I thought I’d put a couple of these resources together. I’m all about learning, and teaching kids. I love teachers and what they’re trying to do. I think we have a severe systematic problem within schools with how we teach and expect kids to learn. in the past 100 years, the word has changed inconceivably. Our education model has not. Here’s a post by Seth Godin from this week regarding our schools, and a brief excerpt:
Part of the rationale to sell this major transformation [to mandatory schooling in 1918] to industrialists was that educated kids would actually become more compliant and productive workers. Our current system of teaching kids to sit in straight rows and obey instructions isn’t a coincidence–it was an investment in our economic future. The plan: trade short-term child labor wages for longer-term productivity by giving kids a head start in doing what they’re told.
Seth’s full article about “The Wrong School” is here.
And here is one of my all time favorite TED talks (in my top three, along with this talk about the Cognitive Surplus from Clay Shirky). This one is from Sir Ken Robinson, and is about how schools kill creativity. Sadly, that is one of the most important commodities in our emerging world.
(If video doesn’t embed or load properly, you can see it on TED’s website here)
And lastly, I’ll also add, we need to be painfully aware of the implications within churches, for our Sunday School, youth ministries, etc.
Adam,
I’ve noticed that many evangelicals and protestants take a stance that is against public education. They fear it. They believe it ruins families. They say that the public schools present a liberal bias and that their children are best home schooled at home or in private religious institutions. Churches seem to feed this. While I certainly defend the right for parents to choose the best education for their children, I question the good that public school bashing does for society as a whole. Why do so many churches target public schools? And do you think that it’s good for Churches to do so?
Here’s my quick answer that could get me flamed. I’ll try to think more and let you know what else I come up with.
I think one major reason why people pull their kid out of public school is fear -basically fear of things you mentioned. “I don’t know who’s influencing my kids” (you pick, peers or teachers), “I don’t agree with the morality my kids are picking up on” (is homosexuality taught? what about sex ed? at what age? religious/scientific opinions), etc. I hate fear based decision. According to my faith (and theirs), we don’t operate that way. I think a parent needs to build a solid foundation at home, and reinforce what they want their kids to learn. Help them to process what they’re learning, good, bad and neutral. If you send your kid to school, and talk about nothing, you’re setting yourself up for failure. There’s a large amount of time that kids spend in school, and I get that. Though in a 6 hour (roughly) day, how much of that is really reinforcing things a parent doesn’t agree with? There’s some, but it’s not happening in math class. We blow things out of proportion, then feed off of that. So, that really doesn’t bother me too much. Like I mentioned (I think), I’m sending my kids to public school, and I went to public school (my wife went to private Catholic school, but that was purely a product of the school system that she would have had to go to).
You also have to factor in that kids have to face reality someday, the reality that everyone doesn’t agree with them. Personally, I’d rather my kids grow up learning how to navigate that. Some people would prefer to keep them home and teach them as much as they can, both intellectually and morally, and then send them out with a solid foundation and somewhat impenetrable (that’s the belief I guess). I’m fine with that, but I don’t think it works. They don’t know how to navigate contrary opinions. Sure, there’s exceptions, but I think you see a lot of it. I also think we choose to die on a bunch of hills that we don’t need to die on, and ingrain that in our kids.
So, that’s all the moral side. for me, I think the bigger issue is the educational side. I think the system that we currently have is not working. I think we train a bunch of people to do what they’re told, make widgets, conform, and fit a system. That was great when everyone worked for Ford. Now, in the new economy, it’s thought driven. We don’t teach kids how to think so much. I got through with high honors, though I’m not sure how much I learned. I was able to memorize things short term amazingly well. That got me through. My processing ability has come largely outside formal institution – largely through life experience, failure, independent reading, mentoring, etc. I sound the alarm that we need to re-think our current educational models because the ones that are currently in place are not suitable for our new world. I have some ideas, but this isn’t my specialty area. I think if enough people start thinking through it and try to break the system, it’s got a shot. Administration and those vested in the system will never go for change. If you get a group of people that start online learning (I’ve actually taken classes on line and found them much more beneficial than standard grad classes) in new ways, and that builds momentum, maybe it creates another valid option.
So, my personal issues aren’t with the public schools themselves, it’s the model that we use within the system (and the amount of administration, etc.). If I homeschooled (it’s possible with one of my kids, with another it would never work…it’s a child by child thing to me), it would be more because of learning systems available, not because of the morality, which is usually the outcry. I think we need to get away from that rhetoric.
Let me know if that helps or if you want me to expand on anything.
I agree with everything in your first and second paragraphs. Much of what is said about public schools is blown out of proportion. There is a big difference in how it is portrayed by religious conservatives and what is reality.
