Submitted by Marty Crawford (not verified) on June 1, 2007 - 11:02.
Ah, how well Shakespeare said it! The thing about change is that we will go to any lengths to avoid it. Years ago, I read a parable about that called the "Sabre-tooth Curriculum." It seems that the caveman teachers taught the students to kill the tigers that were eating their friends. That worked fine until the all the tigers were erradicated, but once they were gone nothing was done to change the curriculum. It had become so institutionalized that they continued to teach tiger-hunting in an era where the problem was gone. That's where we are. Our education is based on an agrarian society that no longer exists. Most of us can't tell a peck from a bushel. We still cling to English measurements when the world is metric.
Can we create something new? YES! But we have to get the institutions (read colleges and governments) to buy into it. Then we have to get the TEACHERS to buy into it. At our school, that took almost ten years of negotiation, prodding, and pulling those stubborn old mules out of the mire and onto the path that leads to the golden future. Have we done it? Sort of. We would have made it long since if the colleges our kids plan to attend were willing to change their admissions policies.
In the words of the Bard, "All's well that ends well." We are still hoping for that happy ending. In the meanwhile, we push on with the courage to try to make a change.
"Screw your courage to the sticking place"
Submitted by Marty Crawford (not verified) on June 1, 2007 - 11:02.
Ah, how well Shakespeare said it! The thing about change is that we will go to any lengths to avoid it. Years ago, I read a parable about that called the "Sabre-tooth Curriculum." It seems that the caveman teachers taught the students to kill the tigers that were eating their friends. That worked fine until the all the tigers were erradicated, but once they were gone nothing was done to change the curriculum. It had become so institutionalized that they continued to teach tiger-hunting in an era where the problem was gone. That's where we are. Our education is based on an agrarian society that no longer exists. Most of us can't tell a peck from a bushel. We still cling to English measurements when the world is metric.
Can we create something new? YES! But we have to get the institutions (read colleges and governments) to buy into it. Then we have to get the TEACHERS to buy into it. At our school, that took almost ten years of negotiation, prodding, and pulling those stubborn old mules out of the mire and onto the path that leads to the golden future. Have we done it? Sort of. We would have made it long since if the colleges our kids plan to attend were willing to change their admissions policies.
In the words of the Bard, "All's well that ends well." We are still hoping for that happy ending. In the meanwhile, we push on with the courage to try to make a change.