Shifting The Pedagogical Focus

In a recent article published on The Guardian "In an age of robots, schools are teaching our children to be redundant" by George Monbiot, I was especially impacted by the statement, "At present we are stuck with the social engineering of an industrial workforce in a post-industrial era." The significant impact on me here is the accuracy with which this statement is characterized in our schools on a daily basis. As technology and innovation continues to grow at unprecedented rates, I am consistently experiencing students being taught through 19th century methods and structures. Students continue to sit in rows, working on paper worksheets (or digital worksheets), all completing the exact same assignments, and turning them in for a teacher to grade/give feedback to prepare for testing of rote memorization and recall skills.

Developing Thinkers

   

      I recently came across an article from the Harvard Ed Magazine titled Bored Out of Their Minds by Zachary Jason.  It's an interesting read and one I hope it's widely circulated in a quick manner.  In short, the article claims students are bored out of their minds in today's classrooms for four main reasons:

1. An escalating emphasis on standardized tests
2. The novelty of school itself fades with each grade
3. Lack of motivation
4. The transition from tactile and creative to cerebral and regimented