So, I noticed that Jeri Ellsworth tweeted a link to a video from Dr. Tae, a “skateboarder, videographer, scientist, and teacher,” with his point of view on education, what’s wrong with it, and what can be done to fix it.
I was going to use Twitter to mention my thoughts about this video, but then I thought, I’ve got a whole lot more thoughts than would fit in 140 characters, and this would be more appropriate for a blog entry. Because this is such a long post, I’ll continue after the jump. Before I begin, I’ll note that I don’t have any real background in education. I did work for three years at a K-12 private school specializing in mental health, behavioral handicaps, and learning disabilities, although I worked as a computer technician and system administrator, not a role that involved teaching any students. That said, I am (even if I’m not going to any school at this time) a student. I learn things. (Also, I went to the same K-12 school for 10 years as a student.) Therefore, I’d like to think I know something about learning, just from my experiences.
First things first, I agree that our current educational system is failing this country, and something needs to be done about it. Students go to class and “learn” things because they’re required to by law, not because they want to. In the interest of not “leaving children behind,” education is being dumbed down to “pass” the least common denominator, echoing the dystopia of Harrison Bergeron. An environment of learning doesn’t exist – an environment of getting good grades so you don’t get punished exists…. the students that are falling behind gain a distaste for learning in general due to the effects of bad grades, the students that are ahead gain a distaste for learning because they’re bored out of their skulls.
Not only that, but Dr. Tae brings up that teachers are either unqualified for their positions (they get a certification (a good grade) saying that they can teach,) or they’re there for research and completely uninterested in actually teaching (so they teach at students, rather than teach students.)
Dr. Tae proposes a couple of solutions to this problem – the first being, personalize education, teach students by letting them work until they truly understand the concepts that they’re being taught, giving them assistance where needed, and teaching them to master subjects, rather than get good grades on a test. The second is, rather than have teaching and learning happen at school, make it happen in the real world, and have everyone teach everyone what they know. He does mention that the culture of learning needs to change for this to work.
I’ll note that the biggest strength of the school where I went from third grade all the way through high school, and graduated from, was the low ratio of students per staff member. This meant that the staff could easily focus on the students, and their individual needs. I will note that most of the curriculum that this school taught was below the expected level for the grades that were being taught, but when a student did need curriculum that was at an advanced level, this school was able to get students enrolled in college early. I was able to take advantage of that program during the entire time that I was in high school.
On the flip side, however, the financial cost of providing this level of service to students was incredibly high. The good news is, most students that went to this school were sent by a public school who couldn’t meet the requirement to provide an adequate education to that student. Some even qualified under Medicare, due to the fact that this school is also a licensed mental health facility.
Also, the throughput of this school was low – in my senior year, I recall there being approximately 140 students. Granted, these were in all grades, K-12… but my graduating class was 9. I also recall that 140 was a self-imposed cap, so that an adequate level of service would be able to be provided by all staff.
So, expensive (on the COST side of things, not just the price to get in,) and low throughput. The two things that most American public schools try to not be.
Public schools are intended to get students in and out quickly and cheaply (note that this can actually be expensive to those who are funding the school – it just needs to be cheap for the school itself to “teach” students, so that those in power can pay themselves more, or fund things that are unrelated to learning with taxpayer funds.) Going at a student’s pace isn’t getting them through quickly, and requires individualized education (which requires that a teacher not be split 30 ways,) so things like quarter systems are needed to set a pace. (I’m not saying that this is a good thing, mind you.) Evaluation of student proficiency needs to be done quickly and in a standardized manner, and the easiest, fastest, and cheapest way is paper testing. (Testing is a good thing, IMO – I’m not sure that there’s a good way outside of testing to verify a student’s competence in a subject, that is both consistent and easily applied – but testing should be a test of the student’s skills, not a test of the student’s ability to cram. Tests should be designed to involve the student actually DOING, rather than REMEMBERING – then, cheating is impossible.)
Now, one point that Dr. Tae brings up… if a student doesn’t want to learn something, they’re not going to learn it. This is true, but what about subjects that are necessary for the student to function in society? The school where I went had quite a few students that didn’t want to learn basic subjects. The staff did work extensively to interest students in those subjects, but sometimes, you do have to go the coercive route, to force the student to learn those subjects, IMO. I agree that our society does use the coercive route too much, to force students into things that are pointless, but sometimes it’s quite simply required to get the point across to the student.
Of course, that leads into another point about the coerciveness and forced authority of schools. A few years ago, I stumbled on a Slashdot article that reviewed John Taylor Gatto’s Underground History of American Education. I must admit that I never actually got around to reading the book, but Chris Acheson, the author of the Slashdot article, summarized some of Gatto’s points. This one is the most relevant, IMO:
The true purpose of schooling, according to Gatto, is to produce an easily manageable workforce to serve employers in a mass-production economy. Actual education is a secondary and even counterproductive result since educated people tend to be more difficult to control.
Aaaaaaand, if that’s the case, that explains the culture of coercion and authority, rather than a drive to share knowledge.
So, to start bringing this wall of text to an end…
OK, let’s say we let students learn what they want, at their own pace. (This should obviously be encouraged whenever possible, but I’m talking about in a school setting, for all subjects.) How do we get them to want to learn subjects that they truly need to learn to be functional? (Admittedly, Dr. Tae doesn’t bring up early childhood education much, if at all, other than to say that the US actually leads in science education during that time frame. Maybe we’re doing things right, there, but not transitioning to a correct approach later on?)
How do we get society to pay for the additional resources that will be required for this? (Let’s face it, we’re in the middle of a nasty recession, and this also starts to get DEEP into politics.) For that matter, how do we effect the change that will be necessary to make society want this? I think it’ll take more than just making learning happen outside of the school.
Dr. Tae mentions that certification (grades, or actual certifications) in lieu of qualification (actual mastery of skills) is bad… but how do we efficiently and consistently certify qualification (this is necessary, to make sure that students actually DO have skills, to measure their progress, and to be able to assure, for example, potential employers that a student has mastered certain skills,) without being coercive? This is even MORE critical if teaching and learning is done outside of the school environment.
All in all, I think Dr. Tae makes some excellent points, and I certainly like the direction he wants to go, but I just wanted to comment on my experiences, and weaknesses that I find in his suggestions, or things that I feel he didn’t explain his solution to adequately. Feel free to flame me if you think I’m wrong about something. 🙂
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