What is the Future of Education?

1. 52

   dragonrider32posted 15 years ago

   One hundred years ago, if experienced educators were asked to hypothesize what education in 2010 would look like…I’m pretty sure they would have never guessed what we now see on the educational landscape. So where do we go from here? Some things need to change. The stifling and ill-conceived legislated programs and policies put in place by our “learned legislators” need to go. Point in fact: NCLB (or as educators refer to it…All Schools Left behind) is harmful, erroneous and devastating for kids, schools and communities…and when did any “business” set 100% success rate goals to all their products?! Anyone who has been in a school knows it doesn’t work that way. You cannot set goals for every kid within a time frame. All students CAN learn…but at their own rate and time. That’s not to say there doesn’t need to be accountability: there does…just reasonable and realistic goals with school and state working together to make education better, without the “witch hunts” and “which school is better?” craze of today. There needs to be more coordination between school systems, state educational systems, and the national government. But let it be developed and implemented and maintained by a reasonable group of educators (ones in the schools, not theorists), parents, business people and enlightened legislators. Pay teachers and administrators what they are worth. Sports stars making millions while the people who teach all our kids getting by on almost poverty incomes? That does not compute. You get what you pay for. Let’s put our money where our mouths are. If you want the best teachers to educate our kids…pay them. Let’s find ways for parents and educators to become more coordinated and communicate better and more often. Let’s make sure that our kids know that home and school is working together and not to try any “mom vs. dad” stuff. Let’s get book companies and corporations who make educational programs to be under scrutiny from an educational board and made to give us their very best to stay in business. Finally, let’s take a vow to truly care about every child…no matter where they come from, who they are, or what their needs are. Let’s make that vow that every child will be treated individually…and taught the skills and concepts they need when they need them, not just because they are in “such and such” a grade. Let them proceed at their own pace, and be there to celebrate with and guide them. Let’s make sure the next 100 years become our children’s and grandchildren’s “golden age”.

   replyreport
   1. 62

      HSanAlimposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      The future of Education for many families will be distance learning for their high school teenagers. This will be with accredited divisions of traditional, brick and mortar, state and regionally accredited high schools.
      
      This is already happening for thousands of students and has been for the last four years. Each year the numbers of students taking courses this way increases exponentially.

      replyreport
2. 57

   Sab Ohposted 15 years ago

   The future is privitization and competition......I hope

   replyreport
3. 54

   probafixposted 14 years ago

   As part of a Higher Education course my team and I are in, we have developed a thesis for a paper regarding Platforms of Resilience for non-profit education in an increasingly competitive market due…

   replyreport
4. 60

   theirishobserver.posted 14 years ago

   I learned yesterday that knowledge and learning have been about for many thousands of years and I dont think we are any way near as intellegent as our forefathers, http://hubpages.com/hub/New-Grange-Meath-Ireland

   replyreport
5. 54

   probafixposted 14 years ago

   It’s impossible to see the future of education from a single perspective. Many voices, many ideas, and many perspectives are required. While the future can’t be predicted, it can be somewhat anticipated by extrapolating current trends and innovations.

   replyreport
6. 74

   LeanManposted 14 years ago

   In my mind, privatization is the main route forward, without the school having the pressures of a real business there are no reasons to get better! If you can't perform then you lose money, what business will want that?
   
   The problem with this model however is that there is a huge difference between what children can realistically attain, if we only see a school as being successful if all students reach top grades then that school would have to select the most intelligent pupils to achieve this, thus we would have a multi tier system with the less intelligent children relegated to the "we accept anyone and we are cheaper" class of schooling.
   
   We need to review what is a successful school, is it one that turns out top grades or is it one that turns out employable, well adjusted people with relevant skills for the market place?

   replyreport
   1. 74

      Jeff Berndtposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Exactly. Grades and test scores are valid criteria for (student) evaluation, but they're not the gold standard that so many people make them out to be. They don't measure a student's progress; they're only a snapshot of where the student is at a particular time. Even this snapshot can be out of focus if a student gets anxious during tests, or is dealing with other issues that day, or whatever. Tests are one tool. There ought to be many others in the box.
      
      The problem with adding more tools is that they tend to be labor-intensive, expensive, and subjective, while a standardized test seems objective and is definitely easy, cheap, and quick.
      
      A school that has only highly intelligent, highly motivated students will of course do well on standardized tests, and of course those students will tend to graduate and go on to college. That's why private schools (which don't have to take--and can expel--low-performing students) seem to do so well in comparison with public schools (which must educate everybody, no matter how smart--or not smart--they may be).
      
      Until we can find the will to evaluate schools on a broader, more comprehensive set of criteria, we will never get a true picture of how the schools are performing.

      replyreport