Are there solutions to the Educational Crisis?

I might be surprising our readers, but I think that there are.

Let's first take a look at the miracle of Singapore. Singapore has a population that is close to that of Washington.

Singapore was forced out of the Malaysian Federation by 125-0 vote of the Federation's Parliament in 1965. This country, without any significant industry, and a diverse population, Chinese 75.2%, Malays 13.6%, Indians 8.8%, Eurasians and other groups form 2.4%, with accompanying religions was left on its own surrounded by far more ambitious neighbors with this expulsion.

Certainly not a recipe for success by most measures! Singapore has an area approximately 1/4th that of King County.

The British informed Singapore that they would be pulling out their military forces in 1971, which led to the need for Singapore to develop its own defense system as well.

The Prime Minister, Lee Kwan Yeu, and the majority party made a decision that a small island with no natural resources will have to develop its human capital in order to be successful. His government has been re-elected every election by margins of over 80%.

Today Singapore leads all nations in almost every measurement of education and has one of the highest incomes per capita of any Asian nation. Their education curriculum has been translated from English into several other languages, and is the adopted curriculum, translated into Hebrew, for the entire State of Israel!

By the way their textbooks cost a fraction of what American textbooks cost!

How did they do this while the United States went in the opposite direction in education and many other measures?

Diverse uneducated population? Poverty? All characteristics that tend to produce in the United States some less than impressive educational achievement rates, but not in Singapore.

They are not just better than predicted; they are the "standard" for education of youth.

Do they spend more on education than the United States? No, in fact less.

Their class sizes are much larger than they are in the United States. 32 in Kindergarten! According to one former student in Singapore who then attended Federal Way Schools, they have 45 kids in a middle school classroom!

Are their teachers better educated than American teachers?

Yes, at least in some cases.

Teachers in Singapore have to have "majors" in the subjects that they teach in secondary schools.

"Education degrees" just don't cut it.

Because of the larger class sizes, they are paid better, relatively, than most American teachers.

There is a much longer school year. Teachers are also more highly respected according to some sources.

OK, what is the difference?

The Government of Singapore believes that the survival of the country depends upon having an educated population, and they take this quite seriously!

We may have heard of the American who was caned for putting graffiti on a car, or that chewing gum, or wrappers, left on the street are jail-able offenses.

This is probably why they have so few in jails! They mean business!

According to those I have talked to about their schools, "slackers" will feel quite uncomfortable in school.

No coddling, little "compassion", no "self esteem" exercises and no distractions.

Fail a weekly quiz, and you will stand in class for the next week. All students are in uniforms. When school is out rather than taking part in "extra curricular activities, or "hanging out", they all head for special study sessions.

This is where the "group activities and collaboration" take place, not in the classroom.

Does this make for "dull" children? Singapore has the highest personal levels of satisfaction (happiness?) in Asia!

In a "Wall Street Journal" article a few years ago about the quality of education in Singapore, a secondary school principal was quoted "as being unsatisfied with the level of achievement of his school, so he cancelled Christmas vacation!"

They only get Christmas day off. They have one month for summer vacation.

In Federal Way we had to cancel some of our vacation days due to a windstorm a few years ago.

We never had so many parents at a work study as when we made that decision!

They were not concerned about making up these days, they were concerned about vacations!

Who would be most disturbed in Federal Way if the schools' calendar were changed when it was discovered that achievement scores were not satisfactory?

Would it be the teachers, students, or parents?

Clearly this would not be considered an appropriate "solution" to the problem! Perhaps if it was there, there would be more "focus" on achievement.

We are still letting kids out of school for the "harvest!"

What seems to be very clear here is something that older Americans may recall. When something has a priority to Americans, the attack on Pearl Harbor as an example, we can put our shoulder to the grindstone and accomplish wonderful things.

It would appear that quality education has been treated that way in Singapore.

Elsewhere, with some of our international competitors, there is a priority that doesn't seem to be evident here.

We, Americans, seem to think that money can overcome this lack of priority by educational institutions, and parents.

There are 24 hours in a day both here and in Singapore. How children spend them has a lot to do with how well they are educated.

At a recent Work Study by the Federal Way School Board there was a discussion about how to increase achievement levels of some of the minorities.

Never in this discussion were there any thoughts on enlisting, or perhaps drafting, the parents into this effort. In fact, one of the conclusions was that there shouldn't be any "consequences" for lack of effort by the students or parents.

Certainly this wouldn't be much of a discussion in Singapore. Elsewhere in this state, and country, there are consequences for "slackers", and the results have been impressive.

Taxpayers, beware!

Perhaps Singapore is more than we can swallow in Federal Way, and perhaps our children will come to regret this as more of the world goes down the road that Singapore seems to have paved.

Next time? Another look at a different solution.