How vs. Why

A few years ago mom decorated one whole wall of the Inn's bathroom with pages taken out of a "Decade in Review" edition of Time Magazine from the 1960s. It's a great idea, tons of interesting little articles that cover everything from music and the emergence of television to politics, the economy, and Vietnam.

One little add all the way up by the ceiling caught my eye recently. It reads"

"Boy.
Drop out of school, and that's what
you'll be called all your working life.

If you want a good job, get a good education."

It got me thinking about how subtly but significantly things have shifted since the dawn of the Information Age.

I think the link between education and success is even more widely accepted today than back then, but I wonder whether the assumption the education = school is as iron clad as it once was.

Honestly, I believe that very little classroom education beyond middle school fundamentals really prepares students for success in real life today.

Now, don't misunderstand, I also think that any education or mind-expanding exercise is worthwhile. I'm glad that I understand the principles behind algebra, physics, biology, english literature, etc. But at the same time that I appreciate them, and think students should be educated in all of those things, is a working knowledge of those fields really what makes up a good education?

Who is teaching students how to accurately evaluate the pros and cons of a situation when they're trying to settle on a course of action? Who teaches them to create realistic budgets? How to healthily and constructively work in a team environment? To learn to value delayed gratification? To think and reason critically, from several viewpoints? To push their own thinking out of the box intentionally when problem solving? To give and receive constructive feedback?

My point is, today education in America focuses on information and data. We teach facts. We learn when things happen without discussing why. We teach kids how things work, but not how to understand themselves and others so that they will actually be able to DO SOMETHING with that knowledge.

To me this approach just seems totally backwards. Information is everywhere. If you want to know how something works, or when something happened, or how to solve for X, just Google it. I think its time we started to take advantage of the general availability of information. Let's focus less on turning students into walking encyclopedias, and start teaching them how to make the most of the knowledge at their disposal.


Agree with me? Think I'm nuts? I'd be really interested to hear people's thoughts on this spontaneous rant, so drop a comment.