The Good News about the Economic Crisis

By Dr. Edwin Weaver

www.we-develop-leaders.com

www.edu-talk.info

January 23, 2009

People are worrying about their jobs and the next paycheck. Companies are closing stores and budgets cuts are happening everywhere. Banks are reeling, yet there is a bright side to this economic turmoil, especially for educators.

For years, many educators have been complaining about the standard of education. Countries around the world were pushing people through their educational system in the same manner as GM pushes cars through its assembly line. Often governments pushed people through who were not qualified in order to get people off the streets and enough warm bodies into the market. The end product was mediocre workers. That will change. 

The competition for jobs will increase steadily for the next two to five years. Only the best, only the most qualified people will get jobs. Companies and governments cannot afford to spend money on bringing people up to speed or hiring two people to do the job of one. They need people who are qualified and ready to start work.

Governments will start demanding that everyone who exits an institution of higher education is 100% qualified. They will demand that their people are competitive in a global market. As the colleges and universities start turning down admission to students who are not ready to study at higher levels, governments will put pressure on the high schools to ensure the quality of their graduates.

This is where the benefit to the educator comes in. We have labored under antiquated systems. We have used meaningless curriculums, which would not produce the caliber of student, which today's world needs. We know of methods of teaching, which research has proven, but were unable to implement against the status quo. All of these things will change.

Governments and administrators will become receptive to improvements. They will implement new methods of teaching. They will listen to complaints about the weaknesses in curriculum. They will want to overhaul the educational system to produce world-class graduates. They must overhaul the system for their people to survive. They will listen.

Now is the time for educators to gather all their data, all the facts that prove a particular system does not function, as it should. Combine these facts with sound arguments, backed by research and present a plan for change. This is the hour of the educator. Do not allow this opportunity to slide by.