Why School?

Seth Godin is an interesting guy to listen to. This post challenges the status quo of education. It is a chorus of voices talking about these things now. The logic behind decrying the factory, linear model of learning and education we pump out today is undeniable. BUT changing the standard model of school is akin to turning the Titanic around. There is just so much momentum behind our current system to try to make changes feels like swimming against a very strong current. If you have ever done that thing in a pool where you go around in a circle with your friends so you create a whirlpool - then try to go the other way - you just get swept back in the direction everyone has been going DESPITE your best intentions. That is the best way to explain how I feel.

Will Richardson gave a brilliant keynote at a recent conference I went to that was seriously challenging. His book "Why School" deals with this exact issue. The conclusion was the same - our system needs to change, our kids need it to change - for them.

It is not as though I hate what I do - in fact I LOVE it - there is just a growing awareness that we are, by in large and as a system, failing to deliver what our kids need to thrive in the 21st Century.

If you were to stand in front of any Year 9 class today (those who think teachers have an easy job, get too may holidays, I dare you to try and see how far you get) and try to TEACH them (which for most of us means LECTURE to them - tell them stuff) you will see a sea of disengaged kids who can't wait to get out of there, who are there in body but not in spirit. The comply with rules grudgingly but few could honestly say they love school and even sadder very few love learning. Learning to them means playing the game called school - a series of sticks (tests/exams) and carrots (graduating/ATAR/degree). Where is the LOVE for discovery? The passion for new ideas? The hunger to understand?

I love this video, there is a lot to chew on here.

Stephen Heppel: "I think the structures of school - working from 9 - 3, working on your own, not working with others... is dead or dying and I think learning is just beginning."

Seth Godin: "Now what I want to see from school is... get kids to want it. Create an environment where kids are restless until their need for information is satisfied. Teach kids to solve interesting problems - not to memorise answers to problems we have already solved."

"The way we solve interesting problems is we fail and we fail and we fail until we succeed. If you talk to people who have succeeded, what they almost all have in common is that they failed a 100 times before they succeeded. And what separates them from people who aren't successful isn't that they succeeded but that they failed more than the other people did."

Great stuff.

Now how do I do that so my Year 12s pass their exam AS WELL?!