The Search for Logic

Most of the guys from my "home team" at church met this Saturday morning for breakfast. We do this from time-to-time and have great discussions. This Saturday the conversation was about educating our kids. Each of us will be faced with the dilemma of choosing where to send our kids to school in the few years, and it was obvious from our banter, that each of us were passionate about receiving the best education that we could find. Although we couldn't agree on public, private, or charter education, we did come to the conclusion that we all desired our children to be able gain abilities that formal education does not offer-- logic and reason. When thinking of the education system today, I notice the tendency to teach based on a group of facts that create a "cookie cutter", "by the book" approach to learning. Is this really helpful in turning-out our future workforce? I have guys that work for me that have twelve years of formal education, but still can't tell you the equation of how how to figure out sales tax (and don't even get me started on their abilities to spell)! The lines of the 1979 classic song "Another Brick In the Wall Pt II?" by Pink Floyd came to mind:
We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone

Could Pink Floyd have foreseen this dark day in education- when our teaching structure revolves more upon regurgitation of facts, than teaching the ability for children to be able to think through issues and use their reasoning to solve real problems?
Perhaps this is why many brilliant people stop their formal education at the end of high school. Maybe they are smart enough to know that four more years of education doesn't necessarily dictate their earning potential. I know many people that have GED's and make six digits a year. Was college necessary? Were four to eight more years going to make them better at their trade?
I digress. I want Drew to have a great education, and I want to afford him the best of what we can provided. Yet, I am grounded in the fact that life lessons will fall on my shoulders to teach him. To name a few:
1. Relationships 2. How to treat women 3. Personal responsibility 4. How to make money and invest 5. How use logic and reasoning.
I hope that Nik and I can find a great school for him, but I'm afraid that the current education system is missing the mark. At least we know that his education will start-out right, because he will be attending Great Leaps Preschool (Shameless Plug). For some other great educational commentary tidbits, I recommend checking-out Michael Gray's blogs.