Opus 2011-157, WWLID

This may be a new one to you.  It means “What Would Laura Ingles Do?”  For those of you with limited cultural awareness, Laura Ingles Wilder wrote the books that were the basis for the TV series “Little House on the Prairie.”  If I remember what my daughter told me, Laura Ingles began teaching when she was 16.  I don’t know that she had much more preparation than attending the same type of one-room schoolhouse that she taught in.  This was the norm in a society where most people completed 8th grade and moved on to adult responsibilities. 

My father graduated from high school but only had 16 people in his graduating class.  That means his experience was not far from the one-room school.  My uncles came from the same type of background. 

So?  They all received an education that prepared them to go out and be successful in their world.  With only a high school education one went on to work in the aero-space, one worked in the steel industry, one became a high level manager in the industrial community, one worked in a slaughter house and my dad started his own business.  Not bad for a high school education.  I was the first one that I know of on my father’s side to graduate from college.  I don’t expect to do better than they did.

Today we have college graduates who can’t fill out a job application.  The colleges have gone to exit exams to show that the graduates have basic high school skills.  I have heard from several sources that they don’t pay a lot of attention to GPA any more because the grades are so inflated.  Instead they use SAT scores.  Guess what test the educational establishment is trying to do away with?

Historically the one room school houses with very limited facilities and teachers with little training did better than modern schools.  Why don’t we ask ourselves WWLID and go back to trying the things that worked instead of trying to fine tune the things that fail?

homo unius libri