There are plenty of problems circling the US education system and if you read this blog (a lot) you will see a few perspectives on some of them. I see lots of information online about how to teach something, but almost nothing about the broader of what is important for high school graduates to have skills in, and to know.
I have taken the time to look over a number of state curriculum guidelines and to be honest; they are rather porous instruments with which to hold so much information. I think that with so many things in flux within our education system, maybe we should reconsider what is important to know…
With this in mind, I have a number of questions for you:
When you look at what you learned in high school, how much of what you learned turned out to be worthwhile? How many of these things were of specific or general value with regard to any job you may have held, with regard to further education you may have taken, and in the broadest sense, helped you to become a more effective citizen?
So, by taking these questions into account…what do you think will need to be changed for today’s students, in order to better deal with the world of the future?
This, in turn, resolves into a couple areas: actual knowledge, skills, and attitudes. I may be a bit prejudiced, in that I added the term ‘attitudes’ because I see this as a subtext of a lot of what takes place in schools these days.
I also have some problems (in that I haven’t got an answer) to the ongoing question: If you add new skills and information for today’s students, what do you throw away (i.e. what parts of the traditional curriculum becomes obsolete)?
I have been an advocate of ‘all of the above’, but can see that while this may be a valid answer (when taken in the abstract), the fact is that many of today’s schools, and students are not up to deal with the original curriculum in the first place…
So, I am asking you to list some skills that you think are worthwhile to master for the high school graduates of this year.
As far as the actual information and ideas which they may be presented with, much of this relates more to the underlying philosophy, and even political persuasion of who is teaching. How do you define what is the ‘right’ way to teach as subject like…the American Civil War? I have seen various classes in middle and high school covering the whole war by:
· Presenting information on various Civil War Generals and testing students on these ‘facts’
· Presenting the Civil War as a metaphor for women’s issues (i.e. what life was like before women’s suffrage).
· Spending more time covering the antecedents to the war in far greater detail than the war itself (ultimately the actual War was covered in only a few days, compared to the weeks covering the various debates, compromises, and intricacies of what was taking place in Washington D.C. in the 1850’s).
To be honest, all of these perspectives are valid, in measure. To cover the American Civil War (especially for middle school students), isn’t it more worthwhile to ‘stick to the story?’
Almost every subject and topic in grades 7-12 should be examined…
By this point, the question starts to become, How do you teach, versus What is important to know…
Obviously this is not everything to think about with regard to this topic…expect more soon…
