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How the crises of healthcare and education are related

| Policy | November 12, 2011

There are two crises in America, both of which have a profound effect on the economy.  The cost of healthcare is eating away at our ability to finance other needy areas.  Poor performance of our educational system is weakening our international competitiveness. Both healthcare and education are at the precipice of complete collapse.  They both deliver glaringly inferior results with prohibitive expenditures.  The performance of our healthcare system relative to other developed countries was abysmal when examined from multiple perspectives, while spending nearly twice that of the country with second highest per capita cost.  This was well-documented in a recently published Commonwealth Fund study, which was the subject of a past feature by this writer.

The education system in this country is analogous.  We spend again magnitudes more than the countries with the highest performing students, yet the United States is ranked 14th out of 34 other OECD (Office for Economic Co-operation and Development) studied countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below average 25th for mathematics in a recent report.  Only eight countries have a lower high school graduation rate than the US.  So why are the similarities of these two important facets of our society so important?  I believe that it is because the solution to both must be to rethink processes and their evaluation in very fundamental terms.  There are stakeholders in both areas that have competing interests in such change.  Physician and hospitals are skeptical that radical change would decrease reimbursements.  This is seen in the debate over accountable care organizations.  Medical device and pharmaceutical companies are afraid of radical changes in purchasing models. The insurance industry is already running for the hills in many respects, threatening that there won’t be resources to cover people if reform comes. In education, teachers unions are afraid of losing their grip on members who have been shielded with tenure in the ‘Last in, First Out’ mode of layoffs where newer, sometimes better and more needed teachers are let go in budget crunches first, over less competent (sometimes already severely disciplined) established teachers. Students and their families might be upset if reform brings a longer school day and perhaps school year. The powerful standardized testing industry might no longer be the holy grail of measurement of success.

Both medicine and educational systems are mired in historical tradition.  The training of physicians, teachers, and students has not substantially changed for the good part of a century.  Admittedly simplistically, benchmarks of success of medicine are the financial profits of hospitals (albeit small that they are today), and the eradication of a symptom or treatment of a disease.  Those of education are graduation rates and standardized test results.  I believe that both fall significantly short of their potentials.  Medicine needs to address preventive care and fitness, as well as treating diseases more efficiently and cheaper.  Education needs to aim for creating an atmosphere where students that do well because of their desire to learn and enthusiastic well-qualified teachers motivate them.  Engagement is something that both patients and students need for healthcare and education to succeed.  It will be the key to success of mHealth as well as a new paradigm for education. Healthcare is not brought to a patient and information cannot be spoon-fed.  It must be the individual, whether an obese person, or an inner city pupil, that must be engaged and motivated with adequate guidance and support from healthcare providers and teachers respectively.

I usually write about wireless technologies which are patient-centric and will result in lower cost of better care delivery. Similarly, the cost of motivating a student comes at a lower price than the resources harnessed to enforce the ‘No child Left Behind’ test-focused outcome legislation. Technology may be an important key to both the medicine and educational crises.  Wireless technologies have already been seen to result in better outcomes utilizing fewer resources in such diseases as diabetes. One example in education is computerized program called the Khan Academy, utilized in the classroom along with the teacher, which shows promise in captivating the attention and improving learning. Let engagement of both the patient and student become the paramount goal and success will follow.  The voices of forward thinking leaders and a commitment to improvement are needed. There will be pain points on both fronts, but it won’t be as painful as the embarrassment of being a financially poorer country with third world services.

David Lee Scher is a former cardiologist and a consultant at DLS Healthcare Consulting, LLC.  He blogs at his self-titled site, David Lee Scher, MD.

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  • http://twitter.com/DoctorPullen Edward Pullen

    You are right that any meaningful change is going to lead to anguish by stakeholders in both education and health care, but the thought that technology is going to be the fix seems overly simplistic.  

