This is covered, I think rather realistically, with this part at the end:
I asked how this happened in the US … I was told it didn’t. In fact, the US was one of the last countries to adopt the still-controversial system. The stakeholders at the time resisted the change and called it too radical to be even tested. The result has been a steep investment to catch up with other countries and much higher unemployment in the US… as many of the information age jobs left the US over the 15 years they resisted the changes.
I read that, I just don’t agree with it. Summer vacation has been obsolete for a century, so I don’t see why the rest of the school system would update more quickly.
The problem with summer vacation is that it has evolved a market niche of “summer programs”: academic camps, internships, and the like. These have, in turn, become increasingly necessary for admission into “elite” colleges, graduate schools, and businesses. This system is far from optimal, but few will be willing to abandon it locally for fear of disadvantaging their children relative to others’.
I think it is plausible that the US would never adopt the changes at all. But I think it’s only relatively recently that our refusal to change has actually started costing us significantly in terms of jobs.
If other nations start adopting more flexible education systems that continue to improve beyond the US one, combined with automation cutting even more jobs, it’s ALSO plausible to me that eventually US people might be hurting enough to force a change. ESPECIALLY if this global internet based system resulted in “private” school becoming close to free—the schools that unions have power over might not be able to survive without adapting to the new system (if at all)
This is covered, I think rather realistically, with this part at the end:
I read that, I just don’t agree with it. Summer vacation has been obsolete for a century, so I don’t see why the rest of the school system would update more quickly.
The problem with summer vacation is that it has evolved a market niche of “summer programs”: academic camps, internships, and the like. These have, in turn, become increasingly necessary for admission into “elite” colleges, graduate schools, and businesses. This system is far from optimal, but few will be willing to abandon it locally for fear of disadvantaging their children relative to others’.
I think it is plausible that the US would never adopt the changes at all. But I think it’s only relatively recently that our refusal to change has actually started costing us significantly in terms of jobs.
If other nations start adopting more flexible education systems that continue to improve beyond the US one, combined with automation cutting even more jobs, it’s ALSO plausible to me that eventually US people might be hurting enough to force a change. ESPECIALLY if this global internet based system resulted in “private” school becoming close to free—the schools that unions have power over might not be able to survive without adapting to the new system (if at all)