My Squirrelly View of Education

How has learning changed? In some ways, a lot. In others, not so much.

A couple of quotes form the Time Magazine article really struck me.

1. “It’s important that students know how to manage it, interpret it, validate it, and how to act on it,” says Dell executive Karen Bruett, who serves on the board of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a group of corporate and education leaders focused on upgrading American education.

2. “Jobs in the new economy–the ones that won’t get outsourced or automated–”put an enormous premium on creative and innovative skills, seeing patterns where other people see only chaos,” says Marc Tucker, an author of the skills-commission report and president of the National Center on Education and the Economy.”

These skills have always been necessary and have been developed in High Schools pre-NCLB. I learned these things in my High School Debate and Forensics program at Kearsley High School in Flint, MI. Unfortunately, few students took advantage of the opportunities these programs provided. In the 70′s my blue-collar high school was a “prep school” for the GM factories ran the city. Less than 3% of my class went to college. Those that did, did not return to Flint. As we graduated from college we witnessed the first round of GM’s downsizing that would turn downtown Flint into a relative ghost town. At my 5-year class reunion in 1980, there were classmates who had been laid off from GM never to return. For many of my classmates lacked the ability to adapt to change, to think outside the box, and to see opportunities in the future. The few who did, got retraining and left.

I think that if we are to serve our students, we must stress these same skills, so that they can meat the challenges our changing economy brings. Right know I have a since of deja vu. I feel that I am watching Monroe struggle with the same problems that Flint has and still is facing.

I fear that Michigan’s new graduation requirements, while admirable, when combined with the high stakes test, the Michigan Merit exam and NCLB’s AYP requirements will force schools to teach to the test rather than allow students the chance to create and explore this new world.

The appropriate use of web2.0 collaborative learning is a step in the right direction, but it is only a step. We need to get our students ask the “Why and How” questions when confronted an issue just like I was trained to do in Mrs. Turner’s Debate Class. The question “Why is this happening?” can lead to powerful critical thinking. It can challenge our beliefs, our thought processes. It can lead to creative solutions to complex problems. Likewise, the question “How can this be changed?” can lead all of us to create new answers.

This weekend I watched my 18 year son, a UofM-Dearborn freshman struggle with an argumentative essay for his composition class. He knows how to structure and write a competent paper, but he is lacking the ability to develop a complete, persuasive argument. He can use the web, but he lacks the facility to use any search engine other than the basic Google search. This kid is a math major (“Mom, calculus is fun. Get over it!”). He graduated with honors from a great high school that regularly turns out Merit Scholars. He took computer software classes, yet he was never taught basic web skills. I fear that we are and will continue to turn out students like him who look good on paper, but lack the skills and the thought processes to handle this complex world.