https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/new-unesco-flagship-report-calls-reinventing-education
During the 41st session of the General Conference, UNESCO launched its latest global report on education.
Sparking a timely global debate was precisely the goal of the International Commission, led by H.E. Ms Sahle-Work Zewde, President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, that spent two years preparing the report, titled Reimagining our Futures Together: A New Social Contract for Education.
More than a million people – experts, young people and teachers but also civil society, government and economic actors – were tapped in the global consultation that informed it.
Reimagining Our Futures Together upholds the tradition of past landmark UNESCO reports that have structured education policies around the world. The Faure report, Learning to Be, in 1972, and the Delors report, Learning: The Treasure Within, in 1996, are key references in the debate on learning. The report recommends an urgent, sweeping reform of education globally to repair past injustices and enhance our capacity to act together for a more sustainable future. The report finds that today's teaching and learning methods are outdated and even counterproductive. Education could contribute so much more to creating just and peaceful societies, a healthy planet and shared progress that benefits us all. Instead, how we educate is in effect causing some of our difficulties to address today's challenges.
As we face grave risks to the future of humanity and the living planet itself, we must urgently reinvent education to help us address common challenges. This act of reimagining means working together to create futures that are shared and interdependent.says The Report
What we need is a new social contract for education so that we can think differently about learning and the relationships between students, teachers, knowledge and the world. Forging this contract begins with a shared vision: it must be based on human rights; uphold the principles of lifelong quality education and of education as a public common good; and champion the role of teachers.
[...] This report is intended as an invitation to think and imagine, not as a blueprint. The questions it raises must be debated by countries, communities, schools and every kind of educational programme and system around the world. Since its publication, the report has already inspired various forms of dialogue and action.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday August 15 2022, @04:00PM (8 children)
This was the beginning of the end for our edumacation system.
Now we have college age kids who cannot name three countries. Cannot answer what is 3 x 3 x 3 ? But they can name all of the Kardashian sisters.
Now we don't teach. We teach to the tests.
No Child Left Behind is really code for The Entire Class Must Not Excel Beyond The Stupidest Kid.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @04:40PM (1 child)
Possibly, but your point would be better without the Kardashian strawman. Aren't the only ones watching that crap old people who for some reason cling to their cable subscription for dear life?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday August 15 2022, @05:50PM
I got that example, all three questions, from a YouTube video I saw weeks ago. It is not a strawman as far as I can tell.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @04:54PM
Well, as in society, all that matters is the result. If you are rich it's because you deserve it. If you're poor, it's because you're lazy. I.e. the problem is deeper than schooling. Or do you mean to say Ivanka Trump is really a world class clothes designer turned senior political strategist to the President? Jared, likewise, a genius real-estate mogul turned Middle East guru and architect of the entire federal government. Bitch, please.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by HammeredGlass on Monday August 15 2022, @06:18PM (2 children)
I like to watch Fleccas as well.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @11:17PM (1 child)
Offtopic. We're talking about education, not cult indoctrination and propaganda.
(Score: 2) by HammeredGlass on Wednesday August 17 2022, @12:05AM
stfu, ac bitch
if you didn't catch the reference, fuck off
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Monday August 15 2022, @07:31PM (1 child)
The thing to understand about No Child Left Behind and many of its successors is that the goal of the policy was to ensure that US public schools didn't work. There were 4 main reasons why the people behind it want the US public school system to be broken:
1. Union Busting: Public school teachers are one of the most heavily unionized professions in the US. The people behind NCLB and its successors hate unions with a passion, so they'd like to solve the problem of public school teachers having union contracts by eliminating public schools.
2. Religious Indoctrination: Public schools in the US are both barred from engaging in formal religious activity like recitations of prayers, and required to teach actual science in their science classes. Both of those stick in the craw of those who want their kids to grow up to be good little creationist Christians.
3. Corruption: If the public schools are destroyed, then they'll be replaced by either a system of approved private schools with a payment voucher, or charter schools. In either case, the politicians in control of which schools get approval and which ones don't can use the prospect of a spigot of public money to extract kickbacks from the school operators.
4. Racism: NCLB was carefully set up in a way where if your district was less white, it was harder to meet the requirements, meaning your funding would be cut or your school system's management would be taken over by the state or federal government (I sat in on a talk by a local school official that walked through the numbers of how this happens after they'd accidentally gotten another district's report in addition to their own). There were many supporters of NCLB who by all appearances want to return to a time when it was illegal for black people to be able to read.
