Some interesting thoughts about education

Scott McLeod, of Dangerously Irrelevant, started a discussion on Are 21st century skills a solution to a problem that may not exist?

A friend brought the post to my attention.

There are a number of interesting lines, for example:

----------
Classrooms in which there was evidence of higher-order thinking: 3 percent. Classrooms in which high-yield [instructional] strategies were being used: 0.2 percent. Classrooms in which fewer than one-half of students were paying attention: 85 percent.– Mike Schmoker, Results Now (2006) [citing a study of 1,500+ classroom observations]
----------

Wow! I am not surprised that some children in public schools are bored and not paying attention; I am surprised that it is so many.


The comments also had some good lines. Jeremy Aldrich writes:

-----------
The image in my mind now is a "driving school" that teaches you how to drive a horse-drawn carriage instead of a car. This government-funded school has long been obsolete but for an isolated few, including (importantly) those who plan to become buggy-driving teachers in the future. At every suggestion that perhaps they should teach people to drive cars instead, the response is, "Yeah, they've been saying that for years, so it can't be true!"
Scott is right that widespread dissatisfaction is a prerequisite condition to systemic change. Unfortunately, we're more likely to hear complaints about saddlesores and poor rider posture than the fact that our students are wasting years of their life getting the wrong kind of education.
It's time to stop changing the saddle and the horseshoes while thinking we're keeping up with the times.
Fundamental, systemic reform is the only solution to schools continuing to be a mostly useless, very expensive waste of resources. What did you learn in school that made you a successful person today, and was conventional school the best environment to learn it?
-----------

There is a famous line about "Thinking outside the box." I am afraid that government schools will never be fixed, that they are not fixable. Hopefully more and more parents will "think outside the box" and realize that for their children to have a good education, a really good education, they will need to take responsibility and educate them themselves.


---------
Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, government schools, public school, public education, education