This has certainly been an interesting two weeks in the world of education; the “job-saving” Wisconsin budget bill, aimed at cutting the state’s 3.6 billion dollar deficit passed the Wisconsin House last night, in response to this, the New Richmond, WI school district handed out pink slips to all of their 207 employees this morning claiming uncertainty over who would and would not be rehired for the 2011-2012 school year. Meanwhile, amongst the downtrodden news of my home state, I have found myself in the grasp of Mid-Winter inspiration for the 3rd year in a row.
The MMEA (Minnesota Music Educators Association) Mid-Winter Conference was held last week at the Minneapolis Convention Center; through lectures, performances, and networking with the best and brightest in my field, I have been refreshed and re-inspired in my classroom. Upon my return to the rehearsal room this week, I witnessed a fantastic school assembly in regards to internet safety. This is an extremely valuable lesson for our students and I was very pleased with the presenter. In the era of Facebook and smartphones, our students are treading dangerous waters; however, it wasn’t the threat of employers discovering pictures of my hidden karaoke talent that got me thinking about today’s blog, it was this.
The technology boom of the last 20 years will be nearly unfathomable for tomorrow’s youth, just as the technology of 2030 is unfathomable to us. This is an extremely cool (yet frightening) prospect. Fact based learning will become obsolete with Google available at the blink of an eye; if we don’t change our educational focus in this country, we wont need educators (in the classroom or online.)
Our current system seems to be driven by the need to compete with test scores from China/India/Korea/etc. These scores demonstrate a concrete understanding of basic facts but they do not necessarily represent the comprehension of a concept. If we do not focus on concept and comprehension, we will never “catch-up” to the basic-fact test scores of our competitors. A reformed American Educational System would place us light years beyond our foreign friends; leaving them to wonder where they went wrong.
Here is our cold hard reality (as I see it)….
A: Factory jobs are being outsourced, and they’re being outsourced for a good reason: Businesses are saving money by sending “black-and-white”, “true-or-false”, “Type-A tasks” to areas of the world that specialize in concrete education.
B: While factory work has long been a part of our proud history, it does not have to define our future. (I’m not trying to take anything away from these workers, but if we continue to fawn over the past, we will lose a better future to China/India/Korea/etc)
So what can we do? First – accept this ugly reality; Second – refocus, reenergize, and reprioritize. We need a push for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) in our classrooms. If we want to create state-of-the-art learners, we need to expose them to state-of-the-art equipment – from the latest in lab technology to musical instruments that were not purchased during the Kennedy Administration.
I could continue on for today but I can see more entries kicking up on this topic so I will leave you with my epiphany for the day… Education is just like anything else (and I would love to see some of my Wisconsin lawmakers stumble across this point) …
You get what you pay for.
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