The path to overcoming the ineptitude and complacency of the school system starts with a fundamental reconstruction of what the purpose of school is and how it intends to reach that point. While the overtones presented by the film Chalk would suggest that motivation is a larger issue at play than the direction of the education received, through complete disinterest by all students even if they liked the subject, abundant evidence can be found for the sheer capacity for children to be excited about learning. It is at this point that a critical divide begins to form; the purpose of education is a difficult one to solidify. Is it the prepare students for the real world? Is it to form children into insightful adults? Is it to create thinkers and leaders, or learners and followers? John Taylor Gatto's Against School How public education cripples our kids, and why makes the claim that schools make students manageable, non-free-thinking followers "to deny students appreciable leadership skills, and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens". This effect is observable in some of the young adults produced, but whether or not this is the result of intent or a side effect of design is still up for debate. The solution involves the values of the culture. In many places the school system branches off into different paths at a fairly early stage, depending on the kind of education and jobs the the student will have. In America it's important to maintain the belief that anyone can be anything, since it's something that will probably always cling to the American dream and people would be frustrated without, so while it's easier to specialize branches of education it's important to maintain a single path as long as possible so not to separate the perceived workers from scholars. Within the single path of education every individual student needs to have the opportunity to become leaders or followers, learners, and functional adults, all while learning skills making them capable of performing in their desired jobs.
Such a wide array of requirements demands a school system that is flexible. A system where students can make decisions relevant to their goals while still taking certain mandatory classes. The concept of year grades keeping all students on a linear path also needs to be abolished, and instead students