By nearly all objective measures, the U.S. education system is not fulfilling its primary duty of ensuring that today’s students are prepared to achieve in the world of tomorrow.

As we all know, modern society is becoming ever more dependent on technology. Hence, if American students are to compete in the job market of the future, they must be competent in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Unfortunately, as national test scores consistently show, American students are not excelling in science, engineering and mathematics. By contrast, students in nations such as China are making gains in these fields. If America is to remain competitive with China and Russia in the global AI arms race, it is imperative that we emphasize STEM education.

As a former high school social studies teacher, I am well aware that the point of education is not solely to prepare students for the workforce. In truth, the fundamental goal of education is to teach students how to think critically for themselves.

However, far too many of today’s students are failing to even meet the minimum standards when it comes to the hard sciences.

While it is undoubtedly vital for American students to have a thorough understanding of our nation’s history and the ability to understand literature, those skills are becoming less and less relevant in today’s technology-driven society. As such, it makes perfect sense for America’s schools to pivot and prioritize a STEM-focused curriculum.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the U.S. education system did a much better job preparing students for success by offering classes specifically designed to aid in the development of skills that could be directly transferred to the workforce.

For instance, virtually all high schools offered a “shop class” to students who might pursue a career in one of the many trades. These classes, known as career tech education (CTE), prepared millions of students for in-demand trades such as welding, carpentry, masonry, etc.

Moreover, those students developed a set of real-world skills that they could deploy for the rest of their lives.

In the late 20th century, for various reasons, our education leaders determined that CTE education was no longer necessary and it would be better to focus on soft skills rather than hard skills.

That decades-long experiment has been an utter failure. In fact, America’s education system is now failing on both ends of the spectrum. Not only are the vast majority of today’s students woefully unprepared for a career in coding or any other technology-oriented field because they do not have the requisite mathematics or science background, but they are also falling behind in terms of reading and writing skills.

This begs the question: What are students actually learning? The answer is disturbing: Students are learning how to do the bare minimum to get a passing grade.

When I was teaching social studies at an above-average public high school in South Carolina less than a decade ago, I was shocked that nearly all students could not perform basic math, most could not read at grade level, and the majority struggled to write a coherent paragraph.

Tragically, we are now teaching our kids that math is subjective: 1 plus 1 does not necessarily have to equal 2. That may work in a coddled classroom, where the utmost goal is to not hurt a student’s self-esteem, but it will not work in the real world.

Eventually, these students will enter the real world, where they are in for a rude awakening when they realize that objectivity and results, not their feelings, matter most.

The good news is that there still is time to right the ship. By aggressively promoting a STEM-based education, we can ensure that the next generation of American students is primed for success.

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ABOUT THE WRITER

Chris Talgo is the editorial director at The Heartland Institute. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.

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