As a kindergarten teacher, I work each day with
geniuses. At least, according to Sir Ken
Robinson, I do. He states that when
given a test on divergent thinking, 98% of kindergarten students in a
particular study scored at the genius level.
As they became older and more educated, the rates of genius went
down. This begs the question, “How do we
educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st
century?” Clearly the traditional system
is failing. One challenge is that we do not know what the economies of
the 21st century will even look like. Preparing my kindergarten students today for
the economy of today will not help them twenty years from now when they enter an
entirely different workforce.
Sir Ken Robinson argues that traditional education systems
are based on the factory model of the industrial age: bells, hours, subjects
and age. This belief was also reiterated
by Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs in her keynote address, at the Tri-Association
Conference in Panama City this past year.
She argued that we are using a 19th century factory schedule
and a 20th century curriculum on a 21st century
learner. We are preparing our students
for 1982! Our challenge here is how to
we even begin to address this backwards model?
Education needs a huge reform in order to bring teaching and
learning to the 21st century through an aesthetic lens. When approached as a whole, this is a
daunting and seemingly impossible task.
What one thing can you do, today, to help your students for the
economies of tomorrow? Teach them how to
think and create so that they can adapt easily to economic changes.
Totally agree with you!
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