(Assignment Below)
I had a short talk with my friend Paul Gilster last night while walking our dogs. As a reminder, Paul is the author of Centauri Dreams (book/blog). It’s a book, and subsequent blog, about visionary scientists who are plotting the method and means of achieving interstellar space travel within the next 50 years. I never walk away from Gilster without a renewed feeling of wonder (if my mind hasn’t been entirely blown apart by the possibilities), and I never leave these conversations without being reminded that my generation, in its youth, had a frounteer. It was set forth by John F. Kennedy on September 12, 1962, when he said,
We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go to the moon,
In this decade and do the other things,
Not because they are easy,
But because they are hard. (( Kennedy, John F. “We Choose to Go to the Moon.” Rice University, Houston, TX. 12 Sep 1962. Address. ))
| Watch the speech 3:42 Version 17:48 Version 1:07 NASA Version |
It’s the difference between the Sputnik challenge of the ’50s & ’60s and the educational challenge of this day. My teachers were challenged to educate a generation who would send people to the moon and beyond, to explore the frontiers of space. Today, we are challenged to “Race to the Top.” It sounds good, but what does the top look like? There’s no picture of it to inspire us. There is a vague sense that our children will graduate smarter than theirs — as measured by some Common Core of Education Standards.
There is another reason that these thoughts came to a head for me this morning. Next week, The House Committee on Education & Labor, chaired by 34-year Congressman Hon. George Miller, will hold a hearing to learn more about states’ efforts to help improve the nation’s competitiveness by adopting a common core of college and career readiness standards. Witnesses will be Hon. Bill Ritter, Jr, Governor of Colorado, Gene Wilhoit, Executive Director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, Doug Kubach, President and CEO of Pearson, and Cathy Allen, Vice Chair of the Board of Education at St. Mary’s County Public Schools.
I’m not going to criticize what the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers are doing — have done, in developing these standards. It is good work. What I am critical of, is seemingly incredible lack of vision and imagination in setting a “Race to the Top” — a competition of test scores — as the frontier for this generation of youngsters. We must go much further than a mere listing of standards and measure of attainment. We must inspire students, teachers, and a society with a image of what that frontier looks like and what its reach will achieve — and it’s got to be a lot more than what’s inspired us over the past few decades — getting rich!
Assignment:
So, here’s my topic assignment for youngster and teacher bloggers. What frontier might inspire us to race to a better, more exciting, and self-fulfilled future?
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I think some of the frontiers of education are already being explored. The concept of having a collection of podcast and vodcast lessons on a variety of subjects will allow students to access learning anywhere, anytime. That may be more effective, particularly in the Upper Middle Years, when students/adults sleep/wake/awareness patterns just don’t seem to match up. Certainly nothing replaces the face to face contact between teacher and student, but once the learning starts, the more interactive, the more accessible, the more visually stimulating the lesson, the higher the engagement from the student. Web based learning is already in use in distance learning environments, outreach environments, and in some classrooms which are working towards the wall-less concept. The future is close, it will the tech-vehicle that will change.
Well said, Todd, but it’s not what I’m looking for. You are talking about visionary methods, but what’s the reason — what’s the target. Students are learning to podcast and vodcast and engage in web-based learning so that they can do what. Tech is motivating, but why are they learning it — to achieve what great things in their adulthood?
I think our vision is nothing less than saving the planet. Or maybe the challenge is convincing people that the planet needs to be saved.
True enough! But what does that look like? How do you describe it in a way that could lead us in shaping/re-shaping education, in the say that sending people to the moon did?
David,
Feel free to criticize!
National (re: common core) standards a profoundly bad idea at best and psychotic delusion at worst. It’s associated documents do not represent “good work.” The motives of its purveyors are neither pure or naive.
This is a solution in search of a problem that will harm children in our public schools.
IMHO: You cannot be on the side of teachers and on the side of common core standards.