Amazing technological advances are taking place in education. But not so much in unionized American Public Schools.
Unions protect the past, not reinvent to meet the needs of the future. Here is a video highlighting the advances in Sweden, by no means a conservative mecca. They have adopted to encourage competition in schools and have had meaningful results.
But in America, the educational system has seen amazing changes. Unfortunately, those changes are not adopted by the public school system because it breaks the power structure of the unions.
Technology has been implemented by an unlikely subset of the educators in America. Turns out homeschooling parents are adopting technology faster their public school brethren. Studies show the average homeschooler attends 1/3 the number of hours of schooling per day and are several grade levels ahead of their peers.
Am I saying the future is homeschooling? Not necessarily. I still believe in school sports, socialization skills, etc., but the advancements in individual pace learning curriculum has allowed these students to learn 100% of the material before moving on to the next lesson plan, has allowed well-thought out and well-prepared lesson plans, and immediate testing and understanding of results. Many of these programs even require students to redo the questions they got wrong.
Some people think they don't want parents who don't have expertise to be teaching children, but with the advances of technology, students are learning from polished, professionals. Often times, these professionals are the best of the best in their area of expertise. Imagine if you were able to take classes from a Nobel Prize winning mathmetician instead of a fresh student right out of college? Imagine if the program was tested and perfected for presentation, and maximized for optimum results. These lesson plans become an advantage, not a disadvantage to the homeschool curriculum.
If people don't know what I am talking about, compare the 4 years of foreign language classes that are offered at public schools, and Rosetta Stone, a web or cd based learning system that is used by businesses and military personnel around the world. They claim you can be proficient in a foreign language in 6 months. That sure beats 4 years of sleeping through Mrs. Lundbergs lecture's.
Another area of reform that should be encouraged is to create schools where parents sign a petition to waive the right to file a lawsuit against the teachers. Teachers would then be encouraged to discipline the children to encourage the most effective learning environment. Eliminating the need for costly lawsuits, and ridding the system of victims claiming their rights were violated would increase the efficiency of the school system.
Another area of reform I would like to pursue is the financial incentive of parent participation in their children's education. Parents who are involved in their children's education would receive a rebate check at the end of the year.
No comments:
Post a Comment