Standing by is not an option.

By: Jose F. Garcia

 

Few things are more important to the future of society in general and to a community than the education of its youth. It is the fuel that powers the engine that sustains us in our efforts to grow, to prosper and to help our members fulfill their potential. A well educated youth has the opportunity to achieve great things which ultimately delivers value to our community in many ways. Moreover, we all benefit from the results of good education and we all suffer when education is lacking.

 

It can be argued that at the end of the day, more than any other sector in our society, business is the most affected by education. Business is the ultimate consumer of the product developed by the educational institutions, and it either enjoys or suffers from the qualities of the product or the lack thereof. Regardless of the type of business, a company has to compete to grow and remain in business and as a consequence  jobs are created and standards of living can be sustained and improved.

 

To a business, any business, no resource is more important than its people. Not the equipment, not the plant, nor its marketing strategies, but its people. More than capital, or equipment, people are the greatest resource and can represent the greatest strategic advantage available for a business to compete.

 

With alarming consistency we have witnessed the decline of our educational system in South Carolina in general and Anderson County specifically. I have seen it through the failure of a young man who was rejected by the US Navy for failing the aptitude test. I have seen it through a manufacturing concern that dedicates eighty hours of remedial reading and arithmetic before an Anderson County high school graduate can start working at the company. And lastly, I have seen it in my own business where applicants refuse to follow through with the interview because the job requires Saturday work.

 

Whether we agree with the problem being insufficient funding, or too much of it. Whether we support vouchers, home schooling, charter schools or only public education as it is currently offered, we as business people can not afford to sit idly by and pretend that our educational deficiencies will not have a dilatory impact on our businesses and in our community.

 

The questions is, what to do?

 

We could move beyond involved and instead commit to the success of our youth. For those who may not be aware the difference between involved and committed is seeing in the difference between ham and eggs. In the case of ham and eggs the chicken was involved but the pig was committed.

 

We could start by developing a statement of expectations to be delivered to our schools. Some of these expectations are:

 

1-    We expect High School graduates to be well mannered and courteous. In many instances they are the first point of contact between a customer and the business. A business much like an individual does not have a second opportunity to make a good first impression.

 

     2-We expect High School graduates to be endowed with a

         competitive spirit. All businesses compete against other

         businesses for customers, contracts and opportunities. A

         business’ primary resource is its people and will only be as

         good as they are.

 

      3 –We expect High School graduates to have effective

          communication skills. They must be able to express 

          themselves effectively and correctly.

      

      4- We expect High School graduates to be endowed with

          ethics, a sense of responsibility and a commitment to 

          excellence.

 

       5-We expect High School graduates to be reliable. To keep

          their word and to honor their commitments. To be 

         dependable, to show up for work ready to do their personal

         best each and every day.

 

I am a great admirer of Tom Friedman, and his book, “The world is Flat”. In this book, Friedman defines the ways in which the world has flattened as a result of the global economy. While this is not a challenge to his thesis, the fact is that we need to be more concerned about competing against Alabama than against Albania.

 

The United States remains the beacon that attracts investments at a rate far greater than many other countries combined. California’s $1.8 Trillion dollars economy is twice the size of India’s. New York and Texas represent the ninth and tenth largest economies in the world. We remain the greatest economic power in the world. But for how long?

 

We need to promote a competitive spirit which should cause our students to win by committing to their personal best in everything they do. Promote their personal best in reading and in writing. Promote their personal best in communications and conduct. Promote their personal best as ladies and gentlemen, to the end that by their conduct and performance they can offer the very best of values, principles and qualities. These are the kinds of attributes that our schools need to promote and we as business people need to help them by demanding no less than their personal best from our teachers and administrators.

 

It is painful to witness the absence of love of country and pride on our children, who know little if anything about the workings of our system of government. Know nothing about the framing of our constitution and why it is the envy of the world. Are ignorant about the sacrifices made for all of us by our forefathers whose vision led us to achieve the greatest standard of living in the world. One could argue that our country is not really all of those things that we claim it to be, but it can not be argued that more people are trying to get into our country than to get out. Why is it that so few if any of our students know anything about the preamble to our constitution, or about the three branches of government and how they check and balance.

 

Are we not aware that graduation is called commencement exercises because it marks the point where we go forward to learn. High school and college only offers the baseline of knowledge, it is up to the individual who hungers for more to seek fulfillment through more knowledge. In his book “The Ascent of Man”, Joseph Bronowsky wrote that “civilizations owes its advancements to every person’s commitment to their skill or their profession.” It is that commitment that is lacking in our students, and I submit that it begins with developing the love for learning by people who must have a love for teaching.

 

There seems to be a disconnect between education and business. It is reflected when businesses grieve over the fact that employees can not read. Further, this disconnect is evident when a business grieves that employees can not add or subtract when a computer based cash registers fail. Somehow, business needs to articulate its concerns to education, but education must be willing to listen and to respond. Wouldn’t our kids benefit from if we witnessed more cooperation between businesses an our education institutions?