As she watched the debate on Saturday evening, thinking to herself, "what an exciting way to spend a Saturday evening!", the woman looked down at one of the essay drafts shared with her by a student on Google Docs. A candidate began speaking about economic recovery and job growth, and her student happened to be addressing a portion of that very issue in her "Future City" essay.
The teacher's mind began to wander and she thought about her students, who were currently neck deep in a big bowl of the Future City Competition. They had been working on Sim City for the last month and a half and they were preparing research and essays. One of her brightest students was demolishing (not literally) his Sim City. He was tearing it up and taking names. She asked him to reflect on his city's development process and determine what he thought was one of the most important decisions he made which allowed his city to flourish. He began his response with one word, "education." He went on to describe the way in which his well funded educational system allowed more high density residential growth, and eventually (and more quickly than most students in the class) promoted sustained high tech industry to move in. Even in this simulation, this game, education created high paying jobs. Her mind wandered back to the debate and the essay shining from her laptop.
During the debate, when asked about how the candidates would create jobs, no one mentioned encouraging or funding America's innovators or "high tech' industry. In fact, several candidates wanted to increase manufacturing which, while it would create jobs in the short term, is not an effective method in our flat world to sustain growth and economic health. The future city that her student was developing had very little manufacturing. In the essay, her student seemed to reason that in the near future (5-10 years), even more of the majority of basic manufacturing would be outsourced to countries with less regulation and fewer human rights laws. Her city was supposed to be futuristic and innovative, so she assumed that she would import some commodities rather that creating more "dirty" industry and manufacturing.
During the debate, when asked about how the candidates would create jobs, no one mentioned improving our educational system, funding STEM, or making America's youth competitive with the rest of the world. After seeing some successes with the Sim City program, most of her students agreed that a well developed educational system was a good idea for their cities. Outside of the program, the teacher and her students had several discussions about our current economic models and our educational system. They felt a bit discouraged by the lack of focus on education. In their minds, they reasoned that they would be "taking over the world" one day and if America's outlook on education didn't change, they would find themselves without a country titled "superpower". They believed that many countries were passing them by where it mattered: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Many of these countries were generously funding education when it seemed that America was de-funding it.
The overstretched teacher turned off the T.V and grabbed a large brownie. She looked at the brownie, felt guilt crawling in her stomach, and shoved the whole thing in. She decided that devouring the brownie shouldn't make her feel guilty. Rather, she thought of it as a metaphor for her totally exciting evening on the couch grading essays, watching a primary debate, and thinking about education. The brownie was the status quo. It was our children's education; it was their system. It seemed like a really good thing at first, sweet, chocolatey, delicious, with a few imperfections and maybe some drawbacks. But that brownie sat in her stomach like a log and when it finally moved on from there, it lodged itself as cellulite on her thighs. She thought that we owed it to our children to prevent them from becoming cellulite. They shouldn't have to be that annoying gelatin-like skin in the world. She also knew that if she wanted to go to the beach, her diet needed to change.
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