School will soon be back in session across much of the country, and one can almost hear the collective groan rising up from millions of disaffected students and teachers. There are some students who eagerly await the start of school — to make new friends and meet new challenges. Then there are the students who feel a profound sense of dread at the prospect of sitting still for hours to listen politely to adults as excited to “teach” them as they are to “learn.”
These are students who demonstrate great daring, creativity and teamwork during long hours playing shoot-’em-up multiplayer video games, a much maligned pursuit that teaches any number of valuable cognitive skills. Yet in the classroom, they stare blankly at chalkboards when they’re not stealing glances at smartphones, doing just enough to avoid being singled out and punished.
In “Now You See It,” Cathy Davidson, a professor of English at Duke University and a leading advocate of educational innovation, raises urgent questions about whether we’re adequately preparing children for life in an Internet era defined by decentralization, multitasking and an ever-present need for collaboration rather than solitary work. As Davidson makes clear, one of the central reasons our schools are falling short is that their core institutional practices have their origins in the industrial age.
Among public school teachers and their advocates, a new phrase is in vogue: "corporate education reform." The conceit is that advocates of choice-based education reform really want to privatize public education, to make a profit off young people and embrace the latest corporate fads.
But history tells us that today’s public schools are the legacy of corporate fads from the 1900s, when large industrial enterprises were keenly interested in securing a docile workforce that recognized and respected hierarchies. The tinkering, self-starting spirit that had been a necessity in a frontier society was snuffed out by design. We’ve been taught that education is this constricted, standardized and homogenized thing that happens in buildings called schools in between the ringing of school bells.
Just as aging industrial companies angle for tariffs to be protected from more nimble competitors, resistance to "corporate education reform" is to be expected. But there is an ugly side effect. Industrial-age schools have sapped our ability to learn in the wild.
Alan Krueger, the Princeton economist President Obama tapped to serve as his chief economic adviser, co-authored an important paper with Molly Fifer in 2006 on summer learning loss. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are at a big skills disadvantage in early grades, but that gap grows with each passing year. One reason is that while middle-class kids take part in enriching activities during the summer, ranging from camp to stimulating conversations with educated parents, poor kids are far less likely to do so. With that in mind, Krueger and Fifer called for a program of summer opportunity scholarships paying for enrichment programs during long vacations. It’s an excellent idea that should be pursued.
But what we really need is a cultural shift in which all of us take more responsibility for our education. We are not empty vessels into which credentialed professionals ladle knowledge. Rather, we are a special kind of animal uniquely good at learning through imitation and practice. Somehow we need to find better ways to capitalize on this fact — inside school walls and outside as well.
Perhaps the most exciting development in this direction is the emergence of a little New York start-up called Skillshare, which raised $3.1 million in venture capital last month. Founded by a pair of hip young technologists, Skillshare aims to promote the concept of peer-to-peer learning. Anyone — artists, carpenters, chefs, dog groomers, incorrigible layabouts — can propose a class and sign up.
Teachers charge a modest fee and Skillshare takes a modest cut. The Skillshare model is premised on the romantic and quite appealing notion that we all have something to teach — and that this knowledge can and should be shared.
Skillshare is only one of what is being called P2P learning efforts. This week, Anya Kamenetz, author of the brilliant book “DIY U,” has launched a course with P2P University based on her “Edupunks’ Guide,” a free resource for anyone, young or old, who wants to get a high-quality self-directed education outside school.
With any luck, those poor, listless kids who have to endure sitting still for hours on end won’t lose their learning. They’ll start embracing new tools and communities that will allow them to learn in more inclusive, exciting and challenging ways. They might even start choosing educational enrichment over Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
These are students who demonstrate great daring, creativity and teamwork during long hours playing shoot-’em-up multiplayer video games, a much maligned pursuit that teaches any number of valuable cognitive skills. Yet in the classroom, they stare blankly at chalkboards when they’re not stealing glances at smartphones, doing just enough to avoid being singled out and punished.
In “Now You See It,” Cathy Davidson, a professor of English at Duke University and a leading advocate of educational innovation, raises urgent questions about whether we’re adequately preparing children for life in an Internet era defined by decentralization, multitasking and an ever-present need for collaboration rather than solitary work. As Davidson makes clear, one of the central reasons our schools are falling short is that their core institutional practices have their origins in the industrial age.
Among public school teachers and their advocates, a new phrase is in vogue: "corporate education reform." The conceit is that advocates of choice-based education reform really want to privatize public education, to make a profit off young people and embrace the latest corporate fads.
But history tells us that today’s public schools are the legacy of corporate fads from the 1900s, when large industrial enterprises were keenly interested in securing a docile workforce that recognized and respected hierarchies. The tinkering, self-starting spirit that had been a necessity in a frontier society was snuffed out by design. We’ve been taught that education is this constricted, standardized and homogenized thing that happens in buildings called schools in between the ringing of school bells.
Just as aging industrial companies angle for tariffs to be protected from more nimble competitors, resistance to "corporate education reform" is to be expected. But there is an ugly side effect. Industrial-age schools have sapped our ability to learn in the wild.
Alan Krueger, the Princeton economist President Obama tapped to serve as his chief economic adviser, co-authored an important paper with Molly Fifer in 2006 on summer learning loss. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are at a big skills disadvantage in early grades, but that gap grows with each passing year. One reason is that while middle-class kids take part in enriching activities during the summer, ranging from camp to stimulating conversations with educated parents, poor kids are far less likely to do so. With that in mind, Krueger and Fifer called for a program of summer opportunity scholarships paying for enrichment programs during long vacations. It’s an excellent idea that should be pursued.
But what we really need is a cultural shift in which all of us take more responsibility for our education. We are not empty vessels into which credentialed professionals ladle knowledge. Rather, we are a special kind of animal uniquely good at learning through imitation and practice. Somehow we need to find better ways to capitalize on this fact — inside school walls and outside as well.
Perhaps the most exciting development in this direction is the emergence of a little New York start-up called Skillshare, which raised $3.1 million in venture capital last month. Founded by a pair of hip young technologists, Skillshare aims to promote the concept of peer-to-peer learning. Anyone — artists, carpenters, chefs, dog groomers, incorrigible layabouts — can propose a class and sign up.
Teachers charge a modest fee and Skillshare takes a modest cut. The Skillshare model is premised on the romantic and quite appealing notion that we all have something to teach — and that this knowledge can and should be shared.
Skillshare is only one of what is being called P2P learning efforts. This week, Anya Kamenetz, author of the brilliant book “DIY U,” has launched a course with P2P University based on her “Edupunks’ Guide,” a free resource for anyone, young or old, who wants to get a high-quality self-directed education outside school.
With any luck, those poor, listless kids who have to endure sitting still for hours on end won’t lose their learning. They’ll start embracing new tools and communities that will allow them to learn in more inclusive, exciting and challenging ways. They might even start choosing educational enrichment over Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
