"America's high schools are obsolete." Bill Gates made this startling remark at the 2015 National Education Summit on High Schools. To understand what he meant and the urgency with which he addressed his audience, let us take a look at what kind of jobs our children will have when they graduate from high schools and colleges.
There are two kinds of jobs. The first one is the kind of jobs their future boss does not want to do, so he or she is willing to hire someone. Examples are taking orders in a fast food restaurant, making pizzas, mowing grass, or working on an assembly line. You are told what to do and how to do it. Median salary is less than $40K. This kind of jobs will be replaced by robots, industrial automation, and artificial intelligence. The essential skill required: following orders.
The second kind of jobs is such that their boss cannot do, so he or she has to hire someone. Examples are engineering and technical jobs. Nobody tells you what to do and how to do it; you have to figure it out. Median salary is above $70K. This kind of jobs will grow as technologies keep advancing. The essential skill required: creative problem-solving.
After twelve years of public education, what will our children have learned? Most of the current high school graduates don't know how to use algebra, forget everything in geometry, are confused about trigonometry and have no clue about calculus. They can not write persuasive essays and have no idea about logic fallacies. They can not think logically, analytically, and critically. Many colleges are forced to provide remedial courses in Math and English because many of the incoming freshman students are not ready for college-level courses. The seven to eight years of secondary education are totally wasted. If they are good students, the only skill they have learned in school is how to follow orders.
So the only kind of jobs they can do is the first one. But they face a losing competition from robots and industrial automation. As warned by President Obama in last year's economic report, "What is true—and the reason that a lot of Americans feel anxious—is that the economy has been changing in profound ways, starting long before the Great Recession. Today, technology doesn’t just replace jobs on the assembly line but rather affects any job where work can be automated. Companies in a global economy face tougher competition from abroad, and they can locate anywhere. As a result, workers have less leverage for a raise. And more and more wealth and income are concentrated at the very top.”
The problem? Mr. Gates gave the answer in his speech: " Our high schools were designed fifty years ago to meet the needs of another age. Until we design them to meet the needs of the 21st century, we will keep limiting - even ruining - the lives of millions of Americans every year."
That age is when factories need human labor to do assembly work. The workers only need to know how to follow orders. But with the rapid advancement of technologies in the past twenty years, the Capital has found a much better workforce: the robots. They are cheaper, more reliable, and more adaptive. The push for $15 minimum wage inadvertently only accelerates the pace of replacing Human with Machine. Watch a video on Tesla Gigafactory, you will see what is happening. Manufacturing companies may come back, but not with assembly line jobs.
Our children are facing a much different future. They need creative problem-solving skills to become engineers who design robots, and technicians who fix machines. Our education system needs a much-needed overhaul. But it won't happen unless we parents get into the driver seat. We can not leave it to politicians and the teachers unions.