    • Dina Hulkower

      Technology is not the only fix, certainly the teacher is a very important part of the mix. For example, the author mentions Khan Academy. What Khan Academy is trying to do is facilitate student centered learning. Each student proceeds at their own pace, doing the “drill and k ill” exercises on their own time, getting extra exposure to the concepts in different format. Then the teacher takes it from there, tracking each student’s areas of strength and weaknesses through the coach portal on the site. The teacher can thus individualize the attention to each student and focus on what they don’t understand. The other thing Khan Academy is good at is working on any gaps in student education. An example of this is when a student starts middle school, but somehow missed how to do long division. They can use Khan Academy to review and drill in those areas so the student can then move on with more ease.

      • Anonymous

        Nancy, obesity is the cause of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. These ate the biggest killers and utilizes of resources in the USA. It is a big red target for all of healthcare. And it is treatable. You will be seeing a lot of education to the public about this epidemic. It is nothing personal on my part, and I’m sorry if you take it as such.

        • Anonymous

          Obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular “disease”, and diabetes are all symptoms of underlying dysfunctional physical processes.   Though they are treated as diseases in themselves, they are not.  Cure their cause and the symptoms will go away.  Each of these symptoms has multiple underlying causes.  Often, however, the underlying cause is just not looked for.  

          Follow the money.  There is more money in managing symptoms.  So the healthcare “industry” is targeting patient behaviors.  Keep blaming the patient and increasing prejudice against the obese through public “education” instead of focusing on underlying medical problems.  Then the “industry” will continue profiting from symptom management.     Sometimes symptom management is the best anyone can do.  We simply don’t know all there is to know about the human body and can’t yet fix everything.  But what we do know should be employed before blaming patients for conditions they can not control–especially before educating the public to blame the patient.

          No worries.  I did not take your statements personally.  I am a patient advocate.  I teach patient engagement.  Speaking up for those who have no voice is what I do.

    • Anonymous

      While I agree that technology alone will not fix the problem, technology can be the enabler. As many people have stated here the root cause of the problem is engagement from patients or students. Users of these systems not paying for the services themselves and not being held accountable are all contributing to the lack of engagement. Where I see that technology can be the enabler is incentive programs to reward patients and students for good choices; social media tools to encourage collaboration; and accurate personalized data that is meaningful to track the root cause of behaviors that lead to bad choices.
      I founded S5Health because my daughter is a type I diabetic and for 10 years we struggled like many diabetics to properly manage her diabetes. The online toolset that I created allows a patient to upload data from any personal medical device to our system, for example a blood sugar meter. We display the blood sugar information in a meaningful way to a patient that allows them to see their trouble areas, set goals, and track their progress. We have social media tools included so a patient can collaborate with other patients and their doctor, and an incentives program that rewards them for making progress toward managing their health. A patient’s doctor and nurse have access to the same toolset so they can help educate, encourage, and engage with the patient.
      Without good tools to help a patient or student become engaged in their health and education, and tools to help the experts help them take ownership, we will not be successful in changing behaviors.
      James Jordan
      Founder S5Health

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Maggie-Keavey-Kozel/1383572933 Maggie Keavey Kozel

    As a physician turned educator, I have frequently been struck by the parallels  between our misguided healthcare and educational systems.  We have been locked into 1950′s cultural myths and the-free-market-knows-best economics as our guiding principles.  The only way for us to move beyond this starts with meaningful conversation.  Well done, Dr. Scher.

  • http://onhealthtech.blogspot.com Margalit Gur-Arie

    I would suggest reading the OECD/PISA report in its entirety. The numbers in this case do not quite speak for themselves. Other than the obvious link to socioeconomic disparities, it seems that where teachers are paid higher salaries, students do better. The quality of the person imparting knowledge is still a major factor in learning, as it was hundreds of years ago. I seriously doubt that computerized teaching will have the desired effects.
    I think that in both health care and education, we are making an assumption that quality as we know it is beyond the reach of most people and always will be, thus the perceived need to mass produce cheaply for mass consumption by the poor, with the unintended (or intended) consequence of lowering quality (see Walmart). Wouldn’t it be better to start at the very root of both problems and eradicate poverty instead? That way people can afford to pay for the quality delivered by expensive teachers and expensive doctors and no one will need billions of plastic trinkets.

    http://www.pisa.oecd.org/document/61/0,3746,en_32252351_32235731_46567613_1_1_1_1,00.html

