When I was in high school, so very long ago, women were still strongly being encouraged to aspire to be; first - secretaries, then teachers, or nurses. Whenever my teachers tried to steer me in the direction of becoming a secretary; I would respond; “I don’t want to be someone’s secretary; I want to be someone who needs a secretary!”
It's a good thing I didn't want to be a secretary, because I type like Ms. Wiggins!
Just recently posted his latest “If I were...” contest/challenge, which you can read in full here.
Immediately after reading his post, my mind went to some of my most common thoughts and even things I have already said in conversations, fairly recently.
If I were in charge of education in America:
- I would make sure every high school student would spend two weeks in a third world country providing some type of service to the area visited, which would be paid in full by US tax dollars.
- Art and creativity classes would be considered important components of the curriculum, not just extra fluff classes that are cut when the budget is tight.
- Science classes would have huge integrated and interdisciplinary modules on global warming, and students would be encouraged to create and explore ways to reduce our carbon footprints.
Unless otherwise indicated, images are from Pixabay!
- High schools and colleges would offer classes on investing, budgeting, financing and credit.
- High schools would offer classes on general self-care, which would include personal safety and dealing with disappointment and depression.
- Students would be introduced to the latest technology and get a chance to experiment with it in school.
- High school and college students would be able to offset their student loans by providing community service, and there would be many different options, such as taking people to doctor appointments, grocery delivery for the needy, providing house repairs in their neighborhoods, lawn maintenance for seniors and disabled, manning food banks and harvesting community gardens (just to name a few!).
- Refugees would receive free training on what it takes to become a US citizen and information on services and options for them would be readily available.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Our education system in America could use a lot of improvements! The highest ranking person over the US Department of Education happens to be called the Secretary of Education.
So, maybe I want to be a secretary after all!
Actually, I would settle for our current Department of Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, reading this post and implementing some of my ideas!