If we take the public education system as a vehicle for creating “the best possible you” then it is indeed the job of the system to at the very least expose the pubic to diverse opinions. These are the same diverse opinions that are found in reality and unless your child is only going to associate with members of their church, they will eventually be exposed to them. The purpose of school is to help them make sense of reality. They can sharpen their opinions. They can make mistakes in an environment that is much more forgiving than the real world and most importantly, they can reject or build a case against an opinion that they disagree with. On the moral side, I agree with you….
More to come…
I agree, the public school system needs to do much more to produce the kind of leaders you discuss above. We do NOT do a good job with critical thinking and problem solving. However, I believe we are creative. There is a reason why the Chinese and Japanese try to mimic our school “play”. (play as in informal, off-the-cuff, discovery.) We in turn, try mimic their content superiority. You’re right, the model we currently use is becoming outdated, however we have to give credit where credit is due.
The united states education system has embarked on a quest to educate everyone, as equally as possible. It has done remarkably well. The education system has served so many purposes over the years, from creating factory workers, to churning out communist hating space engineers, to solving cyber-bullying. It has largely met those challenges. But the system is HUGE and creating educational change is like turning the titanic. Successful reform in education takes LOTS AND LOTS of time. There are no panaceas. There are no quick fixes. Yet, people in 2011 want immediate results. It just doesnt work that way. If you look at the history of educational reform, you find that the most successful changes, even the ones we take for granted (like de-segreataion) take generations of time, money, court decisions etc. School’s are constantly told to “shape up” and “use this program to do it”, but in reality, the system can only absorb a mere morsel of change at a time.
If you thought of education reform as a mighty wind, blowing across the sea, trying to move objects and make change, then you could have to place the classroom at the bottom of the ocean. far removed from the wind above. Very few reforms ever make it to the classroom.
Why is it so slow? Well, there are many stakeholders. It’s public. It’s also owned by special interest to a certain extent. But mostly, people want school to look like school. They want school to be what they remember. They want desks, grades, structure, stratification etc. Anything that doesn’t look like school, is always questioned, and if you research, you’ll find that the biggest obstacles in american education reform are american people who want school to look like school. Creativity, project based learning, trials and errors, learning outside the classroom, mentoring… well; that doesn’t look like school.
My point is, change will come. It will come slowly, unfortunately. It may come too slowly to make the 21st century “The American Century”. Every century can not be the “american century”. Your view for what education CAN BE is the same as mine. I believe that public education and enlightenment are the ways to reach those goals.
and as a side note….
When I think of an institution that “trains a bunch of people to do what they’re told, make widgets, conform, and fit a system, i think geeze.. that sounds just like religion! 😉
Justin, could you please leave the stone throwing to us? Thanks.
Okay, I’m going to go through a handful of things. Some serious, some not, and some as Devil’s Advocate (I think). I’ll let you pick what’s what?
We solved cyber-bullying?
We did do a great job of producing space engineer commie haters. stupid commies….
What we really solved is more of the problem solver, linear type stuff. The leadership, new idea based economy stuff is something we’re falling further behind in. That’s the type of stuff I’d love to see progress more. I’ll be honest, maybe it has more since I was there.
What I would love is all of those things you say “don’t look like school.” How much does the outcry really go against these things? Honest question because I don’t deal with all that, and don’t know. That really frustrates me, and I’m sure you even more.
The problem with the big ship mentality is (well, first that it’s true) the world we live in. It’s not just that people want change right away, it’s that most change happens right away. 2 years ago, I had a flip phone that I could text with sometimes. Now I can launch missiles with my phone. Yes, it’s better than an iPhone. Change in our world happens rapidly. If the world moves at 55mph and schools move at 35mph, they’re moving forward and making ground, but to a world that’s obsolete by the time it gets there (there’s a %, and I don’t recall what it is now, but a certain number of college students and I would guess mostly any type of tech related field, are studying for jobs that don’t even exist yet when they enter college). There’s got to be a better way than just moving the ship. Maybe working in parallel?
I’m not trying to come down against schools (I went to public school, and I am awesome). I’m trying to think through what’s a better way to do things for society and my own kids.
(Slacker parents that don’t do anything is probably a bigger problem).
Anyway, those are my quick thoughts.
No, we haven’t solved cyber-bullying… and we never will. I was just throwing that in as an example of the public’s expectations for schools.
Okay, cool. As long as we’re on the same page there. And you hate commies, right?
Well.. if I must..
Communism and Socialism aren’t terrible concepts. It’s just that humans seem to always screw them up. I will agree to hating “commies” in the vernacular sense of the word; (ie soviet spies) but I do have a poster of Karl Marx in my bedroom. 😉
I love the fact that you took that seriously.
The reality is that communism does work in theory, but even Marx realized that in order for it to work in reality there needs to be a change of personal being (I forget his wording) which changes people to look at the world differently, valuing the whole over the individual. Like you said, people typically can’t handle it at all (and all it takes is a couple) and either become greedy and corrupt the system or lazy and let it fall. Concept works, but the nature of people doesn’t allow it to. Then they become bad concepts.
Also, people typically run on different incentives than these systems allow.