I’ve had a bit of an epiphany in the last few days.
It started when I attended an NSTA regional conference for science teachers. All anyone could talk about was standards, especially Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). I attended a forum on NGSS and diversity. I left skeptical. The only ones who are likely to benefit are people in the education biz, including professors of education, textbook publishers, and the testing business.
What makes anyone think promulgating new standards is going to fix education? There was a frenzy of discussion of 21st Century skills, globalization, competition, etc. The degree to which education needs fixing is not clear to me, at this point. I don’t think it’s skills. What needs to happen is we need to stop using the educational system to harm kids.
By harm I mean that most people, say 75%, leave high school feeling that they are stupid. Harping on competition and skills is not going to change this. In the 1950’s Talcott Parsons, structuralist sociologist, predicted that increasing requirements in schools would have the unintended consequence of increasing students’ alienation. I believe we are seeing that. Teachers I talk with are tearing their hair out over “unmotivated” students.
Besides, there seems to be a repeat of previous magical thinking: Promulgating standards does not mean anyone is going to change the way they teach.
I am in the education biz to serve children. It’s not to further my career, keep my job, etc. The conference brought me up sharply. What am I doing here?