Currently, our society finds itself in the midst of a debate
about our public schools. We are constantly bombarded with reports about our
failing educational system, evidenced by the high drop out rate and by our
students’ inability to compete with the subject area competence of students
from other countries, which has been rendered significantly more important by
our current global economy. This debate
may sound familiar to supercentenarians, who lived through a very similar one
at the turn of the 20th century. Those of us of younger generations may not realize that at that
time, there was much public outcry about the direction our public schools
needed to take as a response to the changing global climate created by industrialism.
As a response to this outcry, in the early 1900’s, John Dewey
founded the American movement of “progressive education,” which seems to share
the tenants of our modern day learner-centered ideology and scholar-academic
ideology introduced by Schiro (2008). Dewey
believed that “human knowledge should be linked to practical social experience”
(full text available: http://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-2-life-in-schools/john-dewey-on-progressive-education) in contrast to traditional models of “book-based
learning.” He advocated that schools be organized into “embryonic societies”,
through which students were exposed to miniature models of our society and
learned through experience rather than lecture.
This approach afforded two main educational benefits 1) learning became
relevant to the students’ everyday lives and 2) units of study were presented
in a functional, applicable manner. For example, students learned math through
construction and cooking. Dewey believed that simply preparing students for the
distant end goal of completion, as is inherent in the traditional model, does
nothing to motivate them. He felt that it was more important to provide
current, relevant lessons to make students more productive in society. (Kleibard
2004)
Dewey sought to use the students’ interests as springboard to delve into
other areas of study. However, he was not a proponent of tailoring the
curriculum to every student’s individual strengths and interests, as is
prevalent in modern education today. Currently, models that are held as best
practice, such as Universal Design for Learning, advocate that teachers should
play up the strengths of each individual student and class in order to maximize
student learning (http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent). Additionally, state law and federal regulations require that the education of students
with disabilities focus on their strengths in the development of an
Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and transition plan. In Michigan, there is
also an option for students who are unable to complete the Michigan Merit
Curriculum to receive a Personal Curriculum, which leads to a diploma and to equal
post-secondary opportunities, or a Certificate of Completion, which will allow
access to limited post-secondary opportunities.
Certainly, it holds that students will be more motivated to learn if
they are successful in their education, thereby making it inherently important
for students’ strengths to be highlighted in the classroom. The current
educational climate forces schools to educate all students, even those who are unmotivated
and do not wish to complete high school, risking punishment in the form of lost
funding if all students are not successful. Therefore, it is highly important
that teachers use every tool available to them, especially highlighting
students’ strengths to increase success and bolster confidence.
But, it is not right that all students are forced into a curriculum that
is focused on college readiness. A recent opinion piece in the Washington Post holds that the diminishing importance of high school
isolates kids who are not going to college, by making them feel unsuccessful in
the curriculum and “poisons the well” of education with bad attitudes and
negativity. President Obama agrees that not all students should attend college,
but does feel that everyone should receive some sort of post secondary training
to better prepare themselves for today’s workforce and competition on a global
scale (http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/college-for-all-obamas-higher-education-agenda-part-3-of-8/31832). This push is evidenced by the recent adoption of
the Common Core State Standards, which “are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world,
reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in
college and careers.”
It is of the utmost importance that our schools successfully educate all
students. In today’s economy, that does not mean that all students should
attend traditional four-year colleges. But, it does mean that students should
leave high school prepared for their intended career path, which is not
currently being accomplished with the college readiness focus of our
curriculum. The push to educate students to compete in a global society is not new, but the answers to how this should be accomplished are vastly different than were previously available.