  • http://onhealthtech.blogspot.com Margalit Gur-Arie

    I would suggest reading the OECD/PISA report in its entirety. The numbers in this case do not quite speak for themselves. Other than the obvious link to socioeconomic disparities, it seems that where teachers are paid higher salaries, students do better. The quality of the person imparting knowledge is still a major factor in learning, as it was hundreds of years ago. I seriously doubt that computerized teaching will have the desired effects.
    I think that in both health care and education, we are making an assumption that quality as we know it is beyond the reach of most people and always will be, thus the perceived need to mass produce cheaply for mass consumption by the poor, with the unintended (or intended) consequence of lowering quality (see Walmart). Wouldn’t it be better to start at the very root of both problems and eradicate poverty instead? That way people can afford to pay for the quality delivered by expensive teachers and expensive doctors and no one will need billions of plastic trinkets.

    http://www.pisa.oecd.org/document/61/0,3746,en_32252351_32235731_46567613_1_1_1_1,00.html

  • http://www.facebook.com/kb8yjv Mark Arnold

    Having the most expensive Health services and Educational system is not unlike the band Spinal Tap bragging that they are the world’s loudest band.

  • Edwin Leap

    Another analogy between education and medicine:  costs have risen with the availability of ‘outside’ money and the subsequent inability of patients and students (and often teachers) to grasp real costs  Obviously, health insurance (state or private) often leads people to say, ‘Whatever, give it to me.  It won’t cost me anything.’  Health insurance has falsely elevated prices for years, as hospitals and providers could charge more and patients with employer based insurance or Medicare/Medicaid didn’t feel the cost of the insurance.  Add to that the fact that insurance also covers the cost of non-payment and few know or care what it really costs.  But, the same is true of education.  Particularly at the college level, where scholarships for some lead them to say ‘doesn’t matter how much my education/psychology/art degree costs, it’s free and I’m going to the best school I can!’  Colleges have been raising prices for decades as more and more federal grant money flowed in, and have been stacking far too many administrators in their ranks, even as they have startling drop-out rates as well.  When so many aren’t directly accountable to cost, it matters little.  And public schools are similar.  Every teacher wants a Masters and the school systems pay for them, with no demonstrable benefit in student outcomes.  Homeschooling, which my wife and I provide for our kids, is a viable response. 

    Now, in terms of the poor care we supposedly provide for so much money, maybe it’s true; I’m no healthcare economist.  But one look at Europe suggests the cost savings, and lack of accountability among citizens for their many benefits, hasn’t done much for their economies either.  Healthcare is hard to provide when a country defaults.

  • John Kaegi

    Your observation of the linkage between health care and education is spot on and has yet another relationship — better educated people tend to do a better job of staying healthy and avoiding chronic disease.  Perhaps fixing the education system would help lower health care costs over time.

    John Kaegi
    Chief Strategist
    Healthstat Inc.

  • Anonymous

    “It must be the individual, whether an obese person, or an inner city pupil, that must be engaged and motivated with adequate guidance and support from healthcare providers and teachers respectively.”

    As a former public school teacher and a current teacher of patient engagement, I couldn’t agree more.  The difference between engagement in healthcare and education, however, is that the education system is fully prepared for students to get engaged while many healthcare providers are so intimidated by engaged patients that they belittle them for learning about their chronic illnesses, deny the illnesses even exist, or even fire the patient.  (Imagine a teacher firing a student for wanting to learn and be engaged.)  This happens in healthcare  more than most doctors will admit–particularly with the obese, who are often subjected to the mantra of “diet and exercise” without having had medical sources of obesity considered.

    For many obese patients, engagement in healthcare is futile because the reason for their obesity is left undiagnosed and untreated.  Just as an example, several recent studies have indicated that Cushing’s Syndrome may be responsible for 10% of obesity and found in 2% of the general population.  (Yet the obese are rarely screened for Cushing’s.)  Add to that the percentage of obesity caused by PCOS, Hypothyroidism, and other medical problems, and it becomes clear that engagement by the obese–no matter how closely they follow prescribed diet and exercise–will be enough.

