Thinking about Educating for the Future-Part 2

Throughout the semester we have focused the difficulties of preparing 21st century students in a early 20th century classroom. The fact of the matter is that big changes need to be made. Yet, as pointed out by founder of The Leadership and Learning Center Dr. Douglass Reeves, most policy makers are 20th century bred students who only see the benefits of their 20th century learning. After all, isn’t that how they got to where they are?

I am in the trenches daily, and I can tell you that what we are doing now is not working. Maybe a complete overhaul is not the answer; maybe it is. Yet I do know that writing a bunch of numbers on the board that represent some state standard or plastering my classroom with student work or sitting my students in some sort of magical arrangement is not the answer to improve learning. Rather it is a change in what we perceive students to be learning. A change in what learning looks like.

We can start doing this by first realizing that how we assess students is not realistic. We must change our ideas on how to asses to test what the student knows and what they can do. It is not fair to expect that between the predesignated days a junior in high school who is a single mother with barely any help from her family will perform as well as a junior in high school who’s parents are involved in her daily activities. Policy makers and the higher ups need to see that one size does not fit all. Yes we need to find a way to see overall what the student’s have learned but our current tactic does not reflect that. I do not claim to know the answer for this but I would be willing to try and find out. 

Changes need to be made in testing but they also go hand in hand with the skills learned to prepare them for a major assessment. Parts of schooling need to change as well. I do not agree with the notion that how we do things should be completely scratched; rather that we need to weed out the obsolete. Our classrooms should be overflowing with student creativity and teachers who are willing to take chances. As a teacher, I do give formal tests because that is what is expected of me.  However, I have found that as the years have progressed I am giving less tests and more hands on projects. I see that not only are the students enjoying themselves more, but I am too! Enjoyment is not the only factor, learning is still taking place and that is what counts the most. 

If finding the answer to our current educational dilemma was as easy as writing this blog post, I do not think that we would be where we are. Many people have wrestled with this idea and thrown out possible solutions. What most of those ideas have in common is a urgent calling for a new school age where children will learn to be creative, educators will be willing to try out new ideas and assessments will cater to individuality.