Because It's the Only One We've Got

Today’s Underdog: The Earth

If all of Earth’s history was reduced to one year, humans wouldn’t have appeared until noon on December 31st, civilization until 5 minutes short of the end of the year, and Columbus wouldn’t have landed in America until 20 seconds short of midnight (source). Since the start of the industrial revolution, it has only been six seconds. Since the start of mass pollution and environmental degradation, it has been a mere six seconds.

Today’s underdog is the Earth because in just six seconds we’ve managed to all but completely destroy it. In Illinois alone, we have lost over 99.99% of our original prairie, and over 80% of our original wetlands. 15% of all extinct species went extinct in just four of those six seconds since we first industrialized. Today’s underdog is the Earth, the universe’s most valuable resource, and the universe’s most threatened one.

It scares me immensely when I consider how much damage has been done to the Earth in just six seconds. It scares me more when I consider how little concern for the environment there still is. The effects of our degradation aren’t just felt by other species. Think about all the costs spent on treating flooding, improving water quality, and allergy medication. All three of these costs, and many more, would be greatly reduced by managed environmental action. Pollution affects us economically and affects our health. And yet, too often, we stand and wait.

What scares me is the misunderstanding about the environmental movement. The image is often one of vegetarian hippies, tree huggers, and anti-capitalists. But at the core of the apple that is the environmental movement, is the worm of simple, manageable action. Environmental action need not be huge, costly, or laborious. It can be as simple as turning the water off when you brush your teeth (saving eight gallons of water a day) or planting a rain garden to mitigate pollution. These individual pennies can add up to real change if we only start collecting them.

Today’s underdog is the Earth because it is the rarest resource in the universe. And in just six seconds, we have managed to nearly destroy it. And that scares me. But we have made progress. First, in the 1970s, we passed the Clean Water Act, protecting the United States’s wetlands; then, more recently, we began to invest in clean and renewable energy resources. But it will take much much more. It will take individuals stepping up for a cause larger than themselves. It will take courage and hard work. It will take a fight, for there still stand obstacles in the way of progress. Like any underdog, it won’t be easy. But what have we learned through our exploration of underdogs in the last few months? There are strategies to be employed to achieve success: don’t be afraid to be different, take a risk, work hard, and never give up. If there’s anything I can leave my readers with, it’s that anything is possible. Even saving the Earth. One second at a time.  

Testing the Education System

Today's Underdog: The American education system

We are actually making it worse. The American education system, that is. Recent measures to improve the system have successfully accomplished the exact opposite of that goal, failing to note the existing advantages to the system and instead trying to improve areas that perhaps are better left weak.

You see, the education system as it previously stood, and still to a degree stands, promotes creative thinking, and emphasized not memorization of facts, but the learning of skills needed to obtain those facts. In other words, the system taught fishing, instead of just giving out fish.

Not only is the education system itself losing its encouragement of creativity, and perhaps even beginning to reject it, but legislation is hurting the cause. No Child Left Behind forces teachers and schools to focus on standardized testing rather than creative thinking, a problem worsened by the increased emphasis on AP testing in high school and for college admissions. Fortunately, College Board has made strides in revamping the tests so as to stress creative thinking and not straight memorization. But even these changes are not enough.

Another issue is the rash reaction many make to rankings such as these, in which America does not rank at the top for educational testing. But these tests are misleading, emphasizing small differences as falsely large. The reaction to the rankings, though, is usually an increased focus on test prep, rather than creativity fostering. But this fails to take account of the facts. Take Finland, a country that makes it a priority to avoid teaching to the test, and instead focuses on problem solving, yet ranking at the top of most educational testing metrics. More test focus is not what America needs. Less is truly more.

Furthermore, we often don't ask the right question in fixing the education system. The question isn't how can we appear more competitive. It is how can we actually be more competitive! One answer is to provide more vocational school, such as the German education system, allowing for a better prepared labor market. We should also target the economic niche America is in, with service oriented education, like financial assistance. This need not mean providing financial education, but rather providing problem solving and creativity skills necessary for global service jobs. These solutions may not show up in test scores, but they get at the real goal.

In fact, it is this last point of most concern. For that's why education is such an underdog. The politicians we need to reform the system find it easier to point to improve testing scores in a campaign than the less metric-oriented creativity and problem solving education needed. And as we continue towards the path of test skills, it becomes more difficult to make the changes necessary. But perhaps we'll solve the problem. Get creative. And fix the system.