After completing my military service, I worked for some years as a public school administrator, looking after young people who weren’t too far removed in age from my previous Navy shipmates. Though I entered education with a renewed mission of “making a difference for these kids,” my optimism crashed head-on into the stark realization that school remains a place utterly inept at preparing young people for the world. It’s worth asking why our public education system, which is better funded on average than in nearly every other developed country, isn't capable of doing in 12 years what the military does in a few months.
By the time they complete their initial training, service members have a keen sense of their purpose within the organization they have just joined. When they graduate from high school, however, young people have little understanding of how the system they’ve just been funneled through will prepare them for the job market they are now expected to enter. It’s no wonder our public schools don’t seem to be doing a good job when it’s not clear what their graduates should be able to know or do.
