract. Would the informational technology and automation continue to evolve and what would the consequences be… As we exhaust the world’s resources and take unwise decisions to address the world’s problems, would our society recess and shrink back to the mechanical and handmade devices? With all these uncertainties, am I making a mistake by pushing my child into the time-devouring, super-expensive, goal-disorienting, haphazard educational system? By conforming to the prefabricated mold of our educational system and its regulations and artificially-imposed standards, do I suffocate the imagination and creativity of my child?
As I asked myself these questions, and felt more and more upset. I thought that the answers to these questions depended on whether I wanted to see my child become a happy adult or a successful adult. Strangely enough, in our society the most popular definition of success rarely overlaps with the understanding of individual happiness. Success in our world is frequently measured in dollar signs. The schools prepare our children to be successful (i.e., earn money); the schools do not explain to our children how to seek happiness. And we, as dutiful parents, reinforce the lessons from the schools. Have you recently looked at how happiness changes with age? It seems that at age of 15, our children become increasingly unhappy with their lives – the school seems worse than a prison, and all their activities in and out of school are rationed and predetermined.
Peter Gray, a psychology professor wrote, “Children are forced to attend school, where they are stripped of most of their rights,”… “The debate shouldn’t be about whether school is prison, because unless you want to change the definition of prison, it is.” … My daughter cannot go to the school’s bathroom unless she has a permission slip, she can attend school only dressed by THE code. There is also a system of increasing in intensity punishments, if she does not observe the rules.
Masters of imagination such as Hans Christian Andersen and Beatrix Potter shared their true feelings about school. Andersen reminisced that "his years in school were the darkest and most bitter of his life. At one school, he lived at his schoolmaster's home. There he was abused in order to improve his character... He later said the faculty had discouraged him from writing in general, causing him to enter a state of depression”. Beatrix Potter, the author of the whimsical fairy tales about Peter Rabbit, admitted “Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.”
Children in the U.S. may spend 17 years in school if they attend college for four years and forgo graduate education. This is overschooling. Learning useful skill should not take this long. Worse, the 17 years do not guarantee any useful job skills – frequently, the young people are catapulted out of college into a spotty work world without any applicable skills. The lucky ones, who do find a job, frequently feel like apprentices and start learning meaningful skills at the job.
As every extreme gives rise to another extreme, the overschooling has given rise to the unschooling - read Hewitt B. We Don't Need No Education, Magazine, September 2014.
“The best way to predict your future is to create it”, said Abraham Lincoln. We should create the future of America by educating and preparing our children for the real world. However, the future is glum, if we rely on the current educational system. The present overschooling prunes the children’s imagination into a shriveled trunk without brunches and flowers, diminishes the future children’s productivity, and tempers with their health. As a result, we squander our greatest potential, our children, and jeopardize their future.
Compare the current overschooling, the lack of responsibility among our children, the scarcity of job opportunities to the responsibilities given to young people a century or more ago. We delay and postpone adulthood as long as possible. And yet, it is worth remembering that at 17 years of age, George Washington left home to become a surveyor; and a few years later, he was appointed as a district adjutant, with the rank of major in the Virginia militia.
At age of 21, Emil Herman Grubbe, assembled the first X-ray machine in Chicago and used it to treat a woman with recurrent breast carcinoma.
At age of 26, William Bradley Coley joined as a medical doctor the staff of the New York Hospital and at age of 29, he injected his first patient with streptococcal microorganisms to treat a malignant tumor. Today, Coley is considered "the father of immunotherapy".
Is there any good reason to keep the young in school for a long time? Since I am a biologist, I have read that the biomedical knowledge doubles about every 19 years (Smith, R., What clinical information do doctors need? BMJ, 1996. 313(7064): p. 1062-8). It is true that technology and science are dynamic; however, is this is a good excuse to keep the young people longer in school? If yes, the same logic would imply that we should stay in school forever, as new discoveries and knowledge are reported every day. It is obvious that only basic, foundational knowledge and critical reasoning skills should be acquired in school. In addition, there should be novel educational models that support ongoing knowledge upgrades for professionals without taking them away from their families and jobs.
My random lessons/concepts for today are: shorten the schooling period, give our children job responsibilities earlier in life, and prevent the children from inflating their lifestyle.
Here are a few random, or not so random, thoughts from the past few weeks:
A jolt into thinking
Have you been jolted into thinking recently? Listen to Joshua Sheats in his podcast # 473 – What’s Wrong With Radical Personal Finance? This podcast is a heart-wrenching and honest confession; it is also an exploration of our reasoning to exist. In this podcast, Joshua also refers to a book called “Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture” by Anthony Esolen. At least the introduction of the book sounds provocative, thought-inducing and nostalgic, when read by Joshua. I found a few highly negative comments about the book on Amazon, but as any provocative work, there would be a wide range of emotions evoked. I have no opinion yet, I have not read the book!
Let bygones be bygones
Recently I watched a documentary on poverty in India. The days of the poorest were revolving around the trash – the mountains of garbage that were piled daily. The condemned people were going through the remnants and the discarded of other people’s lives. Digging into the dirt of yesterday … trying to find a single thing worth anything. As I watched, this picture of people sifting through the past turned into a symbol – the symbol of us sometimes looking back at the past, at the darkest, lowest moments of life, trying to find anything of value, anything redeeming. But sometimes all of the search is in vain. I do not claim that we should forget where we came from and what we went through, but a daily dive into the past keeps us poor. A daily dive into the past leads to poverty of the spirit and morale, it limits initiative. What do you think?
