Focus, form, frame- I like it!

Kevin Washburn at The Edurati Review has this great post describing a hypothetical working situation twenty years hence. He then describes how that worker might respond and discusses what education might be necessary to make that worker prepared for that moment.

I loved this post for several reasons. First, a lot of what I do looks just like what he described- there's a focus for the work, a framing context, and a form to deliver the learning. Hopefully, when I do it with students it doesn't seem as manufactured as what I just wrote might imply. But he has an accurate description of a whole lot of working contexts. So it was gratifying to have someone pretty smart describe how I try to teach in positive terms.

Second, I loved the flexibility of describing a cognitive process in these terms. This structure is solid enough to actually give some guidance- there needs to be a focus for the work, a frame or context, and a form of delivery, but this structure is also loose enough that I can immediately understand how it applies to all three of the very different courses I teach. And, I bet if I checked with my colleagues in some of the other departments, they would have little trouble seeing how this conceptual idea could guide them, if they chose to be so guided.

Third, the flexibility moves beyond school and work to encompass a lot of life. There are many things that I do that can or could be described as an enactment of this thinking process. Which means that teaching this way isn't just preparation for the working world (I know in this country we think that work is the end all be all, but there is more to life), it is teaching useful life problem solving skills.

So here's what made me really mad when I read that piece. No one talks about teaching that way. Okay, so M. Shelly and I do, and this guy at the Edurati Review does, but in the bigger picture, its not even on the radar. Obama's education guy, Arne Duncan, is continuing NCLB in one form or another. Low income students are getting less and less preparation for anything that looks like what Washburn describes, and even good public schools, such as the one I am lucky enough to work in, are being pushed to adopt methodology and approaches that ultimately teach students rule following and 'performance mimicry.' Not actual thinking skills.

Though we say we want a certain kind of education for our children, we (collectively) are not doing it. The emphasis on test scores and rote learning will eventually penetrate all the way to schools like mine, because it is being codified in federal law and tied to funding, making these mandates impossible to ignore. At that point, only elite private schools will be teaching in the manner described above. And I'm no conspiracy theorist, so I don't believe there is some 'plot' to subjugate the majority of the population, but that is the effect it will have.

Education is power, and we are giving that power to less and less of our current and future citizens. So if its them we are relying on to figure out all these complex future problems (like how to pay for my medical bills when I'm 102), we will be leaving them unarmed. What a downer of a post, but so much is going on that makes me angry that this forum makes a great place to vent.

Tomorrow I will be teaching my classes, to the best of my ability, with the hope that they will have the tools to do the challenging work of living their lives, and that I will have participated in helping them to have those tools.

Thanks to Washburn and the Edurati Review for putting out some good thinking about schools.

F. Scott