If Anyone Asks Me...

This week I received an email with a plan the government has for addressing the problems with education. I must admit, after the first few paragraphs, I was disgruntled. Not because I believe education doesn't need reform, but because I think that we are still missing the entire crux of the issue - nowhere in that document did the author(s) describe what an educated person of the 21st Century should look like, act like, or know. Why would we design a system to correct something when we don't know exactly what it is we want as an outcome?

You might say, well, we need accountability. Apparently, the government needs to blame A PROFESSION for this mess. So the suggestion is to test the teacher candidates...and if they pass the test, they get to teach. These teachers get jobs, but if those teachers fail to have their students in the K-12 classroom pass their 'tests' then we can hold the universities (who trained those teachers) accountable for the failure. Hmmm....with that logic, shouldn't congress be held responsible for the failings of the banks? Or the lack of jobs? I mean, who is the ONE person responsible for this mess? Seems to me, with that logic, one would be able to tag the ONE person responsible, punish them and be done with it right? All fixed. As sarcastic as I am being now, I am not saying that accountability isn't vastly important. I am just saying that perhaps we are continuing to look at education the wrong way. By looking backward instead of forward.

For instance, let's go back to a discussion of how to educate a child. What do we want for that child? What is needed for that child to become a successful member of society? As any of us of a certain age would agree, the world was vastly different during the century our grandparents lived in, and it has changed even faster for the next two generations. Change is not likely to slow in the near future. Rather than looking back to 'regain' what we think we have lost - which is a post for another day - perhaps we should begin to look forward to what we need to gain. What we might imagine the future to be. We don't need to relive the good old days - we need to create the good ol' days of the future! And we have to determine what that might look like before we decide how to assist our children in getting to a future we may never see.

I can tell you what isn't going to work. Creating a generation of Americans who can't imagine the next big thing. A generation devoid of creativity...a generation where having ONE right answer to bubble in is the only way they understand how to achieve. A generation who believes competition is more valuable than collaboration, and that winning is the only goal at any cost.

I believe our children need the kind of education that encourages them to continue to be curious about the world over a lifetime. The kind of education where each student is encouraged to be the kind of adult who uses his or her imagination to envision a better world, a better car, a better yard, a better family. The kind of education that encourages collaboration and construction of knowledge which acknowledges the multiplicity of viewpoints and celebrates diversity. The kind of education that is truly the social equalizer, where no matter how much money a parent makes, each and every child will have access to the same kinds of programs in art, music, theatre, dance, health and physical education. The kind of education where the graduates lead by example, with a highly developed sense of social justice and emotional intelligence. The kind of education which encourages the ethics of care for all life on the planet.

What do we want for our nation in the future? Again, I sure don't want a group of adults leading the country who trained in ways which were obsolete by the time they began their careers, because it was flush with tests that had bubbled-in multiple choice answers. I want adults who can solve problems creatively because they can think in many different ways, and can work well with others, finding solutions to the difficult issues that will continue to plague mankind. I want adults who care as much about the welfare of others as they do for their own, where making a buck involves lifting others up, not keeping it away from someone else.

Anyway, if anyone would ask me, that is where I would start.