One set of teacher friends had to threaten to strike a couple of years ago because the state-level education department wanted them to spend more than half of their class days testing the students to see if they were learning anything. Which of course eliminates time for them to be learning things. Under those conditions, of course Fly-By-Night-Charter-Schools-Inc will look like an improvement.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Snotnose on Monday August 15 2022, @09:03PM
I'm gonna go against the grain on this one. NCLB ensured little Bobby could calculate 2+2= 4. No matter his race, background, parent's income, school effectiveness, etc.
"Teaching to the test". How many of you, in either high school or college, asked "is this on the test?". Then zoned out when teach said "um, no".
Union busting? Yeah, public sector unions are far too powerful these days. I have no problem busting any of them, including teacher's unions.
Religious indoctrination? You mean like it's ok to fuck Barbara at 13, even if Barbara was little Billy age 12? I can see why conflict could occur here. Not even touching sex ed, which is such a 20th century controversy.
Corruption? Dafuq u smokin bro? The public school system isn't going to fall apart, it's just going to get all the undesirables. Where Undesirable is "can't keep up with the material", "disrupts class", "wrong color", or "parents didn't give enough $$$ to the bake sale".
Racism? Fuck you. Just because you call something an 'ism' doesn't make me a racist. These are the facts and concepts you need to know by age x. You don[t learn them, you fail. 2 + 2 = 4, whether you're black, white, or on the Peter Griffen spectrum of race.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @04:35PM (9 children)
"The Commission was thinking principally about the children and young people who will take over from today’s generation of adults,
the latter being all too inclined to concentrate on their own problems."
Indoctrination of worldism, what a surprise coming from the UN.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @04:43PM (1 child)
Worldism is this bogeyman invented by populists, who would rather things turn into a theocracy of some sort, which is usually as bad or even worse. You can have much more fun in worldism than hardcore theocracies that, for example, make premarital sex and drug consumption punishable under death.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday August 16 2022, @02:46PM
"populists": That's a pretty interesting euphemism, given that they are not in fact popular nor seriously attempt to represent the clearly stated desires of the majority. For example, the guy who the "populists" claim as their leader in the USA has never had the support of the majority of the population of the USA.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @04:56PM (6 children)
Yeah, give me the Trumps, the Jong Uns, the Saud family any day of the week over some liberal wishy washy bullshit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @06:25PM (5 children)
The UN fits right in line with two of those. Keyword is unelected. Trump is self-inflicted.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @08:00PM (4 children)
WTF? The UN is made up of all the nations: elected, non-elected, dictators. It's a forum where leaders can talk rather than go to war over issues. You're thinking of the Illuminati - nasty bunch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @08:16PM (3 children)
Did regular people get to elect the UN diplomants and beaurocrats themselves? Nope. They were nominated. Hence unelected and unaccountable. Simple really.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Monday August 15 2022, @09:03PM (2 children)
Regular people don't get to vote for US Secretaries of State, court judges, or their office janitor either.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2022, @06:34AM (1 child)
One wrong doesn't make the other wrong right.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2022, @04:41PM
You don't get to vote for foreign leaders either OMG!!!!
Plus some people's votes are worth more than others. Does that bother you, or are you just full of hot air and bubbles?
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday August 15 2022, @05:10PM (8 children)
It seems to be very difficult to download it as a pdf.
When I try, all I get is one-page summary of front-matter, though it claims to have 188 pages.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Monday August 15 2022, @05:51PM (6 children)
You're not supposed to try to read the article.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Monday August 15 2022, @06:18PM (5 children)
I tried to read that actual report from UNESCO. I wanted to find out what they were actually recommending, instead of just the usual bureaucratic meaningless positivity. It looks like I might be able to read it in the browser, using their in-browser reader. But that seems a stupid way to get people to read it to effect change in the education system. Not as bad as the filing cabinet in the Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy, but not a good way to encourage change either.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @06:33PM (1 child)
The reader doesn't even work in non mainstream browsers (very inclusive of them!!)
Here's the actual pdf: https://en.unesco.org/futuresofeducation/sites/default/files/2021-10/UNESCO%20Reimagining%20our%20futures%20together%20EMBARGOED%20COPY.pdf [unesco.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2022, @04:43PM
Their oppressing you brah.
(Score: 3, Informative) by looorg on Monday August 15 2022, @06:45PM (2 children)
There is a download button in their in-browser reader next to the printer icon, something looking like a paper with a down arrow on it.
