Yesterday, master educator, author, and Minnes-oo-ta humorist, Doug Johnson listed the many jobs he has had, after quoting the oft’ cited projection…
The Department of Labor projects that people will hold on average 10.2 jobs between the ages of 18 and 38
Read Doug’s Sept 9 Blue Skunk post for the reference, and to scan a bewildering array of jobs he’s held — way more than 10.2.
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| This probably doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it looks a lot like where I spent a year working in a chainsaw factory. |
For me, I
- Washed cars, delivered newspapers, made picture frames and rubber stamps, and played music in bands for date money.
- After high school, I worked in a machine shop as an operator and set-up man, drove a forklift, loaded and unloaded freight cars in Colorado, moved furniture, and played guitar in coffee shops.
- Since college, I’ve been a classroom teacher, packaged “Jacks cookies,” sold encyclopedias (for one day — wasn’t very good at that one), directed a technology program for a rural school district, state DOE staff consultant and web master, and free-agent educator.
- As a free-agent, I’ve generated income as a web designer, programmer, author, teacher, and public speaker.
Like Doug, considerably more than 10.2 Jobs.
..and like Doug, I never really found that labor department projection very impressive — even though I’ve thrown it into presentations every now and then. At the same time, I’ve thought it was a bit of a push.
In his blog, Doug down-plays the skills that he developed and that carried him through…
..they were “soft” skills – reliability, cooperation, communication, strong back, high tolerance for boredom, etc. – not really job-specific.
In my efforts to understand what the labor department’s projections and my work experiences mean, within the context of school reform, I ask myself, “How did I learn…”
..to play guitar (bass & Banjo) and organ? I taught myself!
..to write software? I taught myself.
..to code web pages? I taught myself!
..to self-publish a book? I taught myself!
The schools that I attended in the 1950s and ’60s tried very hard to teach me how to be taught. I believe that this is one of the shifts that we have to achieve as we try to retool classrooms. We need to do less of..
teaching kids how to be taught,
and instead,
teach them to teach themselves.
I think that the point is not that everyone is going to have 10.2 jobs between the ages of 18 and 38. Many of us will only have one job. But how many times will that one job change? 10.2 times? Perhaps not, but when it changes, who’s going to teach the new skills?
We need to stop teaching literacy, and teach learning literacy.
We need to stop teaching literacy skills, and teach literacy habits.
We need to stop thinking about lifelong learning, and instead, work toward every student leaving our schools with a learning lifestyle.
We need to be willing to take every piece of furniture our of our classrooms, clear the walls, burn it all, and start all over again. The world has changed that much.
Anything less is an insult to our children.
Image Citation:
Pilaar, Paul. “DSC00247.” Pilaar39’s Photostream. 11 Nov 2005. 10 Sep 2007 <http://flickr.com/photos/pleduc/62189025/>.
I agree with the concept that we should be teaching students how to learn, where to find information, and what to do with it once it is found. After all, their favorite pasttimes of gaming, skateboarding, BMX cycling, text messaging and the like have all been self-learned or learned collaboratively with their friends. Granted, some learn better than others (just look at some teen MySpace webpages…whew!), but they are learning. Not one of them had to fill in a bubble sheet to know if they could operate a cell phone, iPod, or Wii. As technology naturalized citizens, we are still struggling with how to teach those born into cyberspace.
Here’s my 10.2 – http://alexanderhayes.com/wiki/index.php/Curriculum_Vitae
David,
It sounds as if you were equipped with the tools to teach yourself those skills – what makes you think that you weren’t?
You give an impressive list of things that your 1950’s/60’s school couldn’t have known about but which you’ve mastered – coding, self-publishing, etc. Then you lament that the schools didn’t give you the skills.
If the school didn’t play a role giving you the transferable skills you used to get through a broad array of jobs and professional endeavors in the future, who did?
It sounds as though your schools of 40 years ago generated a product well-equipped to, for example, become a leading figure in technology that wasn’t even fantasy at the time. That’s strong testimony for a successful school, albeit one not from the 21st century.
Or should we ignore your success and “burn it all” and “start all over again?”
Matthew makes an interesting point, though I’m reluctant to congratulate my schools for turning out the “me” I am now – certainly, the grades they gave me offered no hint that they thought I was doing well…
Nope. Can’t buy that. I’m all for clearing those classrooms out. Let’s make them into learning spaces – not instructional spaces – with props and tools and some human resources in case somebody gets stuck.
