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Originally Posted by Brutha  I really don't think that anyone involved in education reform likes making things boring. |
Oh I've no doubt that people intent on reforming the system don't want to make school boring but it's unlikely they'll ever succeed without starting from scratch. The system was designed from the ground up to meet the needs of an industrialist society, or rather the companies that run an industrialist society. Whether or not the things school teaches have anything to do with the corporate work environment is of little consequence considering how well it emulates it. School is the combination of an office job and a prison, perfect for shaping kids into what they are supposed to be and totally ineffective for educating them.
I'm not crying "conspiracy theory!" and I'm not positing that those in charge somehow want to keep us oppressed. I'm saying the system has taken on a life of its own and that changing a few variables (like how kids are tested) is like rearranging chairs on the Titanic.
I can see that "measurable results" is a loaded phrase so I'll avoid using it at all costs. Measuring basic competency isn't difficult, people just have to be allowed to use their own intuition instead of relying on so-called scientific methods like testing. A kid that can read well and a kid that can barely read at all are both easily identifiable, as are those who are good at math, or philosophy, and so on.
I think one of the key problems is our current approach is too scientific, as if people can be broken down into numbers and formulas, perfectly predictable under the right variables. When people think that's the case and we run into a child that can't learn the way school wants to teach them then it's a problem with the kid and not the system, yet the sheer number of kids who are having problems suggests that the system isn't working for them. And that's why it has a life of its own- we've adopted a mindset that makes us hellbent on serving the system instead of doing what's best for us, mistaking its well-being for our own.
A big step in the right direction would be for more schools to emulate Sudbury Valley. Make schools a place where students are free to study whatever they wish whenever they wish with competent adults on hand whenever they need help or encouragement toward some end. Most importantly, discourage the mindset that learning is restricted to the classroom. There's a huge problem when people won't even sneeze unless they're told to. Independence and freedom are integral to a quality education (especially in America where we pay lip service to those virtues) and any education that not only discourages but seems to actively destroy the adventurous spirit within children is no education at all.