    Patients with chronic illness will never be fully engaged when doctors refuse to believe what their patients are telling them, refuse to listen to their patients without interruption, and refuse to accept that patients who try to be engaged with–and educated about–their healthcare are not hypochondriacs.  There is no parallel for this in education–where engaged students are treasured.

  • Monalisa Foster

    There’s one other common item that you don’t mention. Third party control. In both cases, consumers are divorced from cost by a third party, introducing waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption into the system. Patients and parents have little to no control over how healthcare or education is administered.

  • Michelle Pelescak

    Excellent article, dead on. No amount of money or resources can fix a problem if the stakeholders have no desire to improve it or vested interest in the outcome.

  • Dallas McPheeters

    Thanks for the thoughtful and well articulated post. I believe there are many grass-roots efforts emerging to address the challenges you note. I have been pushing to adopt Roger Schank’s Alternative Learning Place (ALP) model because it provides that relevant, engaging, and discovery based learning opportunity much needed today

    The proposed 9th grade curriculum (which could be used in other grades just as easily), focuses on a year of health science curriculum that would make a young student feel like they were part of a CSI team. 

    I’m sure more of these types of adaptations are forthcoming.

  • Anonymous

    Agree with several comments that major reason both healthcare and education are in crisis is that both are infested with bureaucracy and third party payment.  The major difference is that for most, public education is a monopoly and is minimally subject to competitive forces.  Medicine is heading that way with ObamaCare.  Private medicine and education are enclaves where competition lowers prices and improves quality. 

  • http://twitter.com/suvarnanalapat Suvarna Nalapat

    This is a question I had been addressing in India for the last 32 years and my Valuebased education plans and Integration of Indegenous practices with the Modern Research methods of Allopathic (Western Medicine) Through the golden link of Music Therapy is aimed at the solution for such problems in India as a special geographic region. The community and family oriented, client oriented cost-effective and humanistic approach has been described in my Book :” Music Therapy in Administration , Management and Education” (Readworthy Publications .New Delhi .2008). Unless each Geographic area finds a suitable solution for their requirements and then share the experiences with the global community so that it becomes a Metascience , we will not achieve what we strive for. Thanks for sharing your experiences .
    Dr Suvarna Nalapat 

  • http://www.facebook.com/olivia.banyon Olivia Banyon

    The differences you point out are key to addressing the problem and that
    is exactly what we are now primed to do in healthcare delivery, whether
    carrot or stick.  Physicians do share some responsibility but access,
    awareness, and engagement need to be addressed first.  Generally, a
    young person knows an education is necessary to secure a job later in
    life, to get into college, and to earn money.  This awareness is even
    pervasive in the poorest or most rural of areas, despite the fact that
    the notion of getting an education is often lower on the hierarchy of
    needs.  There is no such understanding in health. Most patients do not
    understand the importance of prevention, let along behavior change. So,
    as we embrace concepts of accountable care, it needs to be 2-way
    street.  Physicians are accountable for improving care and lower costs
    and sharing in those savings, but what happens if patients engage in
    this “business of health”?

  • Anonymous

    At the basis of both of these malfunctioning systems is the inability to hold the individual accountable for personal performance.  Americans seem to have a view that success, health, and resources all come from outside themselves.  Even when healthcare and educational systems are high performing, people still fail to do what they should be for success.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Janice-Boughton/562084033 Janice Boughton

    Both education and healthcare are in general paid by a third party, and so lack the usual incentives for higher value and lower cost. Cooperative health care systems and individually paid “concierge” or “direct care” models work somewhat better for health care. Education is paid for mostly by the government, but even when paid for by the parent it is essentially a third party payer system. Some charter schools work better, when communities and families are involved in making them work. When someone who is not directly receiving the service pays for it, there is no intimate provider/consumer relationship to insist on quality and demand accountability for costs. Higher education looks a lot like health care: very expensive, big nice expensive buildings and inadequate access.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Janice-Boughton/562084033 Janice Boughton

    Both education and healthcare are in general paid by a third party, and
    so lack the usual incentives for higher value and lower cost.
    Cooperative health care systems and individually paid “concierge” or
    “direct care” models work somewhat better for health care. Education is
    paid for mostly by the government, but even when paid for by the parent
    it is essentially a third party payer system. Some charter schools work
    better, when communities and families are involved in making them work.
    When someone who is not directly receiving the service pays for it,
    there is no intimate provider/consumer relationship to insist on quality
    and demand accountability for costs. Higher education looks a lot like
    health care: very expensive, big nice expensive buildings and inadequate
    access.

