The article was a short version of the class I took this spring. The class and article were about how we need to be changing education so that it better matches what kids need to prepare them for the future. For example, our world is becoming more globalized which means that countries are more readily accessible than they were in the future. Our kids are going to need to know how to interact and communicate with people from other countries as part of their work and daily lives. Technology is rapidly changing also. We need to prepare them for using things that haven't even been invented yet. The list goes on and on.
The author of the article, Anthony Jackson, writes about how a decade ago, in 2000, he wrote about the need for change in education to better prepare students for the turn of the century:
Significant progress has been made in the journey to provide young adolescents with a developmentally responsive education. … Structural changes in middle grades education—how students and teachers are organized for learning— have been fairly widespread and have produced good results. … However, our observations suggest that relatively little has changed at the core of most students' school experience: curriculum, assessment, and instruction.
- From Educating Adolescents in the 21st Century (Jackson & Davis, 2000, p. 5)
He then goes on to talk about how still very little has changed and we have had 10 YEARS! Am I the only one alarmed? I feel like all we ever do in education is talk about the need for change, look at what we have, reinvent the wheel (with a lot of effort) and end up with something very similar to what we had in the beginning. I think we are stuck in a rut and as a favorite professor of mine says, "If you stay in a rut too long it can become a grave."
I have taken two classes now in my quest for a graduate level degree in middle level curriculum and although I do not claim to be any sort of expert, I can now say that I am aware there is a problem and I have some resources to turn to. I will agree to do my part to push real change forward instead of sitting back and accepting the status quo. I just need some people to join me. Are you up for the challenge?
I think that the MLTI does a good job for preparing them to be up to date with the technologically advanced world, but then there are high schools that have not signed on board with it. I remember playing field hockey all through high school and one thing our coach instilled in us was when we were passing the ball we needed to pass it to where our teammate was going to be, not were they were. Obviously we cannot predict what the world will be like in the future for our students, but we need to recognize that it's always changing. No part of education can be stagnant, it needs to be always changing and relevant to the times.
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