 | ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
|
« The Solution Is to Enforce the Law, Not Change It | Main | I LOVE this "job" and the Nashville property tax petition » November 25, 2005Questioning an obsolete systemBy Kay Brooks As educators who claim to teach critical thinking and problem solving, why can't we think critically and solve some of the problems of conventional schooling?My response would be that too often real educators aren't given the freedom to do just that. There is a whole system that, like most institutions, has ended up focusing on its own preservation at the expense of its mission statement. Backing up a bit, Kirkpatrick writes: In 1997, Dr. Leon Botstein, Bard President, published "Jefferson's Children" in which he described high schools as outmoded holding pens which should be abandoned. He favors replacing traditional schools with a system in which students would attend K-6 elementary schools, then 7-10 secondary schools and graduate at 16 as Botstein himself did from NYC's High School of Music and Art in 1963. A graduate of the University of Chicago and then Harvard, at 23 he became the nation's youngest college president.I've long thought that the answer was not more time in the system but the freedom to excel and leave the system once you passed the exit exam. I've seen and heard of too many children who were bright and bored and so then troublemakers. Mr. Kitkpatrick touches on that in his article. Time in seat does not equal a good education any more than tenure ensures an effective teacher. In this land of the free let's get rid of holding pens. Posted in Education
Comments
Good post. I'll never forget learning as a youth that England had the 13-plus exam and a system of alternative secondary schools. There was an educational theory when I was in school that it was best to leave a smart kid with his same-age peers. I have to wonder what I would have done had I moved up as fast as my academic ability would have allowed. P.S. I was the male Presidential Scholar from Tennessee in 1967. Posted by: Wintermute at November 26, 2005 1:40 AMPost a comment
Comments Policy: Your comment is subject to deletion if it is off-topic or includes foul language or personal attack. Readers, please email me if you find comments that include egregious violations of this policy. Comments may not post immediately - do not post twice!
|
|||||||||||