  • Anonymous

    Hello, I’ve been teaching in the biomedical field but lately changed to engineering and quality in industry. You can see a fundamental difficulty in knowing exactly who the customer is. The more vague the answer, the worse the education, care and management, even though the science and professional knowledge is there. Anyone care to explain how they see this?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Donna-Baver-Rovito/1335887660 Donna Baver Rovito

    This piece begins with at least one inaccurate premise – that health care in America is “abysmal” in comparison to the rest of the world.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Parameters specifically manufactured to downgrade any health care system without a single payer system (euphemistically called “universal health care” even though there’s nothing “universal” about it) were employed by the WHO to falsely minimize the quality of health care in this country. 

    For example, data about “life expectancy” was held out as in indicator of the quality of health care, and included deaths from violence and automobile accidents, causing the United States to fall below many other nations.  However, if deaths from violence and automobile accidents were removed from every nation’s data, the United States comes in FIRST for life expectancy.  Ironically, individual data for extremely long lived Japanese men indicated that Japanese man living in the United States live LONGER than those living in Japan, when auto accidents and murder were extracted.  (Don’t get me wrong – that our death rate from violence and auto accidents is so high is a VERY bad thing – but it it NOT accurate to use the numbers to suggest that the quality of our health care is somehow lacking.) 

    A far more accurate indicator is outcomes for the care for numerous diseases, and for treatment of cancer and heart disease, outcomes and long term survival rates are far higher than other nations – sometimes even TWICE as high.  Yes, our expenditures for care are higher than other nations, due largely to third party payers (i.e., every one wants EVERYTHING since they’re not actually paying for it) and our dysfunctional tort system, but our outcomes are far better.  I believe that is a far more accurate indicator of the quality of America’s health care system (flawed though it may be in many ways) than life expectancy data which has been skewed to suggest that ONLY nations with single payer health care provide quality care.

  • Anonymous

    I am encouraged by all the above comments. Thoughtful people abound, even in government. But too many interest groups, as in anything get in the way of real change. At least technology is cheaper than just throwing money at ineffective school systems or physicians. But it is no substitute for highly qualified, appropriately compensated professionals who hold our future in their minds and hands. I applaud all of you.

  • Anonymous

    S5Health wrote “Users of these systems not paying for the services themselves and not being held accountable are all contributing to the lack of engagement. Where I see that technology can be the enabler is incentive programs to reward patients and students for good choices; social media tools to encourage collaboration; and accurate personalized data that is meaningful to track the root cause of behaviors that lead to bad choices.”

    I’ll have to take issue with this reasoning.  The folks who are “not paying for the services themselves” because they have insurance or another third party pay system (the majority of people using allopathic healthcare) are also the ones who will use the technology.  So how does not paying out of pocket exactly reduce patient engagement?  By far the largest barrier to patient engagement is that patients have never been taught how to engage.

    I deal with patients from a variety of social-economic groups every day.  Regardless of their education, income, or other circumstances they tend to feel helpless, confused, and frustrated until they learn HOW to participate in their healthcare.  Many don’t even realize that they should be engaged or that they are not engaged in their healthcare. Patient engagement is not about money.  It’s about patients and caregivers understanding their role and how to participate in it.  Once they learn this, they and/or their caregivers almost always get engaged–and they don’t need technology to do it.

