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Access to a world of infinite information has changed how we communicate, process information, and think. Decentralized systems have proven to be more productive and agile than rigid, top-down ones. Innovation, creativity, and independent thinking are increasingly crucial to the global economy.
And yet the dominant model of public education is still fundamentally rooted in the industrial revolution that spawned it, when workplaces valued punctuality, regularity, attention, and silence above all else. (In 1899, William T. Harris, the US commissioner of education, celebrated the fact that US schools had developed the "appearance of a machine," one that teaches the student "to behave in an orderly manner, to stay in his own place, and not get in the way of others.") We don't openly profess those values nowadays, but our educational system—which routinely tests kids on their ability to recall information and demonstrate mastery of a narrow set of skills—doubles down on the view that students are material to be processed, programmed, and quality-tested. School administrators prepare curriculum standards and "pacing guides" that tell teachers what to teach each day. Legions of managers supervise everything that happens in the classroom; in 2010 only 50 percent of public school staff members in the US were teachers.
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That's why a new breed of educators, inspired by everything from the Internet to evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and AI, are inventing radical new ways for children to learn, grow, and thrive. To them, knowledge isn't a commodity that's delivered from teacher to student but something that emerges from the students' own curiosity-fueled exploration. Teachers provide prompts, not answers, and then they step aside so students can teach themselves and one another. They are creating ways for children to discover their passion—and uncovering a generation of geniuses in the process.
Good, long article on how education could be reinvented for the 21st century.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 24 2015, @03:18PM
A crucial part of mastering a subject is to put together a program that is a series of carefully graded steps, so the learner masters one step before moving onto the next (OK, some overlap is customary). And the quality of instruction and/or feedback in each step has to be high. That's what I do as an adult learner in sports and other hobbies. That's what was so difficult in the era before the Web, unless you had the luxury of going to a high-end prep school like Gates did, that happens to be more interested in instruction than in, let's say, kids being sharply dressed.
In theory, public schools are supposed to provide that series of graded steps, and it does, but not well enough to churn out geniuses in most cases. Some do a pretty good job with coaching high-prestige sports like soccer and American football.
Sure, Gates was an unusually bright and motivated kid BUT he started with a big advantage. Now lots of people (I won't say everyone) have that advantage.