Freedom
Here is a great though that I shared with my daughter recently: "What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do." -Bob Dylan
My girl will be soon deciding on what to do with herself after high school. I hope that she takes the right decision. I try not to meddle. Sometimes I think that by being passive, I am insuring myself against giving the wrong advice, but then I know my child – she would not change her mind no matter what I say. So, I am just sitting on the sidelines and waiting for her decision.
What happens to our children after high school
I recently found these stats on education:
"But for too many graduates, no matter the level of education they’re just completing, the transition to their next destination will be fraught with potential hurdles. Nearly 70 percent of this year’s high school graduates will go right on to college this fall, but if history is any guide only about half of them will graduate in four years. For those who do graduate, more than 40 percent of them might be underemployed, working in jobs that don’t require a bachelor’s degree, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York."
This is frightening, and discouraging. The education system needs to change. We need apprenticeships similar to these in Switzerland . After the apprentices learn about the real work world, then they can access more education, if they are inclined to do so. Watch what the future student may look like.
Quo vadis, Domine
Where are we going? Where is America headed?
These questions come to mind when watching the interview with Linh Dinh: America Is The Poorest First World Country. It is a scary, but honest view on America.
America, its lifestyle and opportunities have been the dream for many.
America became my own salvation when the communist bloc in Eastern Europe began to fall apart, and there were no jobs, food was scarce, and electricity was sporadic. At that time, I had a newly-minted MS degree, very little English and no prospects for work. So, I studied English on my own, took the required standardized tests (for the first time in my life) and applied to PhD programs in the U.S.
I was lucky - I was accepted in one out of the three universities I applied to. I petitioned to waive my application fee; I hardly had the money to cover the fees for the standardized tests. My parents borrowed money for my airfare and for my first month of expenses in the U.S. After the first month, I had to support myself with my stipend for the work I did in the graduate school.
Looking back, I believe that America saved me from the prematurely aged, toothless and nervous wreck I could have become in my own country. The reality in a disintegrating socialist country killed many. It killed my best friend. Sometimes I doubt that I would have survived, if I had stayed home.
America gave me a PhD degree, job, and family. America gave me opportunities and hopes.
However, would America give the same to my child? What does America offer to the young generation today?
Today, college is a barrier that everyone needs to jump over, but once on the other side, there are not too many opportunities to apply the college degree to. Instead, the graduates are staring at an ugly debt.
And even when one finds a job, how many college-degree jobs are stable today? I think, none. Even my present job is about to expire within the next few years, as academia contracts into a quasi-online model that employs adjuncts, teaching assistants and an exorbitant number of administrators. This would be the end of my career as a PhD graduate.
When I look back at my parents’ trajectory, I perceive that their stories could have been the most extreme example of the American dream. The irony is that they grew up and lived in a socialist country, not in the U.S.
My father was born and raised in a remote, small village in the middle of nowhere. I wanted to visit the place a few years ago, and I was told that there were only a few houses left. His parents may or may have not attended elementary school. After leaving the village and joining the workforce at age of 14, my father survived on very little until the political changes in the country pulled him from the bottom and gave him opportunities. The socialist system helped him finish high school and vocational school, and eventually, brought him into a military academy in the USSR. My father became a skillful and knowledgeable electrical engineer, he rose to the rank of colonel and was given a high-responsibility position in the Ministry of Defense. He was considered for a general and a leader of a military factory next. However, by that time the stress and speed of rising took their toll. My father gave in to a psychosis-ridden burnout and was unable to function at his high-ranked position.
Despite this ending, my father’s story is this of tremendous success – his journey was this from a speck of a village, through numerous towns and jobs, and finally to the capital. He put lots of effort, work, diligence and determination on this path. But he was also helped by the system. If my father was to go to a grad school in the U.S. today, he would not have had a chance! You see, candidates like him are considered an unacceptable risk for the schools. Candidates like him are not offered any scholarships. Back then – more than 50 years ago, my father paid not a single penny for his education. The education in the socialist countries was free.
My mom was raised in a family that was more stable financially; however, her parents also did not have too much of a formal education. My mom graduated from a specialized college to become a highly accomplished teacher in science. Again, the education was free.
Despite their education, my parents received the standard socialist salaries – at that time everyone was receiving more or less the same amount of money for being a medical doctor, colonel, teacher, or janitor. My mom and dad never got a penny from their own parents; however, they were able to establish a home and raise two children. Both my brother and I received free education and obtained masters’ degrees. At the time of graduation, we did not have a penny of debt.
Of course, whereas the socialist system was good and helpful to some, to others, the same system turned out to be cruel and unforgiving. I met some of these people - they had been raised in affluent families, they were smart, well educated, and talented. And yet, when the socialist system was established, these people found themselves under attack. After all, their mothers, fathers and/or grandparents have served the monarch! These people were banned from certain schools, they were not given jobs. Every system has its own flaws, the socialist system had plenty.
And yet, when I look at the future of this land of opportunities, I see only shrinking ones. For me, for my husband, for my child, for the majority of the population.
I do not see the solutions that great leaders should offer the greatest nation in the world.
Where is the grand vision?
Our children are the future of this country. Our priority in visioning should be to take good care of them, give them opportunities to learn, find their interests, realize themselves and be able and free of debt to apply their talents where their hearts are.
We should also make sure that these children grow up in stable families, families in which mom and dad have jobs.
