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American schools are at a crossroads. Artificial intelligence companies say their technology will completely reshape the workforce, and no one knows how, as the definition of career readiness is being rewritten. Education advocate Ted Dintersmith believes the stakes couldn\u2019t be higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a world where all of these jobs are going to just vanish. We don\u2019t have time to mold this for 10 years,\u201d Dintersmith told Fortune. \u201cWould you rather spend thousands of hours on math you\u2019ll never use in school, or get really good at something that can help you pursue a career you find fulfilling and can support yourself. What do you care about: the future of a kid or data for the state rankings?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dintersmith, in his new book, Aftermath: The Life-Changing Math That Schools Won\u2019t Teach You, argues that the education system is designed to fail students. It\u2019s still teaching kids to learn things a machine can easily do, and it isn\u2019t offering real world knowledge. He argues that math taught in schools has little relevance to real work or life, and it\u2019s undermining American society. Kids should be learning real-world probability and statistics instead of algebra and calculus equations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The book is the culmination of 15 years studying the American education system strengths and weaknesses. He sees a system that defines academic success on \u201chigh-stakes\u201d standard exams that ask questions that a computer could easily answer, while failing to give students skills that would prepare them for their lives and careers. If the American education system doesn\u2019t change, millions will enter adulthood unprepared, sowing \u201cthe seeds for democracy\u2019s collapse,\u201d said Dintersmith.<\/p>\n
Beyond math, he believes Americans need to rethink the automatic high-school-to college-pipeline, in a world where more college graduates feel like their degrees are not worth the cost.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2023, Dintersmith visited a school district in Winchester, Va., a small town of about 28,000 located an hour and a half outside Washington, D.C. He met students learning at the Emil & Grace Shihadeh Innovation Center, a technical training center for high school students. While technical education offerings are typical of many secondary schools across the country, Winchester\u2019s approach is different, Dintersmith said, because vocational education is not stigmatized as a place to dump students who weren\u2019t college-bound.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t treated like an afterthought, Dintersmith said, and he found that about 90% of the district\u2019s high schoolers take a class at the center. What he saw inspired him to make the film Multiple Choice in 2025. It was shown at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An unlikely advocate<\/p>\n
Dintersmith, 73, is an unlikely candidate taking up the charge of transforming American education. After attending the College of William & Mary in 1974 and getting a PhD in engineering from Stanford University in 1981, Dintersmith worked at a microchip startup for seven years, before becoming a venture capitalist and general partner at Charles River Ventures, where he worked for more than 20 years, and has since stayed on a partner emeritus.<\/p>\n
While at CRV, he managed a number of funds ranging from $50 million to upwards of $450 million. He was even ranked by Business 2.0 as the country\u2019s top-performing venture capitalist between 1995 to 1999. But Dintersmith credits having children later in life for his seemingly abrupt career shift. <\/p>\n
Turning his attention to education, Dintersmith said, came as a surprise to himself as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI never imagined doing anything related to school,\u201d Dintersmiths said. \u201cAnd then, honestly, when my kids got to middle school, I just said, \u2018Whoa. None of this makes any sense to me.\u2019\u201d His interest started in 2011, when his son\u2019s middle school began offering a program on life skills, but Dintersmith didn\u2019t find any of the skills relevant to real life. His son and daughter are now in their 30s, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since then, Dintersmith has written three books and produced nine documentaries about the failures of the American educational system. His work also led him to take an education odyssey during the 2016 school year, he visited 200 schools across 50 states to see how different schools across the country functioned. And detailed the experience in a book What School Could Be, published in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vocational training opens doors<\/p>\n
At Winchester\u2019s Innovation Center students didn\u2019t have to choose between welding or Advanced Placement Chemistry to convey that they were an academically rigorous student to colleges because vocation training was the norm. They could take classes on carpentry, welding, plumbing, and electrical work, or train to be EMTs, lab technicians, firefighters, and nursing aides. The courses are tied to the needs of the local economy, and many instructors are business owners or experts who work in the area and volunteer their time to work with the students. Several students have gone on to start careers at their instructors\u2019 companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Liz, a student featured in the documentary, is now a pre-law student at the University of Virginia who wrote about her experience taking welding classes in her college applications. Another student, Malachi, came to a firefighting class asking the instructor for \u201cguidance in life and discipline.\u201d Outside of his classes, he became a volunteer firefighter, and the local station became a place where he could be mentored or just have a place to call home.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were really focused on helping every kid find their lane, and it was tied to what skills would help that local community,\u201d Dintersmith said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Winchester can serve as a model for other schools, Dintersmith said. Many high schools offer some form of career and technical education, so \u201cthey\u2019re not starting from zero,\u201d he added. Community input is key, he explained. To build the 54,000 square-foot Innovation Center, a local philanthropist donated $1 million, and the State of Virginia and the local community also contributed to the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really just bridging the gap between finishing high school and being able to say, I\u2019m good at something that matters to the adult world,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
#Meet #plan #prepare #American #students #AIdisrupted #future<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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