Can Obama reboot the conversation of education?
OPINION - The Obama administration is hoping to create a bipartisan solution that reduces the need for constant testing, while also keeping educational standards high...
On January 25th, President Obama will address Congress with his annual State of the Union address. And like most presidents, he will emphasize the importance of education, and his own efforts to reform the educational system. At the top of the agenda for President Obama is reform of the No Child Left Behind act. The Obama administration is hoping to create a bipartisan solution that reduces the need for constant testing, while also keeping educational standards high.
As parents, when we talk about the educational system and meeting those education standards, the discussion tends to revolve around which school system teaches the basics the best. Who can best help little Jelani and Jasmine master the fundamentals? Is it the parochial system, with its combination of academics and religion? Maybe it’s a good public school? Are charter schools making the grade, with their longer hours? Or should we spend money on private school in order to guarantee that quality education?
There’s a pressure to find that right system because of standardized testing, but we rarely measure the effectiveness of education by how well rounded a student is becoming on things other than test. It’s high test scores or nothing. And if we have a school where most of the students don’t do well on the tests, they’re quickly determined to be a failing school. The solutions? New teachers, new tests, new resources are focused on the failing school in hopes for a turnaround.
But for the most part, we don’t challenge the notion about whether the whole paradigm of education as we know it correct and effective. We tend to take it for granted that the system we have is fine, it’s just the quality of the teachers, or the resources put into the schools that determines whether students succeed or not. Or maybe the responsibility lies with the parents, where President Obama often asks. Is creating an educated child as simple as a parent showing up to a parent teacher conference?
Enter Sir Ken Robinson, and he has another idea about education. Robinson, an English cultural visionary and author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, believes that the very structure of public education is flawed. He challenges the idea that standardized tests are the best ways to judge whether a child is not only educated, but also thinks that the more a student goes through this antiquated educational system, the less they’re able to think divergently. Hence, the one thing we want students to be, which is to be creative, dies as they get more educated.
In this amazing ten-minute video from the Royal Society of the Arts, Robinson gives us a history of the public school system and explains why the path we’re on just might be the wrong path. And he just may be right. Either way, it’s something to think about when you listen to President Obama talk about education.
