A great principal once brought something to my mind, “Why does school need to suck?” I have always wondered, like many others, why we need to learn what we do. As Chris Lehmann said, “We’re constantly being told that we will need it in the future, it’ll help us get a good job or because the teacher said so.” Why aren’t we being told things like, “You need to know physics because it is the language of motion; because it is the poetry of the physical world.”?
Instead of standard tests that are taken, why not do standard projects? Like Chris Lehmann stated, “Why not get them to do something that matters?
School was designed to be like a factory. English teachers teach english and math teachers teach math. This did work when the majority of educated people worked in factories but now, with this world that’s always changing, the education system is broken, but it can be fixed.
If nothing else, school should teach us to learn. It should open our eyes to new ideas and to critical thinking. If we train kids to be workers, that’s what we’ll get. Although, if we teach them to be citizens, we’ll get the type of workers we need in this ever changing world. People can figure out how to work in cubicals. It’s not that difficult. We should teach them to live, teach them to think critically and with that, they can become successful in this new world.
Adventure Co-op 