The Theory of the Declining A

How do we maintain growth as an educated people?  Are we really as educated as we think we are? Let's consider a model. 

Suppose one is an A student, who knows absolutely everything about a given topic. Suppose that person decides to teach. Well call this person T1. In the first year of teaching T1 has a student, also bound to be a teacher who makes an average of 90 in the class. 90 is, of course, a good grade --an A- in most college grading systems. Well call this person T2. 

T2 graduates and gets a teaching job.  T2 has a student who makes an average of 90 in his class. We'll call this student T3. The question now, is 90  still an admirable grade?  Let's do the math.

T1 knows everything (impossible, but bear with me).  T2 knows 90% of what T1 knows. T3 knows 90% of what T2 knows, which translates to 81% of what T1 knows, making T3's A- really a B-. 

T3 graduates and gets a teaching job.  T3 has a student who makes an average of 90 in his class. Well call this student T4. The question now, is how valuable is T4's 90% A-? Let's do the math, again. (T3's 90% is in actuality 81% x T4's 90% = 72.9%, a C-. What we see in three generations of teachers is the decline of an A to the value of a C-. 

The math is even more depressing for a B- student. Say T2 made an 80 in T1's class, a B-. T3 then made an 80 in T2's class. The math shows that T3's 80% is really 64% of T1's A, an F!!! (T2's 80% x T1's 100  x T3's 80% of T2's 80 % = 64%).

So where are we in today's world.  The math is too depressing to even consider, especially knowing that I've never met anyone who actually knew everything about any topic. Compound all this with how much there is to know about almost any topic in todays' world and the original T1's 100% of his day starts out as a contemporary F!  

What in the world are we to do?  The fundamental answer is we must learn more than our teachers can teach us!  We must outstrip their learning curve. We must become lifelong learners!!!  A few years ago, I heard that 90% of all the information gleaned in the history of the world had been learned at that time in the previous year. The projection was that in a few years, that same 90% would be learned yesterday!  The numbers may be slightly faulty, but the premise is not. 

We cannot continue to spend time arguing about who will pay for education. The time is now to expect our state to pay teachers their worth and fund education at a level that allows all our children to receive the most innovative, creative, instruction possible --from preschool through 4 years of college. It is no longer a question of need, it is a question of national survival.