Education: This I Believe
Despite what some of my colleagues might think I believe, I don’t believe all the technology in the world is going to improve education. With that said, now I can move on, since I was tapped, on what I do believe about education.
First, what can save education? Does it need saving? Most folks agree that the public education system is broken in the U.S. Despite the dollars spent, the standards prescribed, or the teachers trained, we (as a country) still aren’t competing at the same levels as other countries. A recent Time magazine article documented some of the differences separating U.S. schools from those in other lands, notably Finland and Singapore. For one, they outlined that
Most U.S. teachers, on the other hand, have no time to work with colleagues during the school day. They plan by themselves and get a few hit-and-run workshops after school, with little opportunity to share knowledge or improve their practice.
Compare this with Finland, where education is specialized for the needs of each learner, or in Singapore, where
To get the best teachers, the institute recruits students from the top third of each graduating high school class into a fully paid four-year teacher-education program (or, if they enter later, a one-to-two-year graduate program) and puts them on the government’s payroll. When they enter the profession, teachers’ salaries are higher than those of beginning doctors.
What I believe, then, is yes we have education problems, and yes there are solutions available better than what we’re trying now. First, our communities have to take a bigger, more significant stake in the educational process. I’m talking going beyond attending a principal’s breakfast or a PTA meeting. To take that bigger role, families can’t leave their kids unsupervised while they work. They have to physically get themselves into schools more often. Schools, or whatever we want to call the environmental hubs of the educational system, need to serve our communities as centers of cultural and information exchange. This process might start by giving students and their families more voice in the vision of a school. But it might also include lifelong educational opportunities: public schools for adults and parents.
Second, we really need to raise the status of teaching in America. We need to do it socially, granting educators more respect, through compensation, and through professional practices that raise expectations for utilizing the latest research, tools, and information we have to teach.
Third, the educational system must shift with the times and prepare students not for simple jobs, basic citizenship, or “just” college preparation. While these are each noble, American schools should set sights on survival in a globally-connected world through the mastery of a variety of twenty-first century skills. Central among these should be creativity, problem-solving, and communications.
This is what I believe about education:
- Families should become more involved in the educational process through participation in school activities and the elevation of the school as a community center,
- America needs to raise the status of teachers by paying them more professionally, raising expectations for keeping them at the top of their game, and by giving them the voice of the experts they are in their field,
- Re-shape curricular goals by emphasizing so-called 21st-century skills.
I tap several of my colleagues, on what they believe.
May 20th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Great comments! Perhaps secondary education needs to be evaluated and altered from its very core. Grading, the carnegie unit, the calendar – all seem somewhat at odds with creating a culture of learning.
May 29th, 2008 at 8:17 am
[...] Hendron makes a contribution to this conversation in his This I Believe post. John covers several topics but his comments about teachers are particularly relevant to my own [...]