I Believe I Have Discovered the Solution to America’s Educational Dilemma by Terry Silva

In order to maintain and further promote the genius that is America, a K-12 school system must take into account the individuality of each student.

That is, it may have been appropriate in late nineteenth century America for a school system to approve curriculum, texts and methodologies before knowing who the individual students were. However, in 2006, that is a formula for international competitive disaster.  Our children have grown past the time when their individuality can be ignored by one-size-fits-all systems of any kind.

Putting American children in classrooms, and adopting curriculum without reference to individual aptitudes, skill levels, maturity levels and interests is no longer appropriate, especially in a nation where children are told of the importance of their individuality everywhere except in our schools. (Currently top-down schools in America expel or in other ways lose more children than schools of any other industrialized nation,  and, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, the United States remains decade after decade at or near the bottom of the first world in terms of average K-12 student accomplishment in all disciplines, excepting athletics.)

Most American graduate schools must recruit foreign students to fill available positions. In addition, there are approximately 500,000 undergraduate college students in the United States from foreign lands who, in freshman year, are significantly ahead of even their best American classmates in mathematics and the sciences.

As a result of the paucity of American student interest in science and mathematics, companies like Microsoft have been forced to establish their Research and Development facilities in other parts of the world (In the case of Microsoft, two out of three). Further, leading companies cannot locate sufficient Americans to fill the thousands of technical positions available each year. As a result,  executives such as Bill Gates must annually plead with Congress to expand the foreign talent pool within the United States through the issuance of thousands of additional work visas.  Denial of these requests has thus far resulted in large numbers of science and mathematics positions leaving our shores.

By way of comparison, today, The People’s Republic of China produces ten scientists, mathematicians and engineers for every one developed among Americans.  Additionally, American undergraduate colleges maintain huge humanities departments, and, by comparison, microscopic mathematics departments. It is not uncommon for just a handful of mathematics majors to graduate from elite colleges in any one year, and the majority of those hail from foreign nations. There is nothing wrong with humanities, of course.  We need the humanities to round out our personhoods. But, when these are chosen as majors irrespective of America’s needs, American competitive advantage and standard of living cannot help but suffer eventual decline. We are producing tens of thousands of college graduates in the Unite State who lack the necessary skills to maintain our national position within the dynamic worlds of mathematics and technology. (This is something about which current American leadership is very concerned.)

As a suggestion, schools in the mold of a Linda Christas do promote excellence.  But efforts such as LC’s have been hampered for lack of government funding either at the local, state or federal levels. Linda Christas’ student-first approach to education (rather than the top-down model) has the potential to revolutionize education in America, if only special interests can forgo their fear of change. For example, as it stands, in order to become accredited in the United States, a top-down structure and preplanned curricula are necessary. No private tutor interested in the well-being of her students can or will adopt texts, and plan methodologies until her student’s strengths and weaknesses are known. That signifies to me that we are trapped in a revolving accreditation door in America where administrators from top-down schools judge other administrators from top-down schools. There is currently no room in the educational community for the only school model that, in my opinion, has the potential to save America from a declining standard of living or worse.

Schools like Linda Christas have been starved by the “system.” Governmental agencies at all levels, as well as foundations at all levels refuse to consider funding for any school not cooperating with the existing accreditation model, a model that ensures that American students will continue to fall behind because they, the students, are ready for a much more individualized educational experience. Said another way, present day American students,  and the existing K-12 school model enjoy little in the way need being congruous with structure. (Minimally, I would like to suggest that offices such as the Federal Office of Innovation and Improvement investigate efforts like Linda Christas.  I believe that we could use all the wonderful talent in our existing educational communities, and, by bringing that talent and those communities in line with 21st century American student requirements, once again allow our children - who are descendants, in my opinion, of the most talented people from all nations - to express their genius.)

Linda Christas and schools in their mold never adopt curriculum before knowing who the student is. Every course is designed to allow the student to lead with his or her strengths.  As a result, and as an illustration, Linda Christas is the only secondary school I am familiar with anywhere that guarantees a college level result (a score of 4 or better) on the College Board AP Calculus examination.  That seems to me the reason why Linda Christas, whose Advisory Board includes a pioneering surgeon, a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine commander, prominent authors such as Sue Grafton, and personalities such as Mr. Pat Boone (Pepperdine University Board Chairperson), and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (Pulitzer Prize/The Curtis Institute), is among the most promising innovative schools in America. Why starve this model to death while Oprah Winfrey, John Stossel and Bill and Melinda Gates declare American education to be in a state of perpetual crisis….............

Terry Silva, E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)