The Seesaw Crisis

The Crisis in Education is really a Seesaw.  Arendt is asking for more education and less "just learning" and since the 1950's the situation has escalated even more.  However, the more recent focus on learning rather than education is the standing of the United States behind many other developed countries of the world when it comes to test-scores and other rankings of academic achievement.  We are stuck in the push for the education of liberal arts colleges and the pulling of math and science in the classroom.  As side inches up the see-saw, there is more of a chance of schools slamming down onto either side.  The crisis is that we have not found a solution to make people "smarter" AND "ready for the world".  Our society has differentiated those who are street smart from those who are school smart without there being much allowable overlap.  I sympathize with Arendt's interest in making people more educated about the world, but education is failing on other points as well.  I don't know if reverting back to conservative ways of teaching will help, but it is clear that the system is not working out now for the majority of those going to school.  It will take more than progressive individualists to solve the problem a whole society is facing.