Below is a video we watched the first day of class at the beginning of the quarter. It really blows my mind with how eloquent, interesting and engaging it is. The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) took a speech by Sir Ken Robinson and turned it into an animated infographic. The talk poses some really great questions about how we view education in our society, and from where those conceptions came (hint: the intellectual culture, social structure and economic imperative of the Enlightenment).
If learning were this fun all the time, we wouldn't have as many problems with education. One of the things that really jumps out at me is the idea that we shuttle our anesthetized kids through school by age -- "manufacture date" -- as opposed to any sort of objective system. What works for one kid, for one classroom, for one entire socioeconomic class, doesn't work for all.
I've seen this video before - pretty interesting! And I agree about the "manufacture date" problem. Differentiation is a huge buzzword in education right now, but it's hard to individualize the curriculum for a class with reading levels ranging from 3rd grade to 11th grade (as was the case with my 5th/6th grade class last semester).
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, tracking is not really ideal either... once you put a child into a "lower" class, it is EXTREMELY difficult to move into a higher one. Studies also show that a teacher's expectations for students have a huge impact on their success. If a student is put into a "lower" group, chances are they'll just grow up thinking they're not smart and consequentially will not try as hard.
I'm not sure what the happy medium is. The one thing I'm sure of is that there are no "quick fixes" to the problems that our educational system faces.