Education has always taken a back seat to other more pressing issues like war, the economy, health care, social issues, and other policies. Not since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 has education been a key policy--and we all know how horribly that turned out. Even though education normally takes a back seat, it is one of the worst parts of public policy to be abridged. When there is bad educational policy for one year we loose twelve grades of students who could have been better educated. It can be described as a lost decade of learning. That is why it is imperative that we change education--reform it--so that the future will show America as the shining beacon on the hill. How might we change education so that we are educating for the future? We follow the steps of teaching for the sake of teaching.
Such an example is that of my 5th grade teacher Paula Fraser who created a pilot program with the Foundation for the Future. http://www.futurefoundation.org/... My class was the pilot project of "Young Scholar's Inquiry." Throughout the two months of the project, we had to write about a topic that interests us, give a PowerPoint presentation about it, create a synthesis of our project and culminate in a field trip to the Foundation for the Future for a day of discussions about the future of humanity. This experience truly revolutionized my education. It was in an abstract setting which allowed for individuality and creativity to reign. The project allowed for independent thinking and critically analyzing situations in hope for a better future.
In addition, in 5th grade we learned about something extraordinary--the Constitution. One of the first days of school, Ms. Fraser handed us a pocket size Constitution that we kept and read for the year. In an era when the Constitution has been repeatedly abused and tortured, all students should have the ability to read and understand the most important document in the nation. There was another small booklet that was given to the class, a critical thinking booklet. Ms. Fraser's philosophy was "I don't care what you think, but you better have good reasoning to back it up." That is the best philosophy for a teacher to convey to her students, it really made me THINK! It was especially useful for when we had in class discussions about current events.
For political discussions, we were given the pretext of meeting our state legislators and a justice in the Washington State Supreme Court. That--above all--influenced my decision to become more interested in politics and to pay more attention to the world. It was a truly formative experience, to ask my two State House representatives how they worked together when one was a Democrat and the other a Republican. The answer was one of bipartisanship and gave me hope for my state. It should be a requirement for State Representatives and State Senators to visit local classrooms!
To educate for the future we not only need to get off of the test taking mentality, we must also change how we teach. Ms. Fraser was a great teacher because she did not pretend to know the answer, she made us--her students--find the answer through critical thinking. To have an educated populous, to have a posterity worthy of this Republic which has been passed down through the generations, it is not only a good idea to teach critical thinking, it is imperative. This begs the question, what is the goal of education and how might we attain a better way to achieve that goal?
We need a new curriculum created by teachers, not lobbyists. A curriculum devoted to letting students function in our Republic. A K-12 plan which will incorporate the needs of every student at every situation of learning. The idea of "merit badges" was brought up by Orinoco in a comment on this diary: http://www.dailykos.com/...
You set up a standard set of skills or knowledge. Make up a little handbook that specifies what you need to learn or do to get your "badge" in that subject. The handbook also points you to resources, either on the web or in the library, that you might use. Each subject requires a practical demonstration, a test and a project of some sort, which has to be signed off by someone who knows the subject.
I like this idea, but only for 11th and 12th grade. It would incorporate much individualized learning which would not be good for elementary or middle school students. I envision that it would be like the International Baccalaureate diploma program http://www.ibo.org/... It would allow individual learning while also being part of a school environment. For 10th grade I envision a Young Scholar's Inquiry class in lieu of History, even though I did it in 5th grade, I feel I could have learned much more and research better if I had the ability to do it again next year. I also envision that 10th grade would have a class devoted to the Constitution, civic duty, and philosophy. For 6-9th grades I envision classes based on students ability and classes based on career interests. Give students classes in computer science, art, music, foreign languages, drama, philosophy, history, science, math and English. 6-9th grade would serve the purpose of continuing core class education(math, history, science, English) and giving students the opportunity to decide what types of classes interest them for 10-12 grade. For elementary school, I envision a system similar to the one now, in addition to one where students are taught to love learning, social etiquette, and critical thinking.
The current educational system is flawed, that is a fact. The current system is not adequate to keep America that shining beacon on the hill. We must change the system for posterity and the future of humanity. The Foundation for the Future has a year 3000 plan for humanity. Putting aside the risks of Global Warming, war mongering, and Republicans, how can we make sure humanity can survive until the year 3000 with an educational system that is flawed and does not teach?