Manzi leaves us with two other broad reaching fix-its. The first one obviously hits close to home.
Over the coming decades, we should seek to deregulate public schools...We now need a new vision for schools that looks a lot more like Silicon Valley than Detroit: decentralized, entrepreneurial, and flexible.
To a certain extent, he's right. He ignores the central problem with teacher today, however...they are lazy. The real problem with our education system is that it is built to not force teachers to adjust their pedagogy to fit the times and culture. Tenure, for example, should be done away with forever. His idea of the entrepreneurial student intrigues me and this gets back to teachers being lazy. Instructors need to shift their focus from themselves and onto the students. Students should decide how best they learn and should choose how to assess themselves, not teachers.
His other idea is fantastic.
We should reconceptualize immigration as recruiting...we should think of immigration as an opportunity to improve our stock of human capital...It would be great for America as a whole to have, say, 500,000 smart, motivated people move here each year with the intention of becoming citizens.
No shit. Enough with the rants against illegals. Let's be realistic. They're here...let's embrace them...and get this country moving again.
And now, of course, we come to the key, concluding idea.
Balancing economic innovation and social cohesion is the challenge of every free nation today — but it is a particularly pressing challenge for the special nation that holds in its hands so much of the fate of democracy and capitalism in our world.
On this day, I declare that the central mission of this blog will be to search for this balance and, hopefully find some answers. I can't promise that I won't get off on a rant from time to time (I am only human) but Manzi will be in the back of my mind forever.
So much hangs in the balance...
13 comments:
Mark:
Found this humorous and thought you may want to refer to it during the SotU speech. Reminded me of the 'boardroom bingo' cards we had during several speakerphone meetings back in the day.
http://image.patriotpost.us.s3.amazonaws.com/2010-01-27-bingo.jpg
"Students should decide how best they learn and should choose how to assess themselves"
"Students should decide how best they learn and should choose how to assess themselves"
"Students should decide how best they learn and should choose how to assess themselves"
I'm not sure I agree with this. Something like this was tried recently in Chicago and it failed miserably. And it encourages even lazier teachers don't you think, Mark?
tg, I think M is thinking way more radically than anything that is likely to get tried in a major public school system.
Wait Mark. No, no, no. Not that your whole post is fail, but letting students assess themselves is a non-starter with me. Consider:
A dishonest student (can we agree such a thing might exist?) would be the major beneficiary of such a system. No homework, no study. no knowledge.... I give myself an A+!
The next student that is honest and busts his ass but simply cannot get an A+, will honestly give himself a C.
So your system will reward the dishonest, and punish the honest. It will force the honest to become dishonest in order to be 'successful'.
Atlas Shrugged explains this exact concept in better detail and on a more national level.
- YES MARK IT IS FICTION -
But Mark, if zombies actually were to break into my room right now, the last thought that goes through my partially eaten brain might just be: That fucking George Romero was right about the whole zombie thing.
dw
Students should decide how best they learn and should choose how to assess themselves?
Yes, they should. My experience has shown me that students, when preparing their own examinations, actually err more on the side of being too difficult then too simple.
They also should decided what form they should be assessed. Some may want to be tested verbally while others would like to write. What is the best method to convey knowledge? There is not one simple answer and a variety should be used.
Bear in mind, self assessment is more effective at higher grader levels (5-12) then lower grade levels. That was a an error in relation that I did not clarify. Oh, and the instructor still passes out the grades...another point I failed to make.
Assessment can also be fun! Recently, text assessing has begun. Kids text in their answers to multiple choice tests that are on a smart board in front of class. Some tests are used as Jeopardy-like games. The students love it and now look forward to taking a test to show their knowledge and "beat" their fellow students. And they get to text...which they are doing anyway...so it is even more interesting to them.
I shudder to think what message "choose your own style" is teaching kids as they strike out into the real world.
College entrance exam? I don't do well in this format. Give me a different one.
