The Talent Crisis and the State of Education

What is it about Los Angeles schools and the caliber of education in this city? It’s difficult to tell whether the phenomenon of producing poorly educated individuals is unique to the Los Angeles schools, to particular zip codes within the sprawling city, or whether it should be attributed to the caliber of teachers who are employed here. With a small turn, it seems the problem isn’t isolated to just Los Angeles. It’s a state problem. It’s a national problem. It’s epidemic. Approximately half of those who enter high school will graduate four and a half years later. Of that number, there will be the usual spread of achievement and proof of quality education.

Some give up in deference to the many external pressures impacting them. Some are the usual profile of get by with the minimum amount of effort. Some of those numbers will blossom at a later time, when they realize the importance and value of knowledge and the path to achieving their goals in an acceptable way.

Our Mayor proposed a solution to the issue of education. After all, it impacts the quality of product one can expect from the City, it’s a form of interstate commerce, this “Made in Los Angeles” stamp that graduates of our schools carries. And the lackadaisical attitude impacts other products that are actually manufactured and marketed in other states and cities, in other parts of the world. So much so that employers are still reluctant to hire individuals from a particular zip code.

Quite a flurry was started when last year the question was put to the recruiting industry as to where the responsibility for education our youth should reside. The question arose out of the controversy started as the Mayor sought to have control over the School Board, to supplant the Superintendent of Schools with himself. Villaraigosa has succeeded in his striving to take over the running the school district and he did so by making an ally of his potential rival, Superintendent Brewer.

It was announced on October 1 that Villaraigosa will have oversight of two “families” of schools, which turn out to be the lowest performing of all the schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, 44 schools in total (27 high schools, 17 middle schools that feed into those high schools).

I’ve delayed addressing the October 10 announcement of the school district’s spin-off district because there was a need to research which are the affected schools. That information is not easy to ascertain using the resources I was initially able to access. It seems another report from the District’s site should have been used.

But one thing seems to be consistent: There is no one, single solution to the education (therefore talent) crisis. Impacts are multiple and that means solutions also need to be wrought from many areas that work toward the core. However, one study conducted by a California State University at Los Angeles Assistant Professor, a Ph.D. candidate, and a representative from LAUSD found that teacher confidence in their self and the abilities of their students had a direct correlation to the success those students achieved. This “get what you expect” syndrome has been researched at other times in management and human resource areas. The results are consistent.

It looks like the reminder needs to be given on a repeated basis. You get what you expect. Expect the best and treat the candidates as you would want to be treated. Those are just two steps in overcoming the talent crisis as it is affected by the education issue.

education, “workforce preparation”, “school district”, management,

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A Purpose

There are days when we get discouraged about everything. The first impulse is to simply give up — completely give in to the setbacks and inertia. This is not some flitting fancy. It’s part of the emotion and state of mind involved in depression. And it happens not because we didn’t lift a finger and what we wished for on a star didn’t fall into our hands. No, there’s another reason for the depression.

The depression is the result of many long hours (even months or years) of striving, struggling against great odds and obstacles without rest or recreation. It seems the more we struggle, the more we work toward achieving our goal, the farther away it is removed from our grasp.

Additionally, we find ourselves not being rewarded in any manner for our efforts — or at least it seems that way on initial blush. All we can see is the hard labor, the sacrifices, the meagerness about us, the squalor, the unsavory characters that we were taught in Sunday School to give charity who are now our comrades. How did this circumstance happen and why? Is this the reward for hard work?

The fruit of our endeavors is taken from us, credit for it given to others who have done little to even merit their initials near the product. If credit is not given to another, then we find the work deleted, erased, denigrated as pitiful and having little to no value.

There is justification for this depression. It is not right, it is not fair to put forth so much effort and find yourself in a negative position from where you started. Life is about growth, not regression. Life is about becoming more capable, growing stronger and taller with each passing day. Life is about growing wiser with each experience.

And therein lies the answer to the frustration and depression. Were it an actuality that we were not making progress, there would be no one erasing what was done. No one would be trying to claim our work as theirs. And if there were not quality as part of the inherent value of the product, it would not be desired, there would be no competition for ownership of it.

What this says, then, is that we have wronged ourselves. We have put ourselves in the midst of people and we do not belong in this crowd. These people have a great deal to learn. There is a lot they need to learn about theirselves. There is a lot they need to learn about putting into a project the quality that is required in order to derive that quality at completion.

Our frustration is that, as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs puts it, we are striving to build our monuments to ourselves. The monuments are being destroyed and sometimes before our very eyes. We realize that with each destruction or theft, there is nothing to mark the fact that we traveled this road and had that impact on the environment as well as other beings.

It isn’t a comfort, especially if you’re in this frame of mind at this instant. But take heart. This Earth is a very volatile place. Nothing lasts. Everything is destroyed in its own time. Earthquakes will tumble mountains, tsunami will wash away entire civilizations. And with those destructions, evidence of the people and their civilization will also be destroyed. The only difference is that one was done by Man, the other by Nature.

True, this consolation is meager. But it is consolation. The other is, as I said before, if the efforts had poor worth, no one would bother to take or destroy it. Be glad that you did something that lured the avarist. You set a milestone before them, a bar over which they needed to leap and they could not meet the test.

As to the losses, especially of proper company, there is a remedy. Start today to make time for yourself. Give yourself an indulgence at least once a week. Call or email an old friend. Find a reason to laugh. Make certain you have a voluntary smile. Even if it’s a cup of weak tea, sip it as though it’s a priceless wine to be savored.

And most of all, remember to consider the little things that are still providing you with quality of life.

To pass over all of these things without thinking about them, appreciating them, is definitely the waste. It’s amazing when we take the time to look over our shoulder at the part of the field that has already been plowed instead of what is in front of us that is still rough hewn and in need of order. An occasional look back can actually bolster our conviction to push forward. There is conviction. But there needs to be a time of rest in order to consider what has already come and gone. It wasn’t a waste. It all had a purpose.

depression, quality of life, achievement, setbacks, change,

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