what does this thing called 'education reform' really need?

Apparently, education reform is a hot topic right now.   More and more people are waking up to the idea that something is just not quite right.  Unfortunately, I feel that alot of folks are missing the mark.  As stated by Sir Ken Robinson in the TED talk that I shared in a recent post, at this point, what we really need is not simply reform, but a revolution in education.  Like so many facets of our culture, the current model for the education system is based on institutionalization that began roughly one hundred years ago, and it is outdated - and not necessarily an improvement over how things were done before.  I think if more people were aware of how institutionalized education came about, and what its true main purposes were - largely, to serve the purposes of the Industrial Revolution - then they'd think twice about the system that has come to be accepted as the norm.

There is this "Waiting for 'Superman'" movie that has just come out - see trailer and Q&As here.  I know it's currently playing at the Loews in Shirlington.

I'll reserve full conclusions until having seen the film, but having watched the promotional videos and Q&As, I'm not sure if they're really asking the right questions.  In so many cases, it's not the teachers that are the problem - there are plenty of well-meaning teachers with lots of great and innovative ideas.  It's that the system at large does not allow for innovation.  There is so much pressure on everyone to 'succeed', including the teachers, that they are forced to 'teach to the test' because that is the main method by which everyone's success is being measured.  Creativity and individuality, in teachers and students alike, are sacrificed to protocol.  The problem is not going to be solved by more rigorous testing, by more drilling of facts that lead to high test scores, by firing teachers in schools that fail to 'perform', by making teachers feel the pressure of losing their jobs if their students don't test well.  In my opinion, if a school does not have the highest test scores around, it could be a sign that they are doing something right, that maybe there really is a more holistic learning process going on.

What is 'success' for our children?!  It looks like the film Race to Nowhere, which had its first screenings yesterday, may be taking a better look at the real problem.  I can't wait to check out the whole thing.

Have a listen...  Does this scenario seem at all familiar to you, either from your own schooling, or watching your own children now?  It brings tears to my eyes...



(In the DC/NOVA/MD area, the film will be screening at the Alexandria Film Festival: AMC Hoffman Movie Theaters in Alexandria, VA on November 6 at 1 pm; the Flint Hill School in Oakton, VA on November 11, all day;  and the Washington Waldorf School in Bethesda, MD on December 2 at 7:30 pm, among other places.  Visit their site for more info and other locations.) 


What we really need to ask is,
What makes for a successful learning experience?  What cultivates a successful - and fulfilled, and happy - human being?  Shouldn't that be the point of educating our loved ones?

Recently, I came across this article I'd like to share.  It is written by William A. Reinsmith, Professor of English at Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science.  Here he offers some great reminders for all of us, whether you are teaching your own children, teaching professionally, or looking for some fundamental criteria by which to determine whether your children are being taught in an effective way.  Of course, if your children are in school, you can only glean so much information by talking to them about their school day - your best hope at getting a real look at these determinants is to sit in on the classroom, more than once (especially since these days, children are being shuffled around to quite a number of teachers throughout the day, often even at the elementary level) - which of course for many parents means taking time off from work.  In some cases, that is just not really possible.  As your kids get older, you can ask them, how do they feel about the education they are getting?  What else could you do?  Ask them to watch these movies (Waiting for Superman and Race to Nowhere) or even screen them school-wide.  Go to PTA meetings, write inquiries to the principle and teachers, and present all or some of these points.  (I'll lay out the 10 points Professor Reinsmith makes, and you can go here for expansion upon each point, which I recommend you do.)  Let them know you care.  Ask them, flat-out, how they feel about these points, and how much they are really able to address the children's learning in this way:

"Ten Fundamental Truths About Learning

1. Learning first takes place through osmosis....
2. Authentic learning comes through trial and error....
3. Students will learn only what they have some proclivity for or interest in....
4. No one will formally learn something unless she believes she can learn it....
5. Learning cannot take place outside an appropriate context....
6. Real learning connotes use....
7. No one knows how a learner moves from imitation to intrinsic ownership, from external modeling to internalization and competence....
8. The more learning is like play, the more absorbing it will be-- unless the student has been so corrupted by institutional education that only dull serious work is equated with learning....
9. For authentic learning to happen, time should occasionally be wasted, tangents pursued, side-shoots followed up....
10. Tests are a very poor indicator of whether an individual has really learned something...."

In conclusion, Professor Reinsmith states: "All of these interconnected truths are general enough to apply to learning of any kind. They are so basic and obvious that one may wonder why they need to be stated at all. Our greatest educators have espoused them in some manner during the course of Western history. Yet it is the simple and obvious that we tend to overlook when discussing or recommending educational change. We often engage in educational activity as if these truths didn't exist--and then wonder why we fail to engender learning in our students. In any profession ignorance of its elemental laws will lead to shoddy, even disastrous, results. Perhaps a large part of the reason we educate so poorly is that we fail to observe and work within the fundamental principles of our craft, so we don't create environments in which they can be applied. Successful teaching can ensue only where the fundamental truths of learning are both observed and respected. Periodically, teachers on all levels need to return to those basic truths--however mysterious they may be--and reflect on them at length." (emphasis mine)

Many, if not all, of these points are at the heart of the unschooling philosophy (read a previous post that attempts to address what that is if you haven't heard of it), and why many of the life-schoolers that I know do what they do - because it is a whole lifestyle that lends itself naturally to nurturing learning in this way.  And I don't think it's impossible for schools to move towards this model, especially with the boom and boon of the internet and technology.

