What Has Happened to Schools?

Nov 27th, 2007 by Ann Maher

What has happened to school in our society? It has become something to be endured, seemingly by both students and teachers, in many cases. We recoil from measuring success by test scores, but lack consensus on how to prepare our students to succeed in today’s global society. Research tells us that if learning is “joyful, interactive, and constructive”, then thinking is made visible to the student and mastery of content will occur. How many of our classrooms today would be described as “joyful”?

For the past two years, I have been listening – to the voice of students, practitioners, parents, and researchers; listening to a growing voice within me, and within our culture, calling for change. If our schools need change, will we join forces and improve them, for the sake of our children? Or will we allow our system to totter forward, fueled by its own bureaucracy and tradition, while we watch our American leadership role in the world market drift overseas? It is time for collective action. As an educator and employer, I believe our schools must produce workers who are confident readers, competent writers, problem solvers and creative thinkers. Authors like Thomas Friedman (The World is Flat) and Daniel Pink (A Whole New Mind) present a strong case for these traits as indicators of success in the 21st century, or what Pink calls “The Conceptual Age”.
“The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind – creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. These people – artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers –will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.” Pink, A Whole New Mind

There’s that word again – joy. Isn’t that what we want for our children? “Confidence, motivation and excitement for the future” may be a modern way of expressing “life, liberty and a pursuit of happiness”. Are we achieving our goals? Recently, I canvassed a class of juniors enrolled in an AP Honors US History class in a high-achieving Connecticut high school. I invited them to rank themselves on a scale of 1-5 on the traits listed above. I confidently expected from this group of bright, articulate students scores at the top of the scale. The results startled both the students and me. Here are their averages:

Competent Reader 3.92
Confident Writer 4.03
Risk Taker 3.58
Problem Solver 4.14

I also invited these students to evaluate their own education to date. More fascinating stories unfolded. One student remarked, “We aren’t really offered any kind of choices at a regular high school. We have only standard classes with a few exceptions of basic career knowledge.” A boy observed, “A student is and only can be as intelligent as their teacher. Get an average teacher; students get an average (at most) education.” This boy ranked himself at 1 as a competent reader, but 5 as a risk taker and problem solver. His career path? He plans to be a pharmacist or accountant. Every student I’ve talked to wants to learn, wishes school could be more fun, and has dreams of a successful future. How can we assure their success in the years to come? What can each of us do?