The Future of Education - ReRolled Solves Problems

Problems:Current classrooms suck. Everyone is grouped together by age as the determining factor for proficiency level. I think everyone can agree that while age may bring with it life experience, it has nothing to do with actual ability. Why we assume that every 7 year old is identical in their abilities is a mystery. Also, the teaching is done from a teacher to student direction. The students themselves are not seen as the instructional resources they can be, and are instead merely vessels that should be filled with knowledge.

Taking a Look BackTaking a look into the classrooms of extremely rural schools, or classrooms from 3-4 generations ago we see a much more fluid environment. The classrooms were comprised of single rooms that housed all students for a small local region. The ability level of the students were incredibly varied and usually included children from pre-school age all the way up to middle or early high school age. There was typically a single teacher who needed to split their time with each student. So instead of rigid grades, many schools simply focused on proficiency levels as a grouping mechanism. Students were assessed on their current abilities and one might excel in arithmetic but lag behind in reading or writing. Students that were above other students in proficiency were tasked with tutoring the younger or struggling students to help alleviate the burden on the single teacher. This helps two students at once, because not only is a struggling student getting some one on one time, the other student is cementing their mastery of the topic.

SolutionsSo how could we implement such a system today? Well we basically eliminate grades. We have school centers and students would be grouped by proficiency levels, not ages. Progress through a subject would hinge on regular assessments, probably in the form of personal learning projects. Once a student completes a project designed to show mastery of certain skills within a topic, they are given the appropriate Grade/ Rank/ Level associated with that. These projects would be standardized in terms of what skills the student must show proficiency in for each level. The Topics may be flexible and might either come in the form of several pre selected topics for early learners and lower proficiency levels, or as the student becomes more advanced the topics could be self chosen. The teachers primary job would be to asses and assist in the completion of these projects, with the majority of the in class lecturing and instruction being done by other students.

An approximately equal amount of time would be given to several core subjects. Each student would have to show graduation level proficiency in each of these areas. These core subjects are Math, Reading Comprehension, Writing: Creative and Technical/ Correspondence or Business Communication, Science (each major branch should be covered by a unit with the option for the student to go into more advanced studies within a specific field), Personal Finance, Personal health and Fitness, and Civic and Political studies. These are the bare minimum areas of proficiency I think all citizens should have in order to be contributing members to a society.

The Students would also be required to choose several additional subjects to fill in their schedules for the day. Not all additional topics might be available to all students. If an optional class was constantly being chosen by a large portion of the student population the school administration would be encouraged to expand it's availability.

Students would attend regular classes, but they also would be required to assist teaching the material they have shown mastery of in lower level classes or during study times. This would be a requirement for graduation, to either show so many hours of tutoring/ assistant teaching or maybe even just community service type projects put on by the school if not enough students are available to be helped.

A student could burn through material at a rather alarming rate and move right on to very advanced subjects, regardless of age. Or they might struggle in one topic and find they need to devote more time to it. The point is, whether a student takes 7 years to graduate from what we would consider 12th grade or 14 years, by the end, they will both have shown the same level of proficiency.

This all might seem impossible to implement given how children behave these days. I agree, most of these little bastards are too far gone to be thrust into such a system. But if a child is raised in this curriculum from day one, they will come to expect and understand it.

A real emphasis needs to be placed on life outside and after school. The whole purpose of school should be to better prepare students for life after school. To this end, a student should be encouraged to begin thinking about what kind of life or profession they would like to move towards from an early age. Finding a topic that interests the child and using that as a common topic for their assessment projects would be a natural way to get the kids to start thinking about what they might be able to do. Also, the school should provide a structure for students to develop community service/ outreach projects, that any students are free to sign up for and get tutoring/outreach credit for.

These projects could be anything from addressing environmental concerns, to social issues, to simple public education style events. How can the students teach the community what they have learned in a way that is also fun and engaging. These group projects would involve large portions of the student body of each school and would be important for several reasons. First it will help the students develop skills that allow them to tackle more complex issues and problems that they will take with them wherever they go. Second It will encourage social awareness in the kids and Third it will also provide valuable socializing time for students of similar age groups that might not have such an opportunity given lack of traditional age based class groupings.

Finally, a realization that college is not for everyone needs to be adopted. College can be an amazing tool, but only if the person attending has a clear purpose for attending. Someone getting lost in the haze of their undergraduate years is a really expensive waste of time and resources. People don't need to go to school to be lecherous, drug addled, drunken bums. They can do that for almost nothing.

There are plenty of rewarding trades and honest jobs that people might actually find very fulfilling and rewarding, provided the stigma surrounding them is lifted. Students nearing the completion of the public school cycle should have as much opportunity as can be afforded to job shadow and intern with companies looking to hire right out of high school. Or they can start incorporating college courses into their studies and start earning credits now, that cost nothing. This already happens to a limited degree, but it should really be the norm.

Honestly, the first two years of almost any undergrad program is filled with shit courses, that seem almost remedial. I honestly believe that most 4 year degrees could become 2 year programs overnight, if High Schools actually required their students to be proficient in the subjects they are being taught and universities didn't pad their programs with a bunch of feel good bullshit classes. The fact that a lot of universities are trying to make their undergraduate programs into 5 year snooze fests is just a disgusting cash grab.

Also... before a student thinks about schools, I think they need to be forced to write a sort of super basic business proposal (with instructions on how to go about it) before they can start seeking out federal loans. They essentially need to asses the market and look at how they are going to survive life after they graduate, given the level of debt they intend on accruing. If they pick a major that takes 5-6 years before they really hit their stride in term of income, they need to explain how they are going to manage that burden. They have loan counseling right now but it's total bullshit. You spend 5 minutes speed reading a webpage about what to do in case you are going to default and then they pile on the money. If the student can't get through writing a simple proposal or showing they have an even basic concept of the responsibility these loans represent, they probably need to rethink what their next step should be.