Job interview? I don't do well in face-to-face situations. Can we do this via email?
Working with the customer? I don't respond well to being told what you want. How about I tell you what you want?
Call me old fashioned, and I know I am, but I don't see the flaw in choosing the method that works best for the collective. It won't work for everybody, but we know that going in, so what's the problem?
The problem is that people learn differently now, PL. You can't force an ESL student to learn exclusively in lecture and multiple choice format. That's one of the major reasons why test scores are going down.
Standardized tests do not demonstrate intelligence. This is a fact and it needs to be changed. Classrooms that have begun to design their own assessments have achieve what we call in the biz "enduring understandings."
Still, there always will be a variety of styles of learning and assessing that will be employed so the old fashioned ways will be hanging around as well:)
I'm not going to force an ESL student to learn in any particular way. I'm just saying that I'm not going to hire somebody who feels as if they have the right to dictate to me how I interact with them. So to the extent, if any, that such teaching methods endorse that sort of relationship, those methods are not doing that individual any favors when it comes to potentially being hired by me or bosses like me. If there is no correlation between the two then I have no beef with what you say.
Wouldn't you agree, though, PL that hiring someone for a job is different than learning? I guess I don't think there is a correlation.
For example, if someone is an intrapersonal learner (one who works best solo), a job in sales and marketing is not for them. If their work demonstrates a need for solo accomplishment with little human interference, then that is the job type they should pursue and be hired to do.
Like I said, I have no beef with what you say as long as you accept the premise that there is no correlation between the two. But notice that the merit of your second paragraph hinges on the word "should". I tend to focus more on what a person will do rather than what they should do.
To me, if you breed within a person -- whether it be in school or at home, or both -- the notion that the world around him will always adapt to meet his needs, you are not necessarily fostering the skill of understanding what that person should or should not do. I clearly have no data to support this contention, but I tend to think that while such a person "should" pursue a career with little human interference (what is that, by the way?), he may in fact choose a career indepedent of the amount of human interaction and end up being a pain in the ass because he expects the job to conform to him. Just like he's been taught is right.
Put differently, the concern is this. As a teacher, your immediate goal is to teach the students the curriculum as effectively as possible. To that end, I'm all for whatever method you, as the expert, believe is best. Similarly I'm not going to criticize the methodology of the plumber who comes in to remodel my bathroom. But if it looks like that plumber is installing the new toilet at a height of 5 feet so that nobody can sit on it, I'm gonna start asking questions. So too if a teacher is advocating a methodology that may lack utility down the road.
As an employer, smart people who are unable to adapt or cope are basically worthless to me. I need people who may not be as smart but who are able to analyze and adjust accordingly. That's something you can't learn from a book, but you can certainly learn through nurturing at critical stages in your life, one of which I would argue is certainly grade school. Does the method of teaching you advocate promote that? I'm skeptical. Again, that's not to say what you advocate is wrong. It's simply to suggest that I can see there being ramifications beyond what's reflected on that student's report card. (Do kids still get report cards?)
Yes, children do get report cards but grading is different depending upon the school district. Some still employ the A, B, C, D letter system while others (which I prefer) grade based on state standards. The student is either exceeding the standard, achieving the standard, partly achieving the standard, or not achieving the standard. Here is an example of a standard
Historical Skills: The student will present and explain the findings of a research project
Benchmarks: 1. Students will analyze how historians present their work in multiple formats.
2. Students will select a presentation medium for their project and learn the skills necessary to communicate their ideas.
3. Students will articulate a clear thesis statement that explains the historical relevance of their research topic.
4. Students will learn how to cite sources and to document their research in the form of a bibliography.
5. Students will learn what constitutes plagiarism and how to paraphrase appropriately other people’s work in a new interpretive format.
Rubrics are passed out to students to show them how they will be assessed and what is required of them to achieve the standard. Essentially, they are a partner in the process of assessment.
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