A failure to educate


The financial meltdown has been generally blamed on greed and the over-use of credit. But it's also the end result of a decades-long failure of the education system.

MBAs have basically been taught how to run companies into the ground.

But the problem goes far beyond the mindless worship of meaningless sheepskin letters when choosing people to manage and lead companies. From elementary school onward, students were and are trained to value short-term, shallow goals. Deep knowledge - well, what's that?

We pay a lot of lip-service to schools and education in this country, but the truth is it's just talk. Schools are run for the convenience of the staff. The standards are low, and too often mindless. Even in the best school districts, the majority of teachers are either mediocre or subtly encouraged to be. And the irony is, things will only get better when they initiate the change themselves.

You can tell I'm an optimistic - I said "when" not "if" in that last sentence.