The first chapter of Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era makes things perfectly clear: authors Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith are not pleased with the direction American education has taken. They outline the history of the system from the very beginning, then proceed to tell exactly where the whole thing went off the rails, explaining that by not changing educational approaches with the Information Age, our government failed our citizens. The United States gambled on stringent cookie-cutter guidelines for teachers, classrooms, methods, and students. By dictating and scripting teachers, doubling down on standardized tests and standards in general, unelected educational "leaders" have quelled creative approaches and curious solutions.
In our efforts to "fix" education, we've taken a course of action that extirpates the creative spirit and confidence from our youth while drilling them on frivolous things, like memorizing the definition of extirpate for the SAT verbal exam. Over and over, in classroom after classroom, on assignment after assignment, we condition kids to look for the right answer, instead of encouraging them to come up with multiple creative approaches. When they ask, "When will I ever use this?" we respond, "Trust me. This will come in handy down the road." Except it won't, and instead of a vehicle for developing the skills and resources needed to accomplish their dreams. The worst part is, we set these creativity-killing priorities in a world that is screaming. "We need creative problem-solvers!" But our education system has deaf ears.
The truth is, we still must teach a certain degree of content, but there are ways to do that without removing the word professional from the description of teachers. When officials and administrators take the reins and treat teachers like mules with bits in their mouths, attempting to steer us all in the same direction at the same time, intending to arrive at a common destination, they absolutely take us all over the same cliff of failure. The truth is, people are not wired that way.
We are individuals.
With minds of our own.
We are professional.
Educators are not factory workers. We do not work on an assembly line, turning out a product. The flaw in that is that each of our "products" has a mind of his/her own. In a factory, the products end up as they were designed. They each follow the intended design. But in a classroom, our "products" resist us. They bend us. They get us sidetracked with their little issues (parents are divorcing, a pet is dying, a sibling was arrested for drug possession, utilities were discontinues, etc.).
My students are not numbers on a test packet. They are more than products on an assembly line. My students can think for themselves. They have varying curiosities, varying strengths and weaknesses, varying histories, experiences, and interests. They are human beings, and as such they deserve more than me reading a script.
We are individuals.
With minds of our own.
We are professional.
Educators are not factory workers. We do not work on an assembly line, turning out a product. The flaw in that is that each of our "products" has a mind of his/her own. In a factory, the products end up as they were designed. They each follow the intended design. But in a classroom, our "products" resist us. They bend us. They get us sidetracked with their little issues (parents are divorcing, a pet is dying, a sibling was arrested for drug possession, utilities were discontinues, etc.).
My students are not numbers on a test packet. They are more than products on an assembly line. My students can think for themselves. They have varying curiosities, varying strengths and weaknesses, varying histories, experiences, and interests. They are human beings, and as such they deserve more than me reading a script.
