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Few topics today are as hot and controversial as educational reform.  The controversy isn’t whether or not we should reform education but rather how and who should do the reforming!

It seems to me, much of the philosophy about reform comes from the standpoint of “what should an incoming freshman to college know?”  That was all well and good 50 years ago but quite frankly I don’t think it is the lens we should be looking through currently.  If the “movers and shakers” doing most of the reform are from higher ed and the secondary level of education then I am sure that seems relevant and logical to them.  After all, don’t we hear a lot in the news about how today’s graduates aren’t prepared for college?  I come from the elementary perspective, though.  My kindergarten students starting school next week will graduate in the year 2023.  I haven’t the vaguest idea what they need to know for college in 2023 and neither does anyone else!  Furthermore, maybe college will be obsolete and irrelevant then.  Who knows?

So, does it make sense to scaffold education with only the end product in mind.  The analogy I might use is: educating a student is a little like building a building.  You have to lay a really good foundation for the structure to be sound and stable.  (There are some “givens” students need to know in elementary regardless of what they will need as adults.)  However, are we as educational institutions laying the foundation for a skyscraper when we really need to build a pyramid?  That’s a whole other structure requiring a different kind of foundation.   And the truth is, we really don’t even know!

Should education be dictated by legislators or universities; Federal, State or local government?  Where are the teachers and students in the conversations?  Are only administrators and politicians making all the educational reforms?  Who is really the best qualified to make these decisions?

“It takes a whole village to raise a good child”.  We need to make sure all participating parties are in the conversation about educational reform…including the students.  We need to have a strong vision in mind but also need to be flexible and realize the vision we have may not be relevant in a few short years and be prepared to make adjustments.

I read somewhere that there is more information being created in two days now, that in all of time up to the year 2003!  Think of that….if that is true, I am guessing one of the most valuable skills would be;  how do we manage that information?  I hear adults say they can’t even keep up with their email.  If that is true, how are those same adults going to teach kids the skills needed to keep up with the information they will need to deal with?

Its a lot to think about and I don’t have the answers, just lots of questions.  I do think both top and bottom (Federal and state government, administration and teachers, and parents and students) need to be in the conversations to have a fighting chance and create an educational system for students that will equip them with the skills they need as adults…college or not.  We don’t know what the final building will look like but I do know that it won’t stand without a good foundation.  The question is…what kind of foundation should we build?  We can change the facade of the building, colors, windows, doors etc. much easier than we can change a foundation, once it is built, so we better get it right!

One Response

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1. 

   macdcsound

   Even Bill Gates thinks that, 5 years from now, the best education is going to come from the web and not colleges http://tcrn.ch/dcVyc5

   August 7, 2010 at 9:27 am