    Before we start lamenting patients’ failure to engage, let’s be sure they know that they are supposed to be engaged in their healthcare and HOW to do it effectively.   Then you have to allow them to participate.  Listen to them.  Don’t interrupt them.  Be compassionate.  Make your patients and caregivers feel safe when talking to you so they don’t hold back information.  Give them a safe place to participate.  Teach them HOW to participate.  Make them feel like a partner in their care.  Learn about your patients as individuals so you don’t, for example, ask an illiterate person (you can’t tell by looking) to keep a food journal and then get mad at them for non-compliance when he can’t do it.

    No amount of discussing, blogging, researching, or whining about patient non-engagement can possibly change anything.  YOU have to teach THEM how to engage and facilitate their engagement.  Medical professionals are “professionals.”  Patients are not.   They can’t engage without your help. 

    • Anonymous

      I agree with you, Nancy, but although knowledge is the biggest key to engagement, incentivizing is also important. Knowledge of adverse consequences of lack of engagement is not enough. Everyone knows obesity is bad for you, but few are incentivized (regardless of the type of incentive) to do anything about it. Engagement is brought about by education, motivation, and support (which is sorely lacking in the present healthcare environment.

      • Anonymous

        The education part is simple enough if it is done properly, systematically, beginning with the general basics and progressing to disease specific.  And it needn’t take up physician time, either.  There are lots of low, and nearly no, cost ways to do it.  But it must be presented systematically to change patient behavior.   It simply is not being done in healthcare settings.  Opportunities to educate patients and caregivers are languishing in your waiting rooms.

        Once patients and caregivers understand their role, how to take it up, and feel encourage to do so, they begin to think differently about healthcare.  Once they believe they can truly be respected partners in their healthcare, motivation is not an issue.  

        As far as support goes, I have outlined some of the things that can be done–and that will cost nothing–in my post above.

        You had to pick on the obese again, didn’t you?  There is a wide spread belief that the obese are to be blamed for their obesity.  When an obese patient sees a doctor for any condition, he is less likely to be believed about his complaints, less likely to be treated as a partner, and less likely to be believed as compliant.  So don’t expect the obese to be engaged when they are treated like scum.  Would you be engaged with a doctor who called you a liar, a hypochondriac, and blamed you for all your health problems without even caring to find out if they have a medical cause?

        The prejudice against obesity is pervasive in the medical community.  Yes, some people do overeat and under exercise.  Nobody questions that fact.  The thing is, few doctors care to find out if this behavior is caused by an underlying medical condition before they condemn the patient.  Often doctors may test TSH.  If that is normal,  they fall back on the “diet and exercise” mantra.  If it is abnormal, they will often treat the abnormality.  If the patient remains obese, the mantra is started again–louder this time.  Yet there are a wide variety of medical issues that cause obesity.  Issues that are out of the patient’s control. Medical conditions that ARE NOT THE PATIENT’S FAULT.  For example, many of the obese have multiple hormone imbalances and all, not just TSH, must be corrected before weight loss is even possible regardless of diet and exercise.

        So here’s my challenge:  start supporting patient engagement by supporting the patient–including the obese.

  • Joseph Ferrara

    “Both medicine and educational systems are mired in historical tradition.  The training of physicians, teachers, and students has not substantially changed for the good part of a century.” The medical, educational practices for the last 100 years are not traditional, they are experimental social engineering precepts withing the theory of “positivism.” Positivism with its subset Behaviorism theorizes that there is no free will, there is no spiritual self and “true science” only works with what we can see, touch, feel and measure. This is a “scientific” break from tradition which was “legally” declared the only, dogmatic, “scientific” way to view society. With the establishment of a medical, academic monopoly as the only “legal” way to practice medicine or teaching, government has become a church enforcing the the doctrines and creeds of positivism and prosecuting and persecuting “heretics.”  We have created an academic, medical priesthood, whom, with a “special knowledge” after years of study (training, brainwashing), practice priest-craft by playing on what is “not known” instead of what “is known.”  
    In 100 years of research and experimentation, there are only two conclusions: 1. The Human Being is unpredictable; 2. The Human Being is indomitable, capable of overcoming or adapting to any circumstance.
    A conclusion is what we know, which is the true meaning of the word “science.” 

