Education is a Service Industry

In case no one ever told the people running our country education is not a factory it is a service industry. Machines and buildings do not make for a good education. Teachers are more like artist or actors on a large world stage. They are creative individuals who work hard every day to instill a love of learning into their students. Machines and buildings cannot and will not do for this country what one single good hard working teacher can achieve. Americans are free thinking individuals not because of a building or a machine but because at some point in their lives a teacher broke through to them and helped them to understand that learning something new could be thrilling and yes even fun.

Now I respect that we need up-to-date classrooms to provide safe environments to teach our future generations in but if we continue to underpay and under-respect the people who work in those shiny new institutions then education in this country is only going to decrease in value. Telling teachers and educational staffs that they are valued but not giving them a livable wage is a joke that will only come back to harm this country in the long run.

The tools teachers and educational staff need to raise the value of education is simple. We need to have the freedom to teach at our highest skill levels. We need an environment that fosters sharing with each other and our students. Just look at all of the great societies and what it took to foster enlightenment. Think of the support those societies gave to educators and their support staff. We need the freedom to teach in a method that encourages our students to ask questions and care about what they are learning. We need a society that shows how much they value those of us that give our lives to the field of education. This means not just in word but in deed!

What we don’t need is to be told one more time that a building or a machine is all a school needs to improve the quality of education. We don’t need to be told that people who work with machines are more valuable. We don’t need to be told that administrators who never work with students should be paid huge salaries while we live on government assistances. We don’t need to be told that spending more money on education is a waste of time because it is going to the wrong people and no one will begin to admit to their mistakes in this area. We need someone to listen and hear us before education can begin to improve in this country. This country needs to begin to understand that education cannot be turned into some kind of an assembly line where every student comes out the same.