Hi All,
def; paradigm shift: a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions.
What is the job we want done by our educational system and is it doing it?
The true purpose of any educational versus just training process is to inspire the student to go forth on their own in order to learn more. In todays and tomorrows world that means to inspire at a level that life long self directed learning becomes the major desirable outcome of formalized education. This is the necessary key to flexibility and adaptability in a specialized rapidly ever changing world our students are heading into.
The big question we must be asking is why are 31% of NM 9th graders not graduating? To answer that question the attached animation offers a perspective we are ignoring in order to maintain a system we have been “taught” to trust when in all reality it no longer is deserving of that trust.
For formalized and standardized education to change would be equivalent to a fleet of passenger filled airliners having a total overhaul mid flight. The covid years of schools being essentially grounded offered that needed ground time but the system (because it is a megalithic government monopoly) was unwilling to make the changes which I can only assume was because of a self chosen ignorance and the disruptions it would create for its standardized workforce. Of course, as usual, the students needs (beyond being back in free daycare) were not in the equation.
Of course few even read the recall manuals and because of that there were no new pilots trained to fly the reconfigured planes. Many overhaul manuals were written years (if not decades) before covid. I have offered numerous resources by experts in the field that came out long before covid that the mechanics of rebuild should have been trained in, consulted with and allowed to implement. Covid was a blessing in that it offered that needed pause but we and the THEY refused to accept any real need because of wanting to just get back to being able to travel from A (K) to B (12)).. Today school just goes back to standardization as usual with a few new caveats added in. No more masks we all cheer, but what about the kids that fall out the door because the latch was not changed? What about reconfiguring the vehicle that takes the students into their futures and not just education workers into their retirement years?
Almost every dialogue I hear on education reform is always the same, people are in disagreement about content being taught or not taught. Any correction in that to favor one group or another is solely for the purpose of standardizing children as to one group versus another’s preferential standardized outcome. This just perpetuates the problem on a broader field.
School choice and let the money follow the student are the big buzz phrases but if the choice is just a variety of ways of standardizing children have we really made the corrective paradigm shift that children more than just deserve? I think not. As Socrates taught 2,400 years ago, dialogue must be in the community and not just in the ivory towers of academia or government institutions. We the people is where the answer lies but those people must self direct their learning so informed long term objectives are pursued that match the children’s needs to prosper in their and their families future. We must drive ahead looking out the windshield instead of looking in the rear view mirror.
Changing education paradigms (Sir Ken Robinson | RSA Animate)
https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms?utm_source=tedcomshare&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tedspread
Rob Wood