    Academia is focused on “shaping” people to the needs of society and medicine is focused on managing “health” and maintaining human resources as productive workers. Working with a denial or at least a “suspended disbelief” of individual will or a spiritual Self, both academia and medicine are engaged in demoralizing the individual Self from creative expression in favor of “fitting in;” and weakening the will to fulfill inner aspiration to follow social expectations. 

    A simple summary is that knowledge has been constricted for the manipulation of society instead of knowledge being expanded for the upliftment of society. Yes, the answer is education based on true science not on a single theory elevated and enforced as papal truth.

    • Anonymous

      What you say Joseph has a certain subsrantive merit, but it is a bit as black and white as what you are criticising. I believe that truth lies in between. I think that good minds are Now having an impact in changing both medicine and education.

  • Anonymous

    Nancy,
    I have been a patient advocate for over 25 years. Part of being an advocate is educating patients is empowering them with education and motivation to change lifestyle issues which are the predominant cause of chronic diseases. What I mentioned are defined as deseases not symptoms not by me but by others. I think we need do agree to disagree and thankful that we are both on the same side.

  • Anonymous

    Technology is a tool for schools, yes- but it has its limitations. Wireless devices should be discouraged and hard wired connections promoted instead. Adding even higher levels of microwave radiation in the classroom will not help children’s abilitity to focus or retain information and prolonged could lead to health problems . There are neuro- cognitive studies available to support this statement. Distractibility is already an issue with youth today with the ability to connect to the www 24/7. Let’s be sure we are not hurting children more than helping.  

  • http://www.facebook.com/jerrydickerson Jerry Dickerson

    I find the use of the word ‘crisis’ with either the word ‘healthcare’ or ‘education’ more or less together non-sequitur topics.  Any objective study of education or healthcare over time would conclude that both are at their best states ever in their history in the US and practically in any location in the world.   It is well documented that literacy rates in the US and nearly all countries worldwide are continuously improving.   Further overall mortality rates are also improving worldwide in nearly all countries with exception of countries currently experiencing genocidal civil war.  Globalization and the internet have proven exponentially more effective and efficient at repeating what Gutenberg’s printing press did in making knowledge universally accessible.

    Yet the author and many others seem to want to use the differentials between 1st World OECD countries education and mortality rates as a means to stir a sense of crisis that really doesn’t exist beyond that which the media has fabricated.   Further, comparing a country that is more homogeneous to one that has the ethnic and cultural diversity of the US makes little statistical sense.  I’m glad an earlier poster demonstrated that a Japanese male actually stands a better chance for a longer life here in the US than someone of his similar ethnic background in Japan.  We need to factor that this country, more than the other in the world, is home to immigrants whose former third world homes were far less healthy locations to live as we throw their relative health into the statistical pool that studies the health of all other Americans.  Likewise, the challenge of integrating the children of non-english speaking immigrants effectively welcome in the US in large numbers (despite the anti-illegal alien rhetoric) into an education system that favors an english speaking population give those kids perhaps a handicap that lowers their academic scores at least initially.   Those kids handicap typically disappear in time in their time being in US Schools.  This proves even more true of their children.  Some of the brightest students I see today in my local schools are the grandkids of the Hmong populations of Laos/Vietnam/Cambodia who emigrated here after the Vietnam war to escape cultural/racial persecution.  Comparing the benchmark test scores of children ranging from Hmong, Latino, and many other nationalities to an all Chinese, Japanese or Swedish group of students is a silly proposition which proves nothing. 

    Can education be improved or healthcare be more widely made available in the US?  Yes, but those are generally true statements about any program in any country.   I subscribe to the fact that the cup is half full and the optimism is that it’s getting fuller.   Neither education nor healthcare can be the SOLE solution to any nation’s ill.   Families and Communities are the core entities where solutions to our social ills will be found with education and healthcare programs a tool and their advocates partners to assist or compensate for them ONLY when circumstances merit.  Certainly, after all, it is clear that teachers and clinicians can not replace our role as parents and family members, so why spend so much time berating their effectiveness.   Our freedoms guaranteed by our constitution are in large part why this country is and seems to remain for the foreseeable future the best option to give a chance to those of ANY nationality who want an opportunity to seek an improved life.

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