2 thoughts on ““The death of education, the dawn of learning…”

  1. I work in high tech and at the bleeding edge, so the development of a qualified, capable workforce in paramount to the industry’s survival. It is in my industry that the competition between commodity skills and the inventor creates cycles of creation and destruction at an alarming rate. The innovations are not just in technology, but in business models, partnerships and marketing.

    In this global economy the ability to synthesize information and learn is undoubtedly the only sustainable skill. However, we can not neglect the core of elementary education as a base on which those skills can be built.

    I feel that the question of the need to create learning curriculum has already been answered. The development of appropriate tools and material is well underway and the results feed the virtuous cycle.

    However, I’m most interested in what are the core skills beyond reading and math that we must teach our children. How do we teach core skills for cultural adaptability, logistics, human behavior, economics and technology so that our students can improve upon the world once we’re gone. What is the base of knowledge that a student needs to be able to be an effective critical thinker?

    Anyone can google, while communities shape a person. Teachers have a unique role establishing the base upon which success is built.

  2. How do we teach core skills for cultural adaptability, logistics, human behavior, economics and technology so that our students can improve upon the world once we’re gone. What is the base of knowledge that a student needs to be able to be an effective critical thinker?

    This is just the point – we cannot keep thinking about curriculum as “stuff” that kids have to know. It’s much more about the how. We all know that information is accessible, cheap, and plentiful. Our kids will have to know what to DO with all that information. It makes the current approaches to education moot: the kids need to be in control, have a hand in their own learning. That’s really the only way to figure it out.

    This concept is so difficult for teachers, but the places that are seeing a culture shift make an investment in teacher learning FIRST. It’s the old analogy of giving oxygen to the adult on the plane before the child – they have to be breathing in order to help out. Districts see changes when they give teachers a laptop with no restrictions and say, “this is your personal learning and networking tool. Have at it.” When teachers embrace the community, they become much more able to relinquish control to the students.

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