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Truly educated

Being an educated person in the goal of many adults throughout the U.S. however it is becoming more apparent that people who successfully complete the education system are less prepared for the complexities of life. Many are leaving the school system as quickly as possible, currently 20% of the population never completes [|high school]. There are obvious monetary values associated with further education however there are less obvious issues involved in a person’s lack of ability to fully comprehend situations of life. The questions behind sustainability in the environment and society are some of the question many are ill prepared to evaluate properly. In order for a person to be a full participating member of modern society they must be able to question and understand the world around them. This becomes impossible without the prober background in educations. The school system is generally trusted to prepare children form further college education or the beginnings of a career in the work force. This is itself is a very difficult task for teachers to accomplish, but is made more difficult with the restrictions made on teachers. Standardized test are the means to judge the effectiveness of a teacher, however they encourage teachers to teach for the test, not developing skills needed for all forms of education. Another issue is the style of teaching in schools, methods to solving problems are taught. Students are taught to [|think cleverly], not critically. When comparing the U.S. system to the rest of the world, it is no longer a dominate force, several other countries spend significantly more [|days in school] each year. This in part leads to high dropout rates about [|seven thousand] every day, because of the students lack of basic skills in math and reading. Students struggle through many of these basic subjects putting them far behind and it becomes almost impossible to catch up. These problems continue into college, where it can be seen that a large percentage show no signs of increased critical thinking after four years, about [|36%.] When student first enter college many are forced into remedial courses to compensate for years on inadequate schooling. Also it can still be seen that in many college courses only methods to solving specific problems are taught, the reasons motivating those solutions or the effects of those solutions are rarely considered. This is especially evident at an engineering school such as RPI. For this situation to ever change vast changes would be necessary to the educational system, changes that would encourage critical thinking in students at a young age. Also changed would be needed to properly develop other basic skills in children to properly prepare them for life. Critical thinking is one of the more important skills that are neglected, this gives a person the ability to learn and understand a situation without the need for prior knowledge. Critical thinking is something that should not be confined to schools but something that should be prized in every day interactions. As with all issues people who learn more are able to make better decisions, this holds well with [|sustainability] issues as well. In every sustainability issue there are two sides to the story, it would be easy to always choose the environmentally friendly one, but with true understanding a person learns to account for the social and economic issues involved, finally allowing them to make a decision that best suits their values.