Commencement

Last week Estrella Mountain Community College had their spring commencement ceremony. Included on the list of graduates was a fellow by the name of Zachary Chia. Zachary was born in Arizona, but moved to Singapore as an infant. A few years back he returned to Arizona with his family. To go to school he had to be tested to find out his education level. Turns out ... he didn't need to go to high school because he had surpassed all state requirements. So on May 14, 2010, Zachary Chia graduated from Estrella Mountain Community College ... at the age of 15.

According to the story, Zachary says that the reason for his advanced position isn't intelligence, but a "totally different standard" in Singapore. During his college education here he carried at least 18 credits a semester and spent 8-10 hours a day studying. No, not intelligence, simply hard work and conforming to standards set by the schools he went to and by his parents. Some three years before the standard American student expects to graduate from high school, Zachary Chia graduated from college with a 3.9 GPA and Associate degrees in both Arts and Business. He plans to go next to ASU with a major in Business Management of Tourism.

According to wikipedia, Singapore spends almost 20% of their total budget or 3% of their GDP on education. The U.S. spends nearly 5% of GDP on education. Yet Singapore ranks #1 in international educational scores with the U.S. a distant 24. According to the Cato Institute, "Compared with that of the rest of the world, American governments' investment in education is lavish indeed. Although precise comparisons are difficult, because of differences in demographics and the varying ways countries organize their educational systems, figures published yearly by the United Nations reveal that the United States spends more on education as a percentage of its gross national product ... than do most of the countries whose students outperform U.S. students on standardized tests ..."

Wait! That can't be right. We here in Arizona were just subjected to months of commercials warning us that if we didn't increase the sales taxes we pay, education would stumble and fall for lack of funds. Everyone knows that the more money we put into education, the better the result. Oddly, that Cato report actually says, "Researchers have not been able to prove the common assumption that the richer schools are, the better taught are their students." Instead, "historical trends fly in the face of the spending-equals-learning thesis."

Now, I know ... schools need funds. No doubt. And I agree that teachers are underpaid. No doubt. I'm not suggesting we decrease funding to education. Here's what I'm saying: It's not the money that makes for a good education. What, then, is it? I suspect the answer is complex. Some of it is found in teachers. Just last week the Texas Board of Education revamped their textbooks (which, apparently, affects textbooks throughout the country) to what the news is reporting as "more politically conservative". So, tell me, why does the word "politically" have anything to do with education? Are teachers pushing political agendas? And then there is the newly popular "Outcome-based Education" system (OBE). This new approach to education discards traditional education that leans on teaching facts and prefers the "constructivist" approach -- the idea that students develop their own knowledge through experience. "So, look," some teachers will tell you, "we're not teaching the kids facts anymore. No, no, we want them to discover their own knowledge." Umm ... what?!

Frankly, while I have no doubt that money is a part of the educational dilemma and I'm quite certain that teachers are part of the problem, I believe that the biggest culprit lies elsewhere. Zachary hit on it, if only a glancing blow, when he said that Singapore had a "totally different standard". One of the differences in standards is educational, to be sure, but another is at home. You see, Singapore doesn't suffer from the modern western malady of "my kid can do no wrong". Remember Michael Fay? Okay, maybe not the name, but he's the kid who, at 18, was caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism. It would never have been allowed in the U.S., but neither the government nor the parents in Singapore put up with that kind of stuff. How would a teacher manage to teach 30 students? Well, first, they'd have to be well-behaved kids, and that is outside of the teachers' control. Between the training parents need to give their kids on how to behave in public and the discipline parents are to impart for kids to do their school work, I am pretty sure that the largest gap in our educational system is the one at home.

Education is important, to be sure. Too many Christian parents have made the mistake of thinking that a real biblical education takes place once a week on Sundays for their children and their duties to "train up a child in the way he should go" are discharged. By the same token, too many American parents think that it is the school system's job to teach their kids. It's not. It's their job to provide the opportunity. If parents were more involved in their children's lives and more involved in their children's education, I suspect there would be fewer amazing stories like Zachary Chia and fewer odd phrases like "more politically conservative textbooks" and a level of education in America that hasn't been seen for at least a half century.