Gatekeeping

During the last 50 years, those who prepared educational reports drew the conclusion that skill in reading divided those who did well in society and those who didn't. This was no surprise; society expected that it had been true all along.  However, in the last 10 years, those who prepare educational reports have changed their minds.  Algebra is the gatekeeper course for those who do well in college (who are the ones who do well in society according to them).  That seems to be a little counterintuitive to the public.  Most people don't do well in math and plenty of successful people say they don't have math skills, at least not algebra skills. Surely there is some mistake.

Sometimes those writing reports say the discipline of learning algebra is the indicator for doing well later rather than the algebra itself.  But, I would like to point out that many contributing factors create discipline in our lives, not just algebra.  And when reading was king of the gatekeeping courses preparing us to do well in college, it was said that the discipline of reading was the indicator, not the reading itself.

The world today and the world of yesteryear are very different.  So, for that reason I am glad to hear the change in rhetoric from reading to algebra.  Today it is much more incumbent on someone to know math than reading.  But, the underlying assumption that doing well in school and doing well in society has really eroded in reality.  The perception of those making educational reports still say there is a link between school success and business success.

If I look at the larger circle of my family and friends, I see the inverse is rather true. Less education equals more money.  Reading is not part of the equation because all friends and family can read what is necessary to perform well on their jobs whether or not they have read a novel since high school. Algebra appears to have little to do with business success too. The discipline in people's lives who have the most money seems to be driven by desires other than the one to learn the mechanics of solving for x. Success has come in a variety of ways, not the ability to perform well in school as a teenager in a gatekeeper course.  One middle school dropout I know has more money saved from doing consulting than almost all of the people with college degrees I know.  The driving force behind his discipline to do well was that he was always trying to show that his word was his bond and he would guarantee any work he did.  Now he only consults on the big money jobs of his choice.

Developing skills of any sort takes discipline.  Becoming the best poker player in the world could be a gatekeeper skill because of the discipline involved in manipulating card decks in one's mind.  Learning three or more languages contains enough discipline to be a gatekeeper skill because of the different grammatical and lexical manipulations required.  Neither is a school-oriented learned ability.  I wish those who write educational reports would understand their circular reasoning.  Desire for heightening any skill leads to discipline and expertise.  If Steve Jobs taught the world anything, it was this principle.

Creativity is an attribute of humans just because they are members of the human race.  It is not an attribute learned at school necessarily.  Creativity is derived from a whole spectrum of human activities, not merely from a regimen of core subjects studied.