Education?

I am not a salesman, I tried it and it did not go well. The job title was 'sales consultant' who was supposed to help select the best mobile phone for the customer's needs, in terms of network, phone and tariff in an independent way. Very shortly after training (award winning and actually OK) it was made clear that some phones created more (double) commission, these phones were from one brand, also all phones needed (pushed) the phone insurance (in house), which after the first few weeks of dealing with customer complaints, it became clear! Things that actually happened in the real world were not covered and contacting the insurance, getting them to first pick up the phone, then often finding it was not covered and then maybe a slow process to get a phone back to the customer for their business or emergency needs (mentioned during sales pitch!).

So you can see my problem, I noticed too quickly that the job was incorrectly titled, that the national advertisement campaign of independence and the need for insurance, were slightly different to reality. I did not investigate where business ends and fraud begins! That noticing and having a problem with these points was not (is not) good for my employment prospects. As well as these inaccuracies there are many biases that humans do not avoid falling for. We tend to be short term and illogical and spend a lot of time being inaccurate.

The first problem I will raise, is my subsequent career in education. I have similar issues with education in that it is not titled correctly, is not independent or impartial, and you need more than insurance to compensate for when it goes wrong.

In the UK 93 out of 100 children are educated by the state and the other 7 still follow much that the state does anyway. Economists rarely say a monopoly is good for the consumer! The state also dominates other areas, including health where I see fundamental faults, and massive barriers to change that need to be addressed. Many countries have similar issues. Education is expensive in money and time, these should not be wasted.

Very rarely (really) is the question asked 'What is education for?' (aims) and even more rare, are the aims being met? Education (and health) is expensive and has to produce results. Not all results are caused directly, not all are measurable. So misunderstanding, accidental or deliberate is rife. There are many interfering (directly and indirectly) parties with many agendas, who increase the cost and decrease any effectiveness.

So the questions I would like to raise for education's participants are: Is record Youth unemployment a sign of success for the education system? Employers have for many years complained of the skills, understanding and attitudes of youth. The UK also has bad indicators in regards to physical health (high heart attack, stroke and cancer rates), many mental health issues (diagnosed and undiagnosed), high rates of debt, full prisons and all while record exam results have been 'achieved'. Having the best education system ever, unless you include the real world is not real achievement.

I want to attempt to raise such issues and help clarify where possible, first in education but also other areas of life. A general pattern I would put forward is prevention is better (including cheaper) than cure. Proper preparation prevents poor performance (phew! the clean version). I will have to challenge perceptions, ignorance, complexity and vested interest.

This blog will at times be negative or at least be perceived to be. Stating problems, raising issues is always met with barriers from inertia. Many have their heads down over-working, others make their money in the present system. When you use abstraction and maths you loose a lot of people's concentration. Humans used to run around and climb trees and have the physical and mental capabilities to do that. So although they (we) like stories, they struggle with long term and big picture elements of life. Using science is not natural and takes work, getting past the natural human biases is a hard slog.