This is from Wagner and Dintersmith's, Most Likely To Succeed.
"Our focus shouldn't be to give all kids equal access to the same bad education experience. We need to reinvent education and give all kids a fighting chance in life." (page 61 of 296)
I believe there are at least pockets of excellence in every school. In some schools, that pocket is extremely large. However, are those pockets equally accessible to all the students who attend those schools, or are they there just for certain tracks, or just for the students fortunate enough to have that particular course/teacher? The quote makes us examine whether or not the programming we offer is as good as it can and should be for all students. If not, we should examine our programming before we insist that everyone gets it.
First, we need to really think about what ALL students should know and be able to do before they graduate from elementary/middle school/high school/college. Then we have to decide the best way for them to learn those things and demonstrate their understand of and competency with. Then, we can start designing programs.
When we get to the high school competencies/skills, we have to know that there is a fork in the road here where some students will go to work, some to training, some to two year programs, some to four year programs. There should be a lot of commonalities for each of these, but there will also be certain elements particular to each track that a student chooses. What should all of these high school graduates have in common? How is a person going from high school to a training program going to be different from a person going to a four year college?
Should high school be "one size fits all" like it tends to be now? How can we look at the tech school approach and learn from that?
What do you think?
Is there a quote from this book that has caught your eye? I have a bunch.
"Our focus shouldn't be to give all kids equal access to the same bad education experience. We need to reinvent education and give all kids a fighting chance in life." (page 61 of 296)
I believe there are at least pockets of excellence in every school. In some schools, that pocket is extremely large. However, are those pockets equally accessible to all the students who attend those schools, or are they there just for certain tracks, or just for the students fortunate enough to have that particular course/teacher? The quote makes us examine whether or not the programming we offer is as good as it can and should be for all students. If not, we should examine our programming before we insist that everyone gets it.
First, we need to really think about what ALL students should know and be able to do before they graduate from elementary/middle school/high school/college. Then we have to decide the best way for them to learn those things and demonstrate their understand of and competency with. Then, we can start designing programs.
When we get to the high school competencies/skills, we have to know that there is a fork in the road here where some students will go to work, some to training, some to two year programs, some to four year programs. There should be a lot of commonalities for each of these, but there will also be certain elements particular to each track that a student chooses. What should all of these high school graduates have in common? How is a person going from high school to a training program going to be different from a person going to a four year college?
Should high school be "one size fits all" like it tends to be now? How can we look at the tech school approach and learn from that?
What do you think?
Is there a quote from this book that has caught your eye? I have a bunch.
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