Beinstock: Let’s rethink how we measure education, success

Once upon a time a liberal-arts degree was considered the holy grail, and the push was to make college accessible to all students Next we heard that a college degree no longer guaranteed the standards it used to. Then came the push to decrease dropout rates in high school. Now the concern is that standards are falling as graduation rates rise. It amazes me that we continue to look through the wrong end of the proverbial telescope.

As a former school counselor with the luxury of time that retirement offers, I think a lot about the dream parents have of a “good life” for their children. What makes a life good or bad? All too often, it’s defined in terms of earning power and societal respect for the job. At the same time, educational standards are viewed in terms of their relationship to success in higher education. Yet we’ve all seen that higher education does not necessarily lead to financial success.

When we taught career awareness to elementary school students, we interviewed staff members about their jobs. I made sure that the students heard from people at all levels of education and salary. Inevitably, the custodians would tell the students to stay in school and get a better job. The students then considered what life would be like without custodians: overflowing trash, bursting pipes and unusable bathrooms, cafeteria chaos. Second graders quickly began deciding that custodians were doing very valuable work and needed more money.

The same could be said for the day-care workers, cooks and wait staff — just about anybody who provides direct service. The students had a clearer picture after their third-grade unit, when we focused on how rather than whether people are smart.

We need to stop considering numbers of years in advanced education as the sole measure of intelligence and begin to focus on strengthening natural abilities across the other “intelligences.” We need to remember that dirty hands come from growing our food, keeping our conveniences installed and running, doing much of the raising of the next generation and keeping our “good life” going.

Next we have to look at equitable pay for jobs well done. Then we will have many different standards and ways to “graduate,” and just as many forms of “higher education.” We just might have a workforce that takes pride in a job well done rather than a hierarchical structure that promotes shame and failure, along with poverty at the lower end.

This story was originally published January 3, 2016 at 4:00 PM.