That said from just flipping through it my impression is that it is filled with the usual feelgood stuff that is popular opinions these days -- planet is dying, social justice, equality, everything old is bad, everything must be digital, shared values and culture and ideas etc. Good luck with all of that! It's big on those thing but very light on practical details and how things should be accomplished.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday August 16 2022, @05:28PM (1 child)
Thanks. I was looking at the wrong printer icon, which was bigger than the one I should have found, and had a 'share' next to it instead of a download. I hadn't even seen the right one further down.
Ended up trying to print to a file, which didn't work.
But the download icon you directed me to worked.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday August 16 2022, @07:07PM
It took me a few moments to find it to. I also tried to print it but it didn't want to play ball. I have no idea why they use that wonky in-browser reader, or who would want to read the document in that reader. Perhaps I should have been a bit more informative, it could have helped if one could have posted a picture I guess. But that wasn't really an option. Anyhow glad it worked out eventually.
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Monday August 15 2022, @08:40PM
The PDF download is working for me, but I had to enable javascript.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Monday August 15 2022, @05:58PM (7 children)
> The report recommends an urgent, sweeping reform of education globally to repair past injustices and enhance our capacity to act together for a more sustainable future
> it must be based on human rights
> an invitation to think and imagine
I realise it's just TFS, but education is about educating. My gut reaction to reading this is that the people writing it are writing to an agenda which is not about educating. Hmm better read TFA.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2022, @06:12PM
Please consult your gut on which part of "human rights" (ooooh scary boogey man) and "think" bother it specifically?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Monday August 15 2022, @08:02PM (5 children)
Among the things that come under the general doctrine of "human rights" is the right to learn things, the right to read things, and the right to write things. All of which are critical to education, and are routinely denied by people with power who want to keep a portion of their population ignorant and easier to control.
So shocker, the education team wants people to be educated, rather than, say, getting shot by the Taliban for the heinous crime of knowing how to read while female.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday August 15 2022, @08:30PM (3 children)
I agree that this is true for Afghanistan and also a number of other countries. I realise it applies to a number of other minorities. Nonetheless, I beleive it is quite a parochial viewpoint when considered in the global context that the report is supposed to be addressing. Again, education should start with education, not with human rights. Human rights may be a consequence (and a good one), but it should not be the starting point - it is putting the cart before the horse.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday August 15 2022, @09:12PM (1 child)
I don't know, the threat of getting shot in the head for knowing something would seem to be detrimental to any plan for education.
These aren't separate issues, and I definitely don't think you can reasonably aim for what you seem to want, which is education for everyone, but human rights only for some people.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday August 16 2022, @07:20AM
> what you seem to want, which is ... human rights only for some people.
Where did you get that from?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2022, @01:51PM
Yeah, I think some of the school kids who got shot in the USA also wanted to be educated instead of getting shot...
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday August 15 2022, @08:31PM
ps Mod +1 Interesting :)
(Score: 3, Funny) by Freeman on Monday August 15 2022, @06:06PM (1 child)
I expect this to be a perfectly Cromulent Dumpster Fire.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Monday August 15 2022, @09:25PM
but...but....but....they have a CUNNING PLAN!
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday August 15 2022, @09:36PM (1 child)
Make learning fun. Engage minds. Don't teach that Tommy has 5 birds and Janey has a bush and Tommy finds he can only fit 2 birds in Janey's bush: teach Spiderman has 5 webs and Wonder Woman has a invisible Wonder bra, or some such, as in Dump the crap text book and have the teacher teach in an engaging manner.
Don't be so rigid. Take the kids outside. Make them WANT to be in school and WANT to learn.
But, and this is the hurting part, GET RID OF THE SHITE TEACHERS!(Which means break the union and reform it in a way shit can be fired).
I had a teacher that spent all his time looking down girls tops (eventually got transferred to a different school) and another who refused to teach math unless forced to ("If you don't know, ask the person beside you.")(he finally retired after i graduated). Hard to learn with shit teachers. Engaging teachers made learning possible to fun.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2022, @04:47PM
If you don't want a strong Union, try treating people right. Nobody wants the overhead of a Union +/- the protection of pedophiles. But when everyone is squeezed and pay-reduced and dumped on, guess what? If it helps, you can think of Unions like gun ownership.
