|
Root cause of the 'teaching systems' problem
Posted by Jack Harich on 12/27/2010
In Reply To:Root cause of the 'teaching systems' problem Posted by Tim Joy on 12/27/2010
On 12/27/2010 2:04 AM, Tim Joy wrote:
I'll go for the long one, Jack.
We (humanity, I mean) have a centuries deep tradition of teaching disciplines - in institutions commonly called schools or academies, local groups (cities, states, et al) hire specialized people to instruct the area's youth in those areas. Focus on content and management. It's the sharply specialized, "highly-qualified teachers" in core disciplines that are endemic of this paradigm.
I was an English teacher for 25 years. While there are multiple means, it's really done one way: students read and write, teachers critique. It helped that I did NOT have an English degree. Having not specialized allowed me to dream up some crazy schemes and, later, I stumbled upon Joseph Campbell and Jay Forrester and Donella Meadows. These folks are great synthesizers. It helped me work on the edge.
Thanks for the review. I lack a teaching background, so I'm a bit ignorant on so many things.
Something caused you to "stumble" on a better way of problem solving. Perhaps whatever it was lies at the core of what "should" be taught.
Now, what part of high school has any class for synthesis? We've broken up schooling into parts. Of course, the world we experience is really one thing, not 45 minute segments of math, then language arts, then PE, then science, then elective option.
That question has noticed a symptom. What is the cause of symptoms like this? That will lead to the root causes.
It's the wrong damn paradigm. Peter Senge speaks to this in his Schools That Learn - factory model of standardization remains the model, right up to quarterly reports.
There's another paradigm at work here, more damning still. Students do not know enough yet to do any good for us . . . put them in buildings until they're at least 18. That's another entry for another time.
Here'a way to start, I believe . . . every school in this country ought to adopt a handful of local problems, become expert in them via research, each year adding to the body of a locality's knowledge. Learn what's necessary to study those problems, study them, present solutions, perhaps enact some. Doing this will turn the entire educational enterprise to the world around it rather than the world within it.
This has great appeal but I suspect it's a symptomatic solution. Why aren't schools teaching social problem solving? Until the root cause of that is addressed, reformers will find it very difficult to get suggestions like this accepted. But after the root cause is resolved, reforms like this will automatically appear, because the system will now see that as in its best interests.
But I started all this ("Fall 2010 Year in Review," 12/22) with a metaphor that I did not understand - the lever. A simple machine, the lever has a few crucial parts: the bar and the fulcrum. Depending on where the bar rests on the fulcrum, and depending on where the load rests on the bar, effort is exerted in a certain place to move the load. We needs lots of these, in a lot of places, and everyone pushing really hard.
What's the root cause to the "teaching systems" problem? Our educational institutions and all the attendant apparatus sustaining said institutions are set up for parts only . . . we are all working in an educational system shaped by a world view whose values and story lines are increasingly anomalous.
However, I believe we are in fact on the cusp of a huge shift . . . let's just keep going.
I hope we're on the verge of a positive shift, but I see no evidence of it starting to happen in the large. Only in small pockets like this list. The effects of that are dwarfed by the many conversations elsewhere. We are in the extreme minority.
In fact, I see evidence of a negative shift in the US and elsewhere. Political polarization. Preference of quantity over quality of life. The rise of short term thinking over the long term. A dramatic fall in the rationality of public discourse. The appearance of global mega problems with no solutions in sight. Continued inability to form the equivalent of a world government to effectively and efficiently handle problems that affect many nations. Etc.
But all is not doom and gloom. The world pulled itself out of the Dark Ages once before. All it took was what led to the Age of Reason.
A thoughtful post. Thanks, Tim.
Jack
|
