Posts
Years ago I stopped posting other people’s stuff and wrote my own thoughts. But every once in a while someone writes something I think we should all read. Today is one of those.
One of the people I have been reading and following over the
last 5 or 10 years is Seth Godin. I often find inspiration in his blog. This is
from his About Me:
“For more than thirty years, I’ve been trying to turn on
lights, inspire people and teach them how to level up. This blog has been
appearing daily for more than a decade.”
You can see more of his stuff here: https://seths.blog/
Anyway, this week
he wrote about school and how we are learning and teaching. It is particularly
relevant, given that the pandemic has offered us an opportunity to re-think the
way we do things…like school. Here is that blog post in its entirety:
We’ve
spent 130 years indoctrinating kids with the same structure. Now, as some of us
enter a post-lockdown world, I’d like to propose a useful (though some might
say radical) way to reimagine the curriculum.
It’s
been a century of biology, chemistry, arithmetic, social studies and the rest.
So long that the foundational building blocks are seen as a given, unquestioned
and unimproved. The very structure of the curriculum actually prevents school
from working as it should.
I think
that a significant shift is overdue. The one below could work for kids from the
age of 6. It doesn’t eliminate the fundamentals of being educated, but it puts
them into context. More important, because it’s self-directed and
project-based, kids can choose to learn, instead of being
forced to.
We’re
living in the age of an always-connected universal encyclopedia and instantly
updated fact and teaching machine called the Net. This means that it’s more
important to want to know the answer and to know how to look
it up than it is to have memorized it when we were seven. Given the choice
between wasting time and learning, too many people have been brainwashed into
thinking that learning is somehow onerous or taxing.
Introducing
the modern curriculum
The
basic foundation is student-centered, self-directed projects. In service of
learning to solve interesting problems and how to lead as well as follow. And
to support that, the “courses” are practical tools students can use on their
projects.
Statistics–seeing
the world around us clearly and understanding nuance, analog results and
taxometrics (learning how to sort like with like). Realizing that everyone and
everything doesn’t fit into a simple box. Learning to see the danger of false
labels and propaganda, and the power of seeing how things are actually
distributed.
Games–finite
and infinite, poker, algorithms, business structures, interpersonal
relationships, negotiation, why they work and when they don’t. We all play
them, even when they’re not called games.
Communication–listening
and speaking, reading and writing, presentations, critical examination and
empathy. Can you read for content? Can you write to be understood? Can you
stand up and express yourself, and sit still and listen to someone else who is
working to be heard? What happens when we realize that no one is exactly like
us?
History
and propaganda–what happened and how we talk about it. More why than
when. The fundamental currents of human events over time.
Citizenship–Participating,
leading, asking and answering good questions. As a voter, but also as a
participant in any organization.
Real
skills–Hard to measure things like honesty, perseverance, empathy,
keeping promises, trust, charisma, curiosity, problem solving and humor.
The
scientific method–understanding what we know and figuring out how to discover the
next thing. Learning to do the reading and show your work. There’s no point in
memorizing the Krebs Cycle.
Programming–thinking
in ways that a computer can help you with. From Excel and Photoshop to C++.
Art–expressing
yourself with passion and consistency and a point of view. Not because it’s
your job, but because you can and because it matters. Appreciating the art that
has come before and creating your own, in whatever form that takes.
Decision-making–using
the rest of the skills above to make better choices.
Meta-cognition–thinking
about thinking, creating habits with intention.
Here’s
my question: If you could work for someone who had these skills, developed over
the course of a decade or more of public school, would you want to? What about
working next to them, or having them work for you? Or dating them? Or living
next door or voting for them?
If this
is what we need and what we value, why aren’t we teaching it?
John Mariotti
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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