(Score: 2) by oumuamua on Monday August 15 2022, @11:44PM
People should know there are two kinds of genocide:
There is genocideB - which is genocide by birth control such as taking place with the Uyghurs
There is genocideK - which is genocide by killing such as taking place in Ethiopia https://www.thenation.com/article/world/genocide-in-tigray/ [thenation.com]
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday August 16 2022, @04:45AM (3 children)
There are a lot of forces pushing education towards being mere memorization of knowledge and away from critical thinking.
An example of critical thinking: Much of our fiction is ridiculous. Fans of Star Trek have thought to criticize the transporter as being just too magically powerful, and realize that "dilithium crystals" is at heart a form of "crystal woo", a way to magically supply the incredible amounts of power an actual warp drive would need to function at all. I wonder though, how many have realized how stupid it is to send "away teams" into totally unknown situations that are all too likely to be very dangerous? When you think about it, it's pretty obvious that the show employs this wholly unnecessary way of exploring purely for the drama. The smart thing to do is send probes, drones, and such like remote sensing tools, while the people stay safe on board.
But there are deeper problems that cut across most of our fiction, including Star Trek. A whole lot of SF has faster than light (FTL) travel, but the hard reality is that FTL is likely to be impossible. An even worse sciency fantasy notion is time travel into the past, and the very idea arose from extrapolation of FTL in which time would have to run backwards for the objects moving at FTL speeds, in order to satisfy the laws of nature as modeled in General Relativity. Why, however, do we like FTL so much we routinely add it to our SF? Why are we so impatient to get about?
We have an idea that good, as in honesty, fair dealing, compassion, and rational thinking, triumphs over evil. Yet too often our fiction resorts to crutches to make it work out that way, make a hero defeat a villain. But why is cooperation a superior strategy to selfishness, greed, and lying and cheating? Part of the problem is that too much is packed into too few individuals, and the author has to resort to plotting that just plain feels forced, in order to keep everything focused. Fantasy is especially prone to this. The brutal fact is that wars are won by armies, not by an individual prize fighter or two. In Lord of the Rings, the Dark Lord has an Achilles Heel of nigh unbelievable potency. Not only does the blow to the vulnerability effectively slay him, it also initiates a cascade of failures that brings down the entire nation in a matter of minutes. That's the reason a very few hobbits could be instrumental in triumphing over that evil. Nice fantasy, but reality isn't so amenable.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Tuesday August 16 2022, @10:47AM
So, I've just read the wiki article on what critical thinking really is. ("Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to form a judgement."). Nowhere, except in implying in one point in the middle of a list ("Interpret data, to appraise evidence and evaluate arguments") of that friggin multi-page article do they mention that math and (at least basic) physics are a mandatory requirement to critically evaluate anything tangible (roughly any real-world problem).
Before people don't understand progressive (i.e. differential) calculations over square (e.g. braking distance) or exponential (e.g. disease spread) functions AND are able to map those to real-world problems, there's little point in teaching them the rest, because it won't be of any practical use (*). Quite the opposite, possibly, because they start to feel entitled after they develop Dunning-Kruger.
One funny point near the end: "... work that found that 6- to 7-year-olds from China have similar levels of skepticism to 10- and 11-year-olds in the United States...". Oh? How does that come? I've heard Chinese kids have to suffer from brutal frontal teaching and relentless rote learning as dictated by the party? If that's the case, does it come from the Chinese starting to screw each other over from very young age and learning to be careful?
(*) Maybe except for some lawhagglers ("iudex non calculat"), but that goes to show how much practical justice can be expected.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2022, @01:58PM (1 child)
Just looking at all the stupid ignorant people around, I'd be happy if they were just thinking. They're worse than at figuring out what is fake and what isn't than tossing a coin.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday August 16 2022, @03:39PM
Those people are so childish. They deliberately ignore evidence that's staring them in the face, to make it easier to convince themselves that the false narratives they prefer are correct. Facts be damned, they want their sick little fantasies that shift all the blame elsewhere and hand them a quick and easy way to be to be the hero. The man babies want to charge into the sekret room and shoot all the bad people where they have too conveniently gathered to plot their evil conspiracies. It's so terribly unfair that there is no such place. Maybe, a movie franchise such as Star Wars is part of a broad and damaging trend to cater too much to that kind of wishful thinking. Star Trek has plenty of issues, but thankfully, being total "space opera" is not one of them.
They aren't great thinkers, but they can think better than that. They don't want to. And they don't get why they should want to.