Summa Cum Laude

I was at a dinner the other evening. It wasn't for me but I was there. It was held to honor lots of people who had graduated in the top ten percentile in their college graduation classes. There was  - as expected - a cocktail hour before the dinner and, by chance, a man and his sister came to sit with us at our table. The man admitted he had graduated by the skin of his teeth but he was there as his sister's guest and because he had put a video presentation together for the college. I noted that there were very, very few luminaries among the top ten. They were all successful people but nothing extraordinary. The guy who got the biggest cheers was that man who had sat with us and who probably graduated in the bottom ten percent. It is well-known that many super-successful people are often not the ones who succeed in school. This was no exception. It's not the teachers who matter; it's the pupils. You could name ten or twenty extraordinary historical figures but you could never name who their teachers were. It matters, but not that much. As the 1800 tequila commercial says, "enough said." 

Bad, bad teachers

Teachers and the education system are constantly being criticized for bad performance by students. New York spends the greatest amount of money (on a per-capita basis) on students and yet, they have the worst students in the country. The solution is simple. We all know that great athletes make great sports teams, great musicians make great bands, great citizens make great countries, and good soldiers make great armies. Education is more about learning than about teaching. Discipline is something a teacher should not even have to worry about. You want good schools? Fill them with good students. Even this topless woman knows that makes sense.

Education

Education is much more about learning than about teaching. The responsibility for educating children and young adults has, for a long, long time been placed on the wrong shoulders. Good students - not good faculties - make for good schools. Look at how careful the top schools are about selecting their candidates for admission. If you don't believe that the student is the key, simply make a list of the most outstanding government leaders, scientists, artists, writers, business people, and clergy that you can think of. As an example, let's say Washington, Lincoln, Edison, Einstein, Bach, Beethoven, Van Gogh, Picasso, Shakespeare, Hemingway, Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates, Martin Luther, and the Dalai Lama. (Compile your own list and put a hundred names on it if you like.) Ok, now, list the names of their teachers next to them!!! It simply can't be done!!!! Teachers are not irrelevant, but learning really comes from the student - not the teacher. Nobody can spoon feed you your education.