Self sufficiency is different than test scores or UC a-g courses!

By John de Beck

Perhaps Public Education leaders have set the wrong goals. If kids leave school with "C" grades in classes preparing them for the UC (College) system, does that make them SELF-SUFFICIENT? Is student achievement only measured by tests? A balanced education should result in informed citizens able to take care of themselves!

Welfare reform efforts claim success when they tabulate how many program graduates get jobs...but minimum wage jobs do not guarantee a person gets off welfare. Similarly high school graduation and even college admission does not make a person self sufficient. In fact, self sufficiency is a good definition for a productive citizen.

As a district, we just don't know what happens to any of our graduates. Once, we had graduate followup studies to tell us what successes our students had. And we asked them questions about their success in work and school.

Most intelligent investors know to diversify to protect themselves from contingencies, and as a counselor I always told my students to seek a balanced education with practical and college prep classes. And many of my students chose vocational preparation as a way to earn college degrees in jobs well above the minimum wage.

Many of California schools are forcing children to put their eggs in one basket. The results may not be high school graduates who can carry their own weight. "Are our schools doing what will make children kids SELF-SUFFICIENT?"

I hope San Diego will become the best school district in the nation by preparing self-sufficient students.