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December 19, 2006
A how-to for the 21st centuryTime Magazine, yes, the same people who brought us ourselves as the "Person of the Year", recently came out with an article touting "How to bring our schools out of the 20th Century." BoardBuzz will forgive them for their cop-out of naming us (although we were flattered and are considering adding it to our resume) as Person of the Year, because the article offers some really interesting suggestions for updating the modern school.
The article criticizes the "big public conversation the nation is not having about education, the one that will ultimately determine not merely whether some fraction of our children get 'left behind' but also whether an entire generation of kids will fail to make the grade in the global economy because they can't think their way through abstract problems, work in teams, distinguish good information from bad or speak a language other than English," and goes on to criticize the competency required by NCLB as "the meager minimum."
Fine. And the article actually offers solutions for what needs to change, including: making students into "global citizens," learning a foreign language and foreign history; interdisciplinary learning and "thinking outside the box"; being able to process and digest the sources that are coming at them from all directions--this is the information age, after all; and becoming students with high EQs (that's emotional intelligence) as well as high IQs.
And there are innovative schools and teachers who are tackling these tasks head on. For example, a second grade class as John Stanford International School in Seattle challenges students to name how many ways you can combine nickels dimes and pennies to get 20 cents. All students at the school take some classes in either Japanese or Spanish. "Stanford international shows what's possible for a public elementary school, although it has the rare advantage of support from corporations like Nintendo and Starbucks, which contribute to its $1.7 million-a-year budget."
Farmington High School in Michigan has an engineering-technology department that "functions like an engineering firm, with teachers as project managers, a Ford Motor Co. engineer as a consultant and students working in teams. The principles of calculus, physics, chemistry, and engineering are taught through activities," and results in kids who "learn to apply academic principles to the real world, think strategically, and solve problems."
It sounds like we can all take a lesson from these innovative programs. Do you know of a 21st century program? Leave a comment and tell us about it.
Posted December 19, 2006 9:21 AM | Curriculum
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