Three Questions
David Warlick recently posed some questions to a group he was speaking to out of state. I changed his questions, somewhat, as I might address educators, not policy leaders:
- What does the future hold for education?
- What aren’t schools and districts doing to prepare for the future?
- What change in society might help improve the impact of our jobs?
I think asking thought-provoking questions is an excellent way to begin professional development sessions; meetings, or discussions in the coffee house. I thought I’d proffer a few of my own ideas.
Future for Education. More challenges. We’ll continue to see society look at schools to solve the problems schools identify, but may not ultimately be responsible for. The future also holds promise. If we aren’t optimistic, we might as well accept defeat.
What aren’t we doing… In some cases we’re not preparing students with authentic experiences. I made the analogy today with a colleague about driving cars and the full, un-restricted Web in schools: “It’s like the bumper cars at the amusement park… I’d want my elementary son or daughter to have a bumper car experience with the Web in elementary school. In high school, it’s time for the bumpers to be removed, and scars inflicted; it’s only fair to prepare them with the real deal. We do as much teaching them to drive cars, right?”
In other cases, we aren’t keeping kids accountable to our own rules because the homes they come from value our rules or the idea of rules so little.
What changes could impact us… I for one would support more innovative practices to attract high-quality teachers. Tuition waivers for college, for one. More innovative use of planning and personnel (more personnel, to support more professional development, planning time, etc.). These are societal changes, in effect, because our at-large society needs to come together to support the wholesale improvement of our educational system. A country less obsessed with capitalism (i.e., fewer work hours, more vacation, etc.) would likely change the dynamics of homelife for students.
It’s late; I do require sleep. 
April 4th, 2008 at 5:52 am
Your thoughts on changes that could be helpful are very insightful. The school where I am at uses the 8 carnegie 45 minute classes and a regular teacher load is 6 with 1 prep and the other period is lunch / homeroom. This puts a huge damper on planning time and causes most of the teachers to use the sage-on-the-stage workksheet to death teaching style. I often wonder what limiting the course load and switching to a block or trimester plan with longer periods would do.