Just received and read this book yesterday (along with these: Classroom Blogging, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, The Brain That Changes Itself, A whole New Mind). As usual, I found myself vacillating between my appreciation of seemingly different ideas.
Example: Two country's approaches to changing precollegiate education systems.
China is refocusing history textbooks from "wars, dynasties and revolutions to economics, technology, social customs and globalization" (Kahn, 2006). One author of the new textbooks says that the alterations "reflect a sea of change in thinking about what students need to know . . . The goal of our work . . . is to make the study of history more mainstream and prepare our students for a new era."
If you've been following my blog, you'll recall my appreciation of and fascination with the approach of Classical Education. With a focus on the classics (and one's ability to logically formulate and clearly present an argument), it's difficult to reconcile the supplanting of "wars, dynasties and revolutions" with "economics, technology. . . and globalization." That difficulty would be predicated on the assumption that the study of economics was not being taught beginning with Aristotle's examination of the "'art' of wealth acquisition" and questioning of "whether property is best left in private or public hands." Or if technology were not being taught by period and geography, beginning with the stone age. Chances are the technology and economic focus would be on the "flattening" of our world a la Friedman.
Conversely, Japan is "remaking its vaunted education system to foster greater creativity, artistry, and play. The Education Ministry has been pushing students to reflect on the meaning and mission of their lives, encouraging what it calls 'education of the heart' (Pink, 2006). Pink claims that the future belongs to "designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers - creative and empathetic 'right-brain' thinkers."
I guess the approaches aren't mutually exclusive. The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL; 2003) has identified the following categories of skills required for success in today's world: Digital-Age Literacy; Inventive Thinking; Effective Communication; High Productivity. A couple skills which would be helpful to effective communicators or inventive thinkers would be teaching and storytelling, both from Pink's list.
Ultimately, it boils down to using 21st century technology (web 2.0) to find people from whom we can learn, ask questions of them, comment on their thoughts, and have them do the same for us. We are still a learning community, collaborating now with blogs and podcasts along with book clubs and the traditional classroom.
Check out Sir Ken Robinson's ideas on education at Ted.com.
Thoughts? Anyone? Anyone?
In my ideal world, it wouldn't be either/or--having an arts centered education or a science education or anything in between, would be valid and equal, just different. I love what Sir Ken shared about the lady who has choreographed many Broadway productions. Not being artsy myself, that way of thinking is totally foreign to me. China's decision to refocus their history from an economic perspective frightens me a little. I'm not education enough to have good reasons why, I just know that it does. These are simple comments, but I'm a simpleton. :) This is Joy, your wife, by the way. Just in case you thought maybe you commented yourself and didn't remember.
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