At the beginning of the last school year, I had the pleasure of covering President Obama's Education Address delivered at Wakefield High School here in Arlington.  (As some of you know, I'm a photographer who freelances sometimes with alexandrianews.org.)  I have to admit, I was inspired by some of what he had to say, and reminded that school - as broken as the system may be - does serve many many children with a way out of poverty, with hope for a brighter future than their parents and grandparents had, with an environment where perhaps someone takes the time to show they care, when it seems that no one else does.  And I know that there are also plenty of children, coming from supportive, well-meaning, involved families, who are self-motivated, strong, confident, and are able to weather the storm and get a pretty decent education out of the whole deal, with their sanity intact.  But overall, at what cost?  For so many of our children, even the ones dealing with it, the schedule, responsibility, and pressure is overwhelming, to the point that some just want it to end.
 
The sentiment coming from the top and trickling on down through the ranks is based on an old paradigm.  I think there is more than one road to success to be considered, more than one way to 'get an education', in or out of school.  As with so many issues concerning Obama, I believe his intentions are genuine and good, but that the actions needed to even begin to fix this issue may be insurmountable at this time, as the population has exploded and we are faced with a Herculean task of educating the masses; especially since society and the economy have been structured in such a way that both parents (if the child still 'has' both parents) must work, just to make ends meet, so children, from a very young age, must be placed somewhere, preferably for free, and occupied, all day long, 5 days a week.  In many households across the country, any family time, much less 'quality' family time where there is real connection and bonding taking place - without the time pressure of rushing to extracurricular activities, dinner, homework, cleaning up, getting ready for bed - is rare.  And we, as a culture, are experiencing the repercussions of that.  But that's the subject for another post...

As long as teachers are being forced by protocol (and fear of losing their underpaid jobs) to adhere to the SOLs and teach to the test, how much are they really being given the freedom and creativity to draw on these fundamental truths about learning as espoused by Professor Reinsmith?  How much are they being allowed to draw upon their own knowledge and ideas which inspired them to become teachers in the first place?

Here is a brief compiled excerpt of some of what the President had to say.  The last 5 sentences here are the most significant to me.  You can read the entire prepared speech here. 

Pres. Obama:

© artis moon amarche 2009

"...[W]hat I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. 

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide....

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it....

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork....

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying. 

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future....That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America."

The problem is that at the end of the day, ultimately, what does matter for every single one of us, is happiness.  And if you're being bullied day in and day out because of how you look, where you come from, where your parents come from, what your sexual orientation is, or so on, how can someone tell you that's no excuse for having a bad attitude?  Where's the love?  So many kids are really hurting because they are growing up in this disjointed, disconnected society where oftentimes they are left to feel emotionally isolated, like no one understands them, no one really knows them, and no one really cares.  (Common sense says that the bullies are hurting too in some way, as suggested by some recent articles I've read on the matter in the recent flurry of teen suicides.)  If they have the personal fortitude to tune it all out, or stuff it all down, and focus on their studies, get the grade, ace the test, what is awaiting them?  The promised land of college, where they very well may find more cruelty and harassment, and where they will get a 'higher' education with a much higher price tag, emerging from said institution saddled with debt that will be facing them for, in many cases, the majority of (if not the entirety of) their adult lives, so that they can go work in a job that they may not even like.  How many of you work in jobs that you can't stand?  How many people do you know who actually like and feel passionate about what they do? 

I don't pretend to have all the answers, because I don't, not even close.  At this point, what I can do is teach my own (because fortunately I am in a position to be able to do so), share & glean some  knowledge and creativity with other families & community around me, and keep asking questions - how can I do it better?  How can 'they' do it better?  Is the competitive, end-goal-driven, one-size-fits-all way of educating our youth contributing to the increasing epidemic of general apathy and disturbing cruelty some students display toward each other?  What type of education do our children, the adults of tomorrow, need to truly prepare them for life in the 21st century?  Somehow I feel, for one, education has to move beyond simply educating the mind, beyond the end-goal of diploma-college-$$JOB$$, and address emotional and spiritual development as well.  Is that possible to achieve on a mass scale?  The Mind & Life Institute is one organization I've come across that seems to have some interesting ideas on the matter.  I personally feel that integrating the arts and creativity are key to bringing in the emotional and spiritual components, which is why I'm a fan of Sir Ken Robinson.

What are your thoughts on the matter?  How do you deal with these issues in your own family?  Do you have any ideas for a revolution in education?  I'd love to hear from you....