(PART OF A SERIES ON TEACHING WHAT REALLY MATTERS)
START FEASTING EARLY!
The Global Education conference November 2017 invites everyone to take advantage of their generous, FREE feast of symposiums and presentation posted at http://www.globaleducationconference.com/page/sessions-and-schedule.
It’s a remarkable spread, truly Global in concept, design, and offerings. The hosts, Steve Hargadon and Lucy Gray, took great pains to make the technology accessible, and all sessions from November 13 – 17th are available online for free.
https://www.smore.com/0h4rj-the-globaledcon-attendee-guide
My favorite take-away so far was from Barbara Bray’s session Rethinking Learning, when she quoted former Harvard Professor Roland Barth:
“. . . In the 1950’s, high school graduates knew 75% of what was needed to be successful in life. Today they know about 2% of what they will need to know.”
Watching even a few sessions by the obviously dedicated teachers of this conference, it’s hard to believe that parents, teachers, and administrators in the U.S. are settling for that. Sounds incredible if you’ve been around any new parents lately. They’re taking every precaution to insure their precious bundles develop into the Best and the Brightest, even before they arrive.
Early education was radically reformed during the 20th century thanks to dedicated rebels like Sylvia Ashton Warner and Alexander Neill, whose methods survived despite being reviled and ridiculed for the amount of respect and choice they provided to students. Not until after the 60’s and 70’s was such autonomy promoted in public schools, but even then mainly in early grades.
So why are we failing to prepare our high school graduates to be successful? Should we blame immigrants, Facebook, GMO’s, or something else?
It’s certainly not too much academic choice! My premise is that the popular goal of education has become dangerously narrowed and skewed. With first graders being taught that college is their only hope, brain-washed into enduring years of high stress multiple choice testing, and learning to define a “good job” as a high paying position in a large corporation, we’re all headed for trouble.
The most disturbing film I’ve seen lately on education is Waiting For Superman. The producers thought they were being fair by exposing the vicious way poor families are subjected to public lotteries for charter schools (that only have space for 5% of applicants). To their credit, the film brought to light an alarming cover-up by Unions of incompetent teachers being paid for years after being removed from their classrooms. But the coercion and grueling regimes imposed afterwards on lottery winners was disgusting and unquestioned as the only way to save poor children. Not to mention the absolute despair of the losers, and omission of any analysis of why their families are poor. Could it have anything to do with job loss and scarcity?
When’s the last time you heard a discussion about the morality of large corporations? I’m not talking about the few times PBS reported oil spills or defective airbags. I’m talking about the ethics of pharmaceutical companies, food cartels, sweatshops, the takeover of trade by Amazon, the takeover of urban housing by large IT companies, and the takeover of Charter Schools by large private Corporations.
Corporations began in the US with the development of the railways. They were granted special rights and protections, which were supposed to be time-limited and reviewed regularly to guarantee that they were fulfilling their missions of public service.
It’s time to back up and take stock (not Stocks!) in education. One of the most inspiring examples of community driven true reform that counters the notion that Charter Schools (the majority of which are run by private Corportations) are the only viable alternative is SOL, a new dual language immersion school in East Oakland. At SOL, students investigate globally and locally relevant issues that promote deep thinking, inquiry, and the use of language in an authentic setting. Students set learning goals across the ABCS: Academics, Bilingualism, Cultural Humility, and Social Emotional Literacy. These are supported through a daily advisory period as well as a double literacy block in English and Spanish.
The goal is for students to develop increased agency over their learning in academic content areas, language, cultural identity, and social-emotional skills. SOL was featured on KPFA on August 25th, 2017 on Kitty Kelly Epstein’s excellent radio show, Education Today. You can read how parents in East Oakland were involved in the design of the school in the article below.
http://hoodline.com/2017/08/oakland-s-8th-dual-language-school-opens-in-coliseum-district
Kitty Kelly Epstein followed this interview with her October 13th, 2017 KPFA Broadcast with Jitu Brown, the extraordinary community organizer/advocate from the South Side of Chicago:
https://tunein.com/radio/KPFA—Education-Today-p110606/?topicId=117383421
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