The options for schooling are numerous and in 2010 we explored
several of them. I hope that 2011 continues to offer new and innovative
ideas for development of the Intellectual Path.
During
2010, I explored several known options for schooling including home
schooling, magnet schools, charters schools and online schools. Each of
these has evolved out of a concern that our nations educational system
is failing. Costs are rising, almost out of control, and performance by
our students is either lagging behind the world, or at best, matching
it. But our nation needs leadership in the educational sector and
keeping the status quo just isn't good enough.
The four primary
alternatives previously explored in 2010 have some things in common from
which we can perhaps learn something. Whether it's a home school, a
charter school, or magnet school, we find that smaller class sizes
matter, and do benefit student performance. We also find with these
three alternatives that less bureaucracy and less requirements to meet
onerous bureaucratic rules and regulations benefits the students. Where
teachers and administrators are held to more direct performance
standards, they live up to them! We did see that in many cases, the use
of technology can leverage the student's experience, and the case of
undergraduate programs, may provide a much less costly alternative to
community colleges or universities.
In all cases, we find that the
importance of school to the students support group is important. Where
students have a strong family around them that is supportive of
life-long learning, they tend to be more intellectually curious and
generally better students. Tied to this, we did also discuss the
importance of a nation generally sharing a set of values and morals. We
discussed the 1963 Supreme Court decision that eliminated prayer from
our public schools, and accelerated a movement toward our nation looking
inward to solve its' problems, not upwards!
Perhaps the most
uniform finding in 2010 is that the problems with our nation's schools
are complicated, mostly because of the size and diversity in the system.
The current public school system attempts to be all things to all
people catering to all religions, all scholastic aptitudes, and all
other general qualities of the student body. Perhaps this is a situation
that is at the root of the problem. Like so many other institutions
that get unwieldy and unmanageable as they get big (the federal
government comes to mind, or General Motors), the public school system
may just be so big that it cannot effectively perform its task. Perhaps
as we move forward continuing to look for better solutions, we'll find
that just as private businesses change to accommodate customer demand,
schools will have to as well. And perhaps that change will include more
specialized schools, either in academic concentrations, or even in the
trades.
I think also that we'll continue to see a growth in the
home school movement. As I've discussed in earlier articles, this is not
purely a religious issue, but rather is a method of parents taking
direct responsibility for the education of their children. By
definition, you have involved parents, and the systems, structures and
resources to successfully home school a child are growing and evolving
rapidly.
I am aware that the issues facing education of a child
are complex, and as the father of six, I'm intimately aware of the
issues parents face. I do believe though that we can find solutions to
these problems, but to do so, as with so many other things, we need to
think truly outside of the box and not be chained to ideas of the past
that, although we can learn from them, are holding us back from
embracing new and innovative ideas
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