First, of course, you have to solve the problem of kids’ perception of schools as a kind of day-jail.
🙂
There is an alternative timeless and less flammable strategy that may be employed. We could provide each child with a rich liberal arts education.
Why all of the talk of education as a means to an end?
Why do educators capitulate to the whims of robber barons? (= or ≠Bill Gates?)
Gary, I’m not sure I’m following you here. But I think I like where you’re going. Are you writing about this in your blog? (http://stager.org/blog/)
Surely reading, writing, computing, reasoning, historical perspective, scientific method, appreciation of culture, physical prowess, public speaking, etc. need to be taught by any responsible society. Anything else underestimates the ways in which one learning builds upon another and paves the way for future understandings. The qualities that are honed and exercised by learning the foundational skill sets and habits of mind that we transfer from one setting to another. They should not be set aside for some vaguer idea of independence and learning to learn (whatever that means). Basic literacies make independence possible. We teach literacy SO THAT children have the tools to teach themselves?
Perhaps the lack of independence we all notice among our students is a consequence the take over of all education by academia. Higher education was once was a small part of our education system but now it’s the sole purveyor of opportunity… perhaps it is the business end of higher ed that really needs review… the co-opting of knowledge for purposes of profit.
Audrey, I thought I was going to have a lot to disagree with in your comment. But the more I read, the more I said, “right! right! right!”
Certainly, there are foundations. We all need a common context, or else working and playing together causes friction. You say, “Basic literacies make independence possible. We teach literacy SO THAT children have the tools to teach themselves?”
This is exactly what I’m saying. But I wonder if we might start to thinking about and talk about learning literacies, explicitly consider literacy as the gateway to continued learning — learning lifestyle, then students would not merely graduate as learned, but graduate as learners.
I think we agree then. 🙂 When you look at it, a learning lifestyle is not substantively different from the older lifelong learner. I remember when I was in college being told that college only taught me HOW to learn… most of what I would learn I hadn’t learned yet. Research shows that IQs gain points over a lifetime, so apparently, we get smarter as we get older… at least up to a point. I think lifelong learning, habits of mind, learning lifestyle (whatever terminology we wish to use) is an old idea and a fundamental one to a liberal arts education. The antithetical idea is that our job is only to prepare students to become successful workers and that any literacy or content that is irrelevant to their future employment is unnecessary to teach. Are we teaching people to live, to think, to create, to participate or are we teaching them to work?
Some of those jobs you cited were your education for life. While schools play a role in educating youth for their independent future, the future is less predictable than it once was or… perhaps the future has always had some curves to throw us. My father was born at the turn of the 20th century to parents who were 16 and 17 years old, considered mature and educated enough to be on their own. They were marvelous parents to seven children. They variously farmed,worked industry, ran tourist cottages,and operated a drugstore. My grandparent’s goals for their children had to do with graduating from highschool. My fathers goals for his children in the 40’s and 50’s and 60’s had to do with finishing high school,and learning a trade or joining the military.
College was my personal goal but there wasn’t sufficient money. Like so many, I had to work to afford higher education. Most of those jobs I held, continued my education, informing me about work that I did or didn’t want to do for the rest of my life and helping me to define my interests and talents.
For example, college prepared me to teach but, waiting tables taught me about relating to people, social skills that have served me well in the school environment.
I am interested in your ideas about how school will have to change in order to satisfy the next future. I do know this, my grandparents were able to adapt to the unpredictable events in their lives, in part, because they had each other. I am struck by the notion that our process from k-grad.school, is too long and lonely for the human condition.
What an excellent piece of writing. There is so much more than I can respond too here. You mention, though, that “..the future has always had some curves to throw us.” The difference today is that we know it. My father had every reason to expect that when he graduated from college, he would be doing, what he was taught to do for the next 35 years. Most of the kids I graduaged high school with, went straight to the mills, and had every reason to think that was what they’d do for the next 35 years. Again, the difference today, is that we know that’s not true.
I’d love to try to describe that school I’m urging for, but that will have to come later. I was most impressed by your last statement about relationships. I hadn’t thought about it, but is it, that the extent of our education is discouraging meaningful and supportive relationships? I don’t know, but it is an interesting question.
Thanks for sharing