Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/721932
September 2016 • SMT Magazine 65 per student intellectual property that they gen- erate and the economic output they add to the companies for whom they work. As important, the value of a post-secondary education to an individual is measured by: 1. The enthusiasm and inquisitiveness developed for lifelong 2. General skills acquired, like problem solving and critical thinking 3. Specific learning for earning skills attained To rate a college's performance based on these criteria, one must track the graduates when they are working in the real world. In addition, there should be a gap analysis done between the student entering the school and the student when they graduate. The Grad - uate Record Exam (GRE) is an attempt to mea- sure the latter. The SAT is an attempt to mea- sure the former. There is little attention paid to measuring the student's college achievement as a function of their starting point. What is the solution to an educational sys- tem that has become unresponsive to the needs and best interests of their customers—the stu- dents? A system, that for all the money spent per student at the compulsory stage of the pipe- line, grades 1–12, and an elective, post-second- ary part of the pipeline that burdens the gradu- ate with debt as far as the eye can see. A system that produces graduates that trail other compet- ing countries in basic reading, math and science skills, countries that spend far less per student and provide better learning for earning skills needed in the real world. Is the solution STEM? Is the solution a government provided free college education? Is the solution a government that throws more money into the system? Is the solution continuing to dumb down the curriculum to attract more students and keep the college classrooms filled? Is the solution for the government to make more loans available that many students have little or no chance in paying back, but permit schools to continue to raise tuition since the student (and/or, parent) simply need to sign on the bottom line? We'll worry about repayment later, i.e., "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." (Source: Wimpy, 1960, From Popeye and the Giant.) I can't and won't speak to the entire edu - cational system. I am not qualified. However, I think I can speak to the part of the system that is responsible for preparing students to go into our industry—the high tech electronic product assembly business. The strategic goal is to create a system that must serve an industry that changes at light speed—an industry that has to have built into it an automatic, natural change mechanism. That change mechanism: the student. What? The stu - dent? How can that be? In the 1802 poem, "My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold," English romantic poet William Wordsworth wrote, "the Child is father of the Man," a plea that if he ever stops feeling the un- bounded childhood joy of the world's natural beauty, he wishes to die. The Who's Pete Town- shend expressed a similar desired outcome a lit- tle more directly and a lot more cynically in the song, "My Generation" with the lyric, "…hope I die before I get old." Our post-secondary educational system must change from being reactive to our industry's needs (and, as we have discussed, it's not been very good at that) to being proactive. They can - not continue to produce entry-level personnel that require two- to three-year learning curves to become fully productive. Instead, students that graduate need to be father to the compa- nies for whom they go to work. They should act as change agents, challenging a company's sta- tus quo by bringing the latest design, produc- tion equipment and process techniques to their new employers from their academic experience. " Is the solution continuing to dumb down the curriculum to attract more students and keep the college classrooms filled? " THE CHILD IS FATHER OF THE MAN