In a recent Oregonian op-ed piece, Portland State President Wim Wiewel asked to what extent the United States educational system should be emulating the academic rigor typical of places like South Korea and Singapore—countries that long ago surpassed the U.S. in terms of test scores and number of degrees earned.
In a recent Oregonian op-ed piece, Portland State President Wim Wiewel asked to what extent the United States educational system should be emulating the academic rigor typical of places like South Korea and Singapore—countries that long ago surpassed the U.S. in terms of test scores and number of degrees earned.
In his article, Wiewel arrives at the conclusion that such an intense cultural concentration on scholastic success may be detrimental to creativity and critical, independent thinking. Plus, it’s just plain stressful.
He instead favors the more laid-back U.S. style of instruction that allows for “the freedom to pursue one’s interests, to be non-goal-oriented, indeed to do nothing at all.”
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for creativity and independence, especially in education. I worry, though, that Wiewel is simply buying into a broader cultural tendency to devalue academics.
Just look at the sickeningly deep educational budget cuts of the past decade. Or, for that matter, pay close attention to the current presidential race. How often do we hear Obama or Romney devoting serious time and consideration to the issue of education reform? Not nearly often enough, I say.
Education in this country is, at best, not a priority. At worst, it’s systematically devalued.
Those of us who choose to devote serious time to academics are labeled “nerds” or “geeks.” Athletes and actors are worshipped while scientists and inventors are often relegated to obscurity. In our society of supposed freethinkers, scholastic achievement simply isn’t cool, culturally speaking.
Like Wiewel, we may point to the freedom our lax educational system has given us to become creative, independent visionaries, to think outside the box and to push the boundaries of our knowledge. But are we using these abstract, poorly formed cultural ideals to help justify our failings? Because we are, for all intents and purposes, failing.
Approximately 25 percent of American high school students will drop out before graduation. And according to a 2003 study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, one in seven American adults possesses such poor reading skills as to be considered functionally illiterate.
Despite disheartening statistics like these, the U.S. government still spends only 5.5 percent of its annual GDP on education, which places us 44th worldwide in education expenditures. For a country as economically and politically developed as ours, such figures are simply unacceptable.
I’m not saying we should go to the extreme described by Wiewel in his piece. We shouldn’t emulate South Korea, or any other country for that matter. We do need to recognize that the U.S. educational system has fallen behind and that by de-emphasizing the already de-emphasized, we may just be shooting ourselves in the academic foot.
We need to teach our students to be adaptable, to problem solve, to become the kind of innovative thinkers who might just be able to save the planet one day—because it really does need saving. Without a rigorous education, where exactly are they going to acquire these skills?
We need to give future generations the tools necessary to cope with the uncertain, dynamic world we’re handing off to them. We need to push our students harder. We need to find a balance between independence and rigor. And, perhaps most importantly, we need to stop believing that academia and creativity are somehow mutually exclusive.
I’m not calling Wiewel out, and I urge everyone to read his piece. But when it comes to education in this country, I encourage you to ask for more, not less.
Rabia, this is really good.