1: Recognizing the problem: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
2: The cycle: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/07/us-obama-education-idUSTRE8161IQ20120207
3: Finnish success: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html
In recent news, Obama has decided to put an additional $80 million for some education program to aid math and science education. Having seen the video from TED talks (1) which discusses how "... schools kill creativity" and having read articles (3) answering the question "Why are Finlands schools successful" I have come to a belief that American education reform is not just, nor primarily, fiscal reform but it is a paradigm shift.
Here is the regrettable truth, our current U.S. education system is big, costly, and ineffective at mining the countries intellectual resources for the mathematical and scientific minds the private sector demands, let alone teaching children a more comprehensive way to be creative which would actually prepare them for a future in our dynamic market. I think most people recognize the problems easily, but perhaps the hardest truth for me to swallow is that our government and its burgeoning bureaucracy makes breaking this cycle an absolute nightmare. For now, presidents will continue to do what they've done for decades and just throw more money at the problem hoping that it will just go away long enough to be re-elected.
you would enjoy Sir Robinson's other video: Changing Education Paradigms (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U). It goes in more depth about what is specifically wrong with the education system rather than just saying that it's the problem. My biggest problem with it and Sir Robinson is that while i agree with him, he doesn't do much in these videos in the way of suggesting a real solution.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't feel that the struggle is finding a solution, but the difficulty of convincing the branches of government, lobbyists, unions, educators, and administrators that solution x is the right course of action was best stated by Reagan's passing comment that passing his first piece of legislation felt like "crapping a pineapple."
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