School, Student, Graduate v2.0
An interesting article has been posted by Sean over at students2oh.org. As a creative student, Sean writes mostly about the educational system’s obsession with examinations and quantifying knowledge.
He points out that the system is set up in a way that makes grades the most important thing, instead of depth of understanding, or creative expression of ideas. He champions the students who can ‘hear a song in silence’ or ’see art in a blank canvas’. These types of students will be the heroes of the new internet age, provided they can get some perspective, encouragement and introduction to the tools to help them bring their ideas into reality.
Schools, then, in the 2.0 era, need to be aware of this shift. More importantly, the shift needs to be recognized by administration -districts and states that mandate what needs to be taught, and how students must be measured for success or failure. But the shift that is taking place puts the decision of success or failure in the hands of the people. The opinion of the masses determine whether an effort is epic win or epic fail. Some of the concern, IMO, is that when you allow teachers to have open-ended classes, with project-based learning, without standardized testing the result may be disastrous. Perhaps a teacher doesn’t have the skills, training, or motivation to handle the ‘new’ classroom. Perhaps there are teachers who won’t ensure that their students are pushed to their potential. But this is nothing new, it happens already, despite standardized testing and state standards.
Students need to be prepared for world 2.0, job 2.0, just plain life 2.0. (I loathe myself for continuing this 2.0 cliche, BTW) The idea of meeting the standards of the powerful few keeps minds trapped inside a box that only perpetuates the current state of things. Things won’t change or evolve without creative, inspired ideas; and we can’t get those by placing so many rules and specific expectations on students. Keeping things the way they are will only ensure that we always get what we’ve always got; and I sense a growing dissatisfaction with that model.
