How do we ensure that an entire generation of kids does not fail to make the grade…Are we shooting to low?
-- Our kids need to know more about the world, not more useless facts about the world
-- We need to put a premium on creative thinking, innovative thought and seeing patterns through chaos.
--We need to become better consumers of new sources of information
--Our kids need to have good people skills.
--Being skilled as communicators and teams members with people from different cultures.
Focus on depth over breadth: Few would argue that learning the causes of the Civil War is important, but memorizing the battles seems absurd.
This is a summary of an article from Time Magazine, Sunday Dec 10, 2006
2 comments:
At risk of beating dying or dead horses...which isn't nice because they are noble beasts...bringing schools out of the 20th century is going to require a shift in paradigm on all of our parts.
Encouraging, expecting, cajoling, and supporting school personnel to "think" differently about how we go about the business of education is critical. I believe it is imperative that we, as educational leaders, embrace the need and will to be instrumental in evolving our educational system into the 21st century. We so often hear parents/teachers/ourselves lament that our current pedagogy worked for us, so why do we have to change what we are doing? We turned out ok (I'm assuming that there are disparaging comments being muttered about my possible lack of "ok-ness"). But I think the students deserve better from us and we have the ethical duty to prepare students, to the best of our ability, for the world they will be required to function in.
How do we as administrators help not only ourselves, but school staff to develop a comfortable relationship with "change"? And if we can't manage comfortable...how about at least having an open-mind and a willing spirit? We get so used to doing something one way, and it begins to feel like that favorite faded sweatshirt that you love to wear. We loathe giving up that which we have become accustomed to, and risk trying something new and different. And for many teachers, it will be stepping out of the role of "lecturer" to one of "facilitator"--a person willing to learn and grow with their class.
We have lots to do...but how fun and challenging!
You are correct. Here is an example. I invited 3 staff to participate in the possible development of Moodle courses. This would be putting their current coursework on-line and also expanding into classroom CHAT, BLOG, WIKI etc. One has done nothing more than request time-off, request pay for "new" work, in-service and more. Another refused because her "intuition" tells her if she does this then we will need less teachers. SO... 2 of 3 can't seem to hurdle over the fence of the status quo.
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