The United States education system really sucks. We continue to toil in a 19th century factory-based model of education, stressing conformity and standardization. This is all true even though globalization has transformed the world we live in, flipping the status quo of the labor market upside down. The education system has miserably failed in creating students that have the dexterity to think creatively and critically, work collaboratively, and communicate their thoughts.
Over the past decade, when government has tried to muddle its way through education, it has gotten fairly ugly. President Bush passed No Child Left Behind and President Obama passed Race to the Top, infatuating our schools with a culture of fill in the bubble tests and drill-and-kill teaching methods. Schools were transformed into test-preparation factories and the process of memorization and regurgitation hijacked classroom learning.
Our society has failed to understand what's at stake. For the 21st century American economy, all economic value will derive from entrepreneurship and innovation. Low-cost manufacturing will essentially be wiped out of this country and shipped to China, India, and other nations. While we may have the top companies in the world, as in Apple and Google, our competitive edge is at risk. The education system was designed to create well-disciplined employees, not entrepreneurs and innovators. According to Cathy N. Davidson, co-director of the annual MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competitions, 65 percent of today's grade-school kids may end up doing work that hasn't been invented yet.
I propose that we institute a 21st century model of education, rooted in 21st century learning skills and creativity, imagination, discovery, and project-based learning. We need to stop telling kids to shut up, sit down, and listen to the teacher passively. As Sir Ken Robinson said in his well-acclaimed TED talk, "Schools kill creativity."
Policy-wise, we need a national curriculum, based on lean standards, so that teachers have the full autonomy to shape and mold the curriculum. Ironically enough, The Onion, a satirical newspaper, published a story in August 2011 with the headline, "Nation's Students to Give American Education System Yet Another Chance." We'll continue to get burned by the system year after year after year if we do absolutely nothing.
I'm a 16-year-old student at Syosset High School in New York, and I'm currently writing a book on education reform, Time to Think Different: Why America Needs a Learning Revolution (tentative). It was the great education reformer, Paulo Freire who perceptively noted, "If the structure does not permit dialogue, the structure must be changed."
Students are left out of the debate, even thought we have the most important opinions. I'm writing this book to offer a unique student perspective on the issue. Instead of schools cherishing students' passions and interests, they destroy them. Let's raise kids to dream big and think different. America will need to re-kindle the innovative spirit that has propelled in the past. It's a do or die moment. Bring on the learning revolution!
BTW, please change "Think Different" to "Think Differently" in your title. You need an adverb to modify the verb think... I say this with absolute respect for what you are doing. I am also a writer. My big problem is dangling participles at the end of sentences;)
Keep doing what you are doing and posting your thoughts. The world needs to hear more from people like you. Your voice counts.
with my experience in life i have realised that most of the learning comes when you practically perform and based on your creativity and intelligence you grow in your career path.
Bravo! you make all of us proud.
The current ed system takes each student and tries to find the best way to get the most "stuff" inside each one. The better ed system takes each student and tries to pull the best things out of him/her, and then help them build a life around augmenting those "talents." It's a pull vs. push strategy.
I've played the game. I graduated at the top of my high school class, excelled in finance in college, and graduated first in my class from business school. Yet, on the day I graduated with my MBA, I still felt lost and uneducated. I believe the reason is that I learned how to do "school" well, not how to build the best me. And the education system accepted that...in fact, they rewarded it with honors, scholarships, etc.
It's critical that we master the languages needed to communicate with one another (reading, writing, and math). I believe, though, that the remainder of our educational careers needs to focus on discovering and developing each of our true passions and talents, whatever they are at any age. The learning will happen, and that learning will come faster and stay deeper within us if we're learning in experiences that reflect our passions and talents.
I hear your concer and your passion. I am a Montessori Directress, and I believe in that creativity! I don't know how much you know about Montessori, but that's what we do, we believe in following and guiding that inner creativity. I was a Montessori child myself, and the joy and passion I have for learning, for contribuiting to my community and for following my deepest dreams, I give it to Montessori. Thank you for speaking up, because people like you lead, inspire and expand what we are as humanity!
Don't stop!
Looking forward to read your book!
Mar
Wow, that's great. We should be paying more attention to Montessori kids, considering Larry Page, Sergei Brin, Jeff Bezos, Jimmy Wales, and Peter Drucker were all students in Montessori schools. According to a Wall Street Journal article by Peter Sims, there's a "Montessori Mafia" among the creative elite. So maybe there's something to the method Italian physician Maria Montessori came up with around the turn of the 20th century.
I appreciate your support. It means a lot to me. Will do.
Regards,
Nikhil
"Regarding human connection across borders and cultures, however, we saw a beautiful example of its contagious nature" http://bit.ly/vkPHH6
We need to find our inner rebelliousness. But laws like No Child Left Behind prevent this from happening. A study from the Center on Education Policy reported that 71% of school districts reduced/eliminated arts and music classes to add more time for math and english.
Through project based learning, kids can acquire general knowledge by learning in a hands-on, discovery-based environment.
If you have a school system that supports Running Start, you need be in high school only 2 years, and the 2d year can be AP level classes that let you earn college credit. In that case, your time in high school with high school level classes is only about a year.
I wish you luck in your mission. Something tells me that if anyone can make a difference, it would be you.
-----Nikhil
As for a national curriculum and standards, this is being way over-cooked and is sterilizing education. Most people will remember a teachers or events from HS, but won't recall a standardize test. There's a personal touch to education that is special and this is being removed by the micromanaging of today's Administrative-class that we have running the schools today.
I agree that notion is highly flawed. We need to preparing kids for the challenges they face in life, through a 21st century skill set: thinking critically and creatively, working collaborating, communicating one's ideas, and ability to take risks.
Well, the current standards movement is terrible in every fashion possible. I'm advocating for a lean national curriculum that doesn't boil down to every nitty gritty fact possible of the curriculum. The status quo is a teacher-proof curriculum. A national curriculum needs to organic, fluid, and open for debate every minute.
---Nikhil
-----Nikhil
-----Nikhil