Paul Hillsdon is a 16 year old youth currently residing in the suburbs of Vancouver, Canada. He spends most of his time perusing the internet, catching up on TV shows, and thinking up crazy ideas. Paul is currently muddling through the last years of high school. Afterwards, he intends to pursue his dreams and ideals as long as financially possible.
Paul initially developed his ideas around education through some turbulent times in school. After being the straight-A, teacher’s pet, top dog student in school for a few years, he hit a wall. Succumbing to the social pressures of high school, he discovered that there were only two reasons to be in school: socializing and learning. Being able to focus entirely on the educational aspect, he realized how screwed up it was.
After a rough Grade 9, wherein he experienced two terrible teachers, he lost all motivation for schooling and refused to return. He continued his studies for Grade 10 onwards with Surrey Connect, a local district-funded online school. Realizing that distance education was 10 times worse than regular school, he intends to return back to a building and graduate with grades that will enable him attend university, in the case that he may one day wish to.
Paul would be interested in your feedback after reading this article. Please contact the Initiative with questions or comments.
Education was written in 2006.
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Our education system is in a dire situation. Based on 19th century needs, the system has become cluttered, complex, bureaucratic, and most importantly nearly useless. The only reason most people stay in school is because it’s simply it’s much easier to get a well paid job by getting a degree. To get a degree, you need to be accepted into college or university. To get accepted you need to graduate grade school with good grades. And there’s where it begins. Focus shifts from teaching and raising an aware, creative, inspired and capable creature, to advancing to the next grade. It’s not about the child, it’s not about his or her capabilities; it’s about the grades. They have become the one single and most important variable in a student’s school experience.
But it’s not just grades that are deteriorating the school experience. It’s the bureaucracy. With the rise of unions in the 60′s, many people who shouldn’t be teachers are have guaranteed protection. Whether they’ve lost their excitement for teaching or they just arent good with kids; the unions keep them safe from firing. However, it’s not just teachers the problem. There’s a constant lack of discussion between not only teachers and administration, but school districts, unions, and government. Frankly, these “organizations” have gotten so caught up in themselves for the past decades, that they’ve completely forgot what the number on focus is and should always be: the student. Tech support should not take over a month to arrive, principals should have some control over not just students but the teachers and the resources of the school, secretaries should not be looked down upon, special education teachers should not be teaching P.E., and school districts should be able to competently balance their budgets much more efficiently than they currently are.
And our final problems in this ghastly learning trio of problems is the students themselves. The kids that are in our school today are very much different than their parents of their teacher’s generation; what Marc Prensky calls digital natives. These kids were born into a rapid, constantly changing world rampent with the key behind our information and communication revolution: technology. Whether in the form of computers, the internet, video games, television, cell phones, biotechnology, robotics, portable audio players, etc.; everything is shifting from analog to digital and has been for a long time. While many studies continue on how this new world is affecting how these children learn, one thing is certain: they are not the same kids our education system was built for.
To change the way our education system works, we’ve got to start from the ground up. Not only do we need to determine how these kids learn and how that affects the curriculum and learning styles, but we need to realign our school workers mind’s to be set on the goal of the student and change the public’s perspective on what school is about.
There are many different opinions on what school is for. Some say it is to learn the academics, others believe school’s also teach social and civic responsibilities. Frankly, our education system need a rehaul now and cannot wait other ten years until scientists devulge through their studies what school is for. In my opinion, school should be about raising a child who is not just a capable worker for the GDP, but one who is a fundamental requirement to society. Schools need to be facilitating the full development of young children to a young adult; raising people who are vocal enough to question the unquestionable, creative enough to imagine the unimaginable, resourceful enough to answer their own questions, and radical enough to believe they can change the world for the better. We cannot stick by the lowest common denominator, hoping to have kids come out of high school being able to read. We need to reach for the stars! We should be striving to raise the next Neil Armstrong, Pierre Trudeau, Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, Alexander Graham Bell, James Naismith, or Steven Spielberg. We need to be raising kids who are able to advance the human race. That alone is a colossal fundamental change in the way the education system currently works.
Fine, so we’re raising kids who can change the world. Wait, raising? Yes, raising! Another complete twist of the mind is the idea that we are no longer teaching kids. Because, well, even today we aren’t teaching them. With the advent of the internet, they can go learn about anything they wish to know in well under a second. As soon as children are competent enough to surf through the world wide web without help, they’ve already surpassed the limits of teaching. And are teachers actually teaching? You imagine a teacher up in front of a class. But wait, they aren’t actually explaining anything are they? They’re just handing out worksheets. And scribbling down which pages student need to read to get their high mark. And that’s where change needs to happen. Teachers have not only lost control of their student minds, they’ve also lost their zeal to inform students about something they do not know. This is where we shift from teaching into facilitating. By facilitation we mean providing students with the resources necessary to complete a project or assignment on their own or in a group, and being available if they are needed by students. Here, teacher’s learn to give up their false idea of control. They truly have no power. All the power is in the hands of the student; where it has always been. While it may be against the law is not be in school under the age of 16, it’s definitely within the control of the student whether he or she wishes to actually learn something.
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Hallelujah! Thank you!