Forum: The lessons missing from today’s schools

Published 1:30 am Friday, July 31, 2026

What is the purpose of education? This question has needed to be asked for decades!

As a music teacher, I saw our schools abandoning their primary mission starting in early 80s. That mission was to develop well rounded, well informed, thinking citizens, who vigorously participated in our country’s democracy. The secondary mission was to empower students with skills and knowledge needed to become self reliant, successful, and productive in our economy. “Learning how to learn” was the supreme life skill needed for economic success. But now, learning specific skills, which quickly become obsolete, overshadows that.

Education’s mission is now upside down. Today’s primary mission is to teach economic skills for business’s benefit. Everything else is in distant second place. We have been brainwashed to believe that this is the way. But it’s not.

For at least three decades our schools have been obsessed with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) along with “metrics” to evaluate the success or failure of an economy driven system. Where do the Humanities like Language, Literature, and History fit into this obsession? They don’t. Where do the Arts fit in? They don’t either. Do Athletics fit in? Yes, because learning to compete and keep score is an economic necessity.

Education’s subservience to STEM has provided the worker bees needed for technology, industry, and business. But man does not live by bread alone, and society does not live by economy alone.

Our school system is supposed to produce informed citizens who can think critically, decide, and vote for what is best for all of us. Worker bees are not prepared to participate in our country’s democracy which then leads to totalitarianism. This assembly line path only needs worker bees.

In this new age of AI technology, we need more “soft skills” also known as “people skills.” The Arts and Humanities teach these permanent life skills, while STEM is heavily focused on skills facing obsolescence. Worker bees in cubicles are now being replaced.

Notably, the Arts are especially good at teaching the “learn how to learn” skill as well as the soft skills. But the state and school districts don’t get it. Arts classes keep getting cut and Humanities classes are devalued in the self-defeating, brainwashed belief that they are supplemental, not essential for students’ and society’s success.

The bottom line is that good people skills result in good citizens, which then helps our country thrive.

But what metrics can be used to evaluate them? There aren’t any. Teachers could effectively observe and comment as is done in our elementary schools. Our education system rejects this since there is no metric. “What’s most important can’t be measured” is no longer considered. The metrics obsession has relegated thoughtful observation and evaluation to the trash bin along with Arts and Humanities. It has to have a number or it has no value.

Our education system, which doesn’t recognize the critical emerging need for soft skills, is broken. Education leaders don’t understand how cutting the Arts and degrading Humanities disables our students, our society, and ultimately our government. The state Board of Education must see more than just the need to add a finance graduation requirement and restrict the use of smart phones. The Arts and Humanities must be elevated to the level of importance they have always deserved.

If producing good citizens is the top priority for education, then the Arts and Humanities are the top priorities. AH+STEM = Education’s Purpose.

Ron Friesen is a Marysville resident, a retired music teacher and community and church musician and is committed to community improvement.