Education Reform for the Next Generation

The teacher stands before their High School Math class. “OK, so, in calculating a slope, you have to remember that Y=mx + b”. “Why?” responds the student. “Why do we have to know how to calculate a slope?” Of course, the student immediately receives a disciplinary referral for disrupting the class. The teacher knows they have to learn this. It’s important! This teacher spent 5 years of their life preparing to teach. They love math, they understand the subtle thinking that learning math can open. They have learned how to think logically, how to look at problems (not only math, but complex life problems) from different aspects. Why don’t these students understand that math must be learned precept upon precept? The teacher knows that you have to know how to solve for “x” before you can solve for “x” and “y”. That’s how the teacher learned. That’s how everyone over 30 learned for a thousand years! The problem is, that’s NOT how these students have learned about life.

Let’s take “Johnny” as an example. Johnny is 15 years old and just finishing his freshman year at high school. Johnny’s grades are poor to say the least. He is among the 50% of freshman in California that are in danger of failing his Algebra 1 class. He doesn’t remember his multiplication tables very well and just can’t seem to focus on multi-step problems with any great success. He forgets to do all the steps to solve quadratic equations, and will often not follow the order of operations in his linear equations. In other words, he’s a typical 9^th grader in trouble.

Johnny was born in 1994. He has never seen a “record” turntable other than as a Disc-Jockey effects machine. He has never had access to less than 50 television channels, or had to look up a fact in an encyclopedia. He has always had internet access, microwaves, transportation, video games, and been able to instantly access the music he wants to hear. When Johnny wants an answer to a question, he Googles, texts, tweets, IMs, or watches a science or history channel. He does not read news papers (which may be extinct before this is published), listen to lectures, or experience the frustration of not being able to find the information he seeks.

We, the Gen Xer’s, Baby Boomers, or AARPer’s, think Johnny isn’t interested in learning. That he wants everything done for him. He doesn’t WANT everything done for him, it already is. This is the world he lives in. There is a tremendous gap between what he experiences out of school, and what he experiences in the classroom. So great is this difference that Johnny has become convinced that formal education may not be worth the effort. We, the establishment, are trying to convince him that It IS important without much success. The stark fact is that education is increasingly out of touch with what today’s student really needs to become a successful, productive, informed citizen.

Isn’t that the goal of education? To help a young person develop a sense of self, a well rounded, and well founded, view of the world in which we live? That’s classical educational philosophy. It’s still a sound point of view. The problem seems to be, that we’re trying to prepare a student for a world that no longer exists. This is not to say that the information we’d like a student to learn can’t be valuable. Indeed, knowing how to communicate, how to calculate using advanced math (Algebra and Geometry), being familiar with science and history, and learning about arts and other general knowledge is still important for every person. That’s why (in America and most of the Western world) we have public education. We want our next generation to be prepared for assuming the responsibility of guiding our society.

“Guiding” is the key. Education has a unique paradox which is built into the present system. We want to prepare our students for the future, but we’re still using the techniques of the past. Many of our students (especially those born after 1999) can’t read, or at least have difficulty in reading cursive. Is this a failure of education? They write in block (printing) lettering and can’t even read a cursive note. Why is this? If we think about it, where can they read cursive in today’s’ society? They read print in their books, they read print in their magazines, they read print everywhere. What source do they have to cursive writing? Do they receive letters from friends? Or, do they get IM’s? Educational thinking is that they need to learn cursive so that they can write more efficiently. Realistic thinking might be they need to learn to TM at an earlier age so that they can communicate more effectively.

The real issue isn’t what is taught in public schools, but rather, how education is approached in order to truly prepare young people for the future. It’s not WHAT we’re doing; it’s the WAY in which we’re doing it. OMG!