Recently, I learned the difference between a bike ride and a bike race. There is a big difference. I am used to bike rides. These might be longer (30 or 40 miles), but the pace is leisurely, there are refreshment stands, and a lot of cheery people. Recently and accidentally, I signed up for a Cat 5 bike race. Yikes! Highly competitive, very fast riders who lean through turns in ways that defy both gravity and good sense populate these races. If you expect a bike ride, you are overwhelmed by a bike race.
In education today, I am afraid that this is an apt analogy of what we are doing with our children. We are preparing them for a bike ride when, in actuality, they are entering a bike race.
Here are 5 crucial questions that you should be asking as parents concerning your children and this competition:
- Is there really a global competition going on?
This is the first crucial question: does the competition really exist or is this just a myth. Some of you might already have enough data to be confident of this. If not, let me tell you about my recent experiences. My school is home to a very small number of International Students (mainly from China). They arrive at Veritas Academy ready to work hard academically. Most of their host families have to encourage them to stop studying! One student did not want to go with her host family on a trip to Disney Land unless I gave her permission (I did). They are preparing for a competition. They are getting ready for a bike race!
- If I do nothing (and go with the flow), will my child be prepared?
This is the really bad news! Our culture is increasingly preparing our students for bike rides. We are focusing our efforts on helping our kids feel good about what they can do instead of preparing helping them reach standards that children have attained historically in our country and which they are attaining in other countries. Some of the issues behind these problems are social and cultural, but our schools are often pulling in the wrong direction. When we focus on minimum standards, we are, again, hoping that everyone else decides to have a bike ride instead of a race…and this is not going to happen.
- What advantages can we have in this competition?
I have always found it interesting that American schools finish near the bottom in academic competitions, but that there are large numbers of foreign students trying to come to America to study in our high schools. Why aren’t American students trying to get into schools in China or Japan or Finland? There are two reasons. The first is that American secondary schools are the best path toward access to the American university system (still the best in the world). The second reason applies only to some American schools. I learned of this reason during an interview done by a Japanese student who was studying at Veritas Academy. He had to give a report to the board of education that had paid for his study in America. He asked me about the philosophy of education at Veritas and as he did we discussed the differences in education in other countries. The best American schools have this advantage: they teach students more than just facts; they teach them how to think! If you can find schools committed to helping students think clearly and critically about ideas, you have a great advantage. Machines can compute. Leaders have to think and make good decisions.
- What does winning look like?
Winning in this competition means that your son or daughter is prepared for the real world. This means, first, that they are prepared for whatever calling God has for them. It also means, however, that they are ready for a battle if it comes. This battle will not be fought with bullets and weapons (we hope), but it will be just as fierce. Nothing that you do as a parent can assure victory, but you can faithfully put them in an environment that prepares them for a bike race if that is what is coming.
- How can I find the right school to help my child prepare?
You need to find a school with right philosophy and the right people, people who wed love together with high expectations. When you visit a school (even in the summer), talk about the educational philosophy of the school. See what they think about this competition and what they are doing to prepare students for it. One note, do not be confused about the issues. Some schools believe that preparing for this competition means having devices everywhere and doubling down on technology. There are computer classes that can be helpful, but preparing for this competition has almost nothing to do with computers, smartphones, or tablets. It is about preparing the mind and the heart of the students. It is about teaching them to think not finding machines to think for them.
Finding an educational environment that can help you prepare you son or daughter for this competition is crucial. I hope these questions help you think through how you can find the right place for him or her.
