Class Discussion

I thought today's discussion was very interesting, especially in regards to the changing notion of our industry based economy to one which is service based. After reading the Spring book and from my own personal experience, it seems as if the educational system is reactionary. The education system is always a step behind. For instance, one might say the industrial revolution changed our perspective on how education is to be conducted. Now that our country is moving away from industry the education system is inadequate. At least educational theory by the time it actually becomes practice is antiquated. Will the educational system always be playing catch up?
As the world is moving towards globalization, we can already begin to see a dropping off in our nations performance. That is if you are under the impression that our schools can be compared to the educational systems of other modernized countries. Most Americans have the opinion that Asian schools are leading in the categories of mathematics and science. Rather those countries are more effective at teaching those subjects. It should also be said that those countries education is not available to everyone. The United States is one of the only countries, if not THE only country, to provide a free and public education to all of its citizens. More and more students are continuing there education at the higher levels. However, it is well known that U.S. colleges train many students to develop general skills rather than vocationally specific skills. This results in the fact that many college graduates are poorly prepared for specific jobs or occupations. So where does the change need to take place. Does the whole education system need to be given a face lift, or should we tear it down and build a new one? Ill leave this with one parting question: Assume a world in the future with the continuing trend we see currently that more and more college graduates are obtaining McJobs. Aside from the fact that these jobs do not offer adequate pay for sustainability and financial relief, is there something negative about a population where the entire work-force has a college level degree?