Education for a Changing World
“Come gather round people . . .come mothers and fathers throughout the land, Your old road is rapidly agin’ . . . The order is rapidly fadin’ for the Times they are A-Changin’”
-Bob Dylan
Bob was only half right. The world isn’t just changing, but at a mad, mad pace -- one many times faster than the tempo of his iconic tune. We who live on it have to run to keep up.
If we could reduce the entire population of the world to a village of just 100 people and keep existing demographic ratios the same, the world would look like this:
Our village would have 60 Asians, 14 Africans, 12 Europeans, 8 Latin Americans, 5 from the U.S.A. and Canada and 1 from the South Pacific. Digging a little deeper:
*82 would be non-white and 18 white
*67 would be non-Christian and 33 would be Christian
*67 would be unable to read
*7 would have access to the Internet
*1 would be a college graduate
*5 would control 32% of the world’s wealth -- all of them U.S. citizens
*50 would be malnourished
-Family Care Foundation
“Let China sleep for when she awakes, the world will be sorry.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte
If we want all the benefits of power and influence that we have enjoyed for generations, we need to change. We need to accept that the organic evolution of nations now has challenged us to stand up and re-connect with our greatest attribute and national gift: ingenuity. The world and our classrooms within it are in great and ever-morphing upheaval, and our American character, drive and creativity MUST stand up and respond. We can avoid the rapid loss of influence and identity that Greece, Rome, France, Britain or Russia suffered (along with other great cultures) for one dynamic and remarkable reason: Technology and its synergy with human imagination.
We must do this in a new global reality, though. The world neighborhood is not the same. Considering the number of Asians in “our” village, it’s worth noting that China has 3.1 million college graduates, and India has 3.3 million. That’s about six times the million graduates in America’s corner of the village. There is a huge pool of valuable human capital available in the East -- one that dwarfs that of the United States. Also, worth mentioning is the transformation taking place in China’s schools and their emphasis on problem solving and creativity, Western countries should anticipate a growing Asian influence at the highest levels of technology, culture and economics, and find ways to make it mutually beneficial for all.
After all, those five U.S representatives to the world village aren’t all Anglo males. America is a family of Latinos, African descendants, Asians, native Americans and many others.
Consider the success rates of folks in our corner of the “village.” Only 69% of America’s high school students graduate. Of that total, 79% are Asian students and 76% are Anglo students. Only 57% Native Americans, 55% African Americans, and 53% Hispanics complete high school. Then, only 30% of those who enroll in college make it though their sophomore year, and less than 50% receive college degrees.
In 35 of the largest cities in our “village,” fewer that 50% of ninth graders finish high school. - National High School Alliance statistics.
While 31% of white and 27% of African American students drop out of high school, fully 56% of our Latino villagers have not progressed past the ninth grade.
Keep in mind that these numbers are in flux, and that our village identity is a moving target. Our world is in flux.
Turning to the largest cohort in our “village,” we see great change in China, in particular. One of my friends, an entrepreneur named Richard, who recently returned from China, remarked that, “the Chinese are hungry.” He speaks with wonder and in great detail about how much new construction and entrepreneurial risk-taking is taking place within China’s borders and the surrounding emerging Asian economies. There are new companies, new alliances with Western enterprises, exponential growth in these countries’ infrastructure, imports and exports and a remarkable increase in living standards and economic sophistication as a result. As developed economies, burdened with debt, face low population and economic growth, the explosive economies of the Pacific Rim are proving to be the engine of world economic growth.
The Chinese sun is rising and getting brighter by the day. Its power in international markets has grown exponentially in the last 30 years; and its influence at the United Nations is also growing. At this writing, they have just passed Japan to become the second largest economy in the world. David Gergen, a senior political analyst for CNN who has also served as an adviser to four U.S. presidents, recently christened this economic milestone for China “the most important development of the era.”
Active Minds
Along with addressing the core reality that students are human beings first before they are students or learners, we must engage their growing minds more. Education must become more than Twain’s caustic soap. The 19th century model of the classroom is visually represented by rows of desks and children silently doing bookwork. This is the very sort of learning that Twain and many of us can easily recall as the boring nature of schooling. Those valedictorians that forgot the facts in their ninth grade exams attest to the ineffectiveness of this “industrial model” of the classroom. As Mark Twain quipped, “Many public school children seem to know only two dates – 1492 and the forth of July; and as a rule, they don’t know what happened on either occasion.”
We need to adopt what Sir Ken Robinson calls the “agriculture model” of education where the teacher as “farmer” sets up the environment and facilitates the learning. Dr. Robinson uses the Michelin Guide as an example of the agricultural approach. The Michelin guides are probably the most respected guides and judgers of restaurants and food around the planet. They use a system of three stars as their “grades” for particular restaurants. The judges consider five criteria for awarding stars: quality, flavor, personality, value, and consistency. The manner and approach of the restaurants is up to them and their own creative choices. The results ARE NOT specifically dictated by the Michelin guide. Freedom of imagination and discipline are the key ingredients to attaining the highest ranking.
This model allows choice by the student individually or in groups to attain high grades. This paradigm is looser in nature than a controlled class of children where their every move is circumscribed by the educational establishment out of a fear of “chaos.” This approach does accept a little risking by students; and this, in turn, is risky for the educator. An example of this new modality is project-based or problem-based learning. In both cases, rubrics are set and students are allowed some freedom in responding. Developed at a Canadian medical school, Problem-Based Learning places Students in small groups so they can investigate and analyze problems/scenarios, an element that speaks to our mammalian brains.