Strengths and Weaknesses of the American School System

The example used in the article "A New Professional:  The Aims of Education Revisited" is a perfect example of the strengths and weaknesses of our school system. 

After the operation, everyone just watched this poor man get sick and eventually die a slow and painful death.  At any point before his 3-day diminishing health experience, the hospital or the nurse could've done something to help this person and avoid his final demise.  I believe Parker J. Palmer uses this example to show how poorly we are preparing our students for real-life work experiences.  This "new" nurse sat by and did nothing.  Once this person was dead, a report was done by the hospital that dehumanized the situation.  If she had used her emotions in a positive way, she could've saved this person or at least tried to save this person. 

We want to train our students to use their emotions in a positive way in their careers.  We want them to challenge the companies (the institutions) they will be working for in the future.  We don't want students to idly stand by and do nothing, like the nurse in the example. 

An experienced nurse would've done more to help this person.  We want people to come out of college with more readiness.  I understand that the readiness comes from experience, valuable experience, that people achieve in their respective fields.  But they shouldn't be completely useless or dumbfounded in their first few years on any job.

A major strength of the school system is the preparation of our teachers and the standards by which they are judged.  The system has evolved from one room where students were educated like the show "Little House on the Prairie" to the massive schools we have today.  The size of our own college, Mount Saint Mary's College, is an example of just how far our education system has come in the past 100 years.  Along with size of schools, comes size of student population, we are living in a time where there are more men and women going to school than ever before.  As a result, the workforce is supposed to be flooded with a more talented population.  According to the article, that is not the case.

3 questions

1.  How can we better prepare students for life after school?
2.  Can we teach students to use their emotions in a positive way to make a change?
3.  How do we avoid negative conflict in our classrooms in the future?