I know I am bombarding my blog with lost of posts today, but I can't seem to keep quiet.
I just read the article, "Reshaping Learning from the Ground Up" from edutopia.org. It is an interview with Alvin Toffler, an author, about the current state of education. His first comment, "Shut down the public education system." blew me away. I've been thinking, up until now, that we could reshape and rework what we already have going for us, but I can definitely see where he is coming from. His argument is that there is so much wrong with public education today that there isn't a strong enough base to work from. WOW!
My main complaint about the school I am teaching in now is that we are always trying to reinvent the wheel. We rewrite curriculum and programming every year without giving any time to try out the "new" program. In the three years I have been there, we have gone through two spelling programs, two math programs, and now they are looking at throwing it all out again. Although it sounds like we are not "settling" in our curriculum, think of what this is doing to our students. They have no idea what to expect!
I digress though. I am interested in Toffler's idea of what a utopian education would look like. He would have a school open 24 hours a day and based individually on the needs and what is best for each kid. We are expected to do that now with RTI and NCLB but we are not given the time or the resources to do that. He also talks about teachers not being able to do what they know works because of the constraints placed on them by expectations and mandates by the government/powers that be.
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Are you kidding...great posts...keep them coming!!
ReplyDeleteHmmm...Toffler doesn't cut us any slack but it is important to remember that he isn't saying that schools never worked. I think an important point here is that they have worked very well for a long time...when schools had to socialize and educate large numbers of immigrants and prepare them to be citizens and workers.
But, now we are in a very different time...and we need schools that do other important things. The irony in all of this is that many of the critics of schools would have us return to the model of schooling they see as the golden age of education...when teachers taught and students learned...in a very traditional type of school.
Let's pursue the idea of what successful schools can look like...especially public schools.