Our Initiatives and Programs 
Entrepreneurs 2000

Some Thoughts from the Director...

On the Education Initiative:

Most rural communities are at a significant disadvantage when attempting to provide competitive educational services. Traditional strategies in education involve a top-down "factory" model of education, where practically all services are provided to minors, adult education is limited to basic literacy and math skills, and all students are taught the same information, the same way, "factory-style," with the group often forced to slow down to the speed of the slowest students. This leads many students, including the most talented students, to boredom, which they often remedy with rowdiness. Separating the slower students from the "group" makes them feel "inferior," and thus impacts on "self esteem." The "factory" model of education is highly bureaucratic, and very expensive as compared to other, theoretical means that might be employed to distribute information to people. Rural communities have a lower tax base than more developed regions, and thus, in theory at least, will always be relegated to lower quality schools, with lower paid teaching staffs. In a bureaucratic factory-style education system, when budget cuts are necessitated, it is often educational programs that get cut, long before bureaucratic jobs.

As a result of this initiative, I hope that a highly creative, long term approach will be taken to the concept of "education" in Mathews. I believe that existing organizations, such as the PTA and others, have a strong interest in the immediate improvement of education resources in Mathews. However, I do not know of any group that is undertaking a truly long term, top to bottom evaluation of the whole concept of educating all of the people of Mathews. I suspect that a simple tinkering with existing systems will not be sufficient to make education as efficient and effective as it can possibly be. The idea of "schools" as physical "places" may itself be outdated. Some believe today that schools serve as little more than "warehouses" for children. The focus of this initiative should be on the lifelong educational needs of the citizens of Mathews, and the development of a system of education that can best serve these educational needs at the lowest possible cost.

Here are a few of my thoughts. You may wish to add some of your own, or even disagree with these:

· a) A better approach to education in Mathews might be to forget the mass-group approach altogether. Children have traditionally been taught in groups because this was the most efficient way to communicate information to as many people as possible. Most would agree that one-on-one, individualized learning or small group learning is ideal, but until now has been too expensive. The technology revolution may be changing this.
· b) Learning is most effective when it is fun. However, traditional education can be boring, and often fails to communicate to students the relevance of what is being taught. The inevitable result is boredom with academics, distraction, and a failure to learn.
· c) Traditional education is often impractical. Child labor laws designed for the Industrial Age, as well as academic arrogance, discourage practical or work-based learning. Children understand this impracticality and their attention is lost.
· d) Some methods of teaching simply do not work well, yet have continued, undaunted, in our traditional school systems (e.g., foreign language teaching techniques).

For the 21st Century, I predict some of the following changes in the way people (not merely children) are educated in Mathews:

1. Interactive technology may replace some traditional teaching techniques, leading to more individualized and small group learning;
2. Education will be spread over a lifetime rather than crammed into childhood;
3. Work will start at a younger age - and education credits will be provided for work experience;
4. Parents will have more choice of how they wish to educate their children, through traditional (but smaller) schools, home schooling, voluntary community school cooperatives, apprenticeships, religious schools, private schools, private/public school partnerships, and many other alternatives;
5. "Money" (e.g., tax revenue) may be transferred directly to parents to be used for educational purposes, either by direct transfer payments, tax credits, vouchers, or other means;
6. Parents will play a more active role in their children’s education;
7. International standards of knowledge may be ensured through internationally-recognized standardized tests;
8. Students may utilize the Internet and satellite technology to learn from the best teachers in the world, rather than merely from the best teachers that their community can afford. These same students would interface with other students with similar interests from around the world, significantly broadening the quality of social interaction (NASA is a leader in research into this type of learning).

THIS SITE LAST UPDATED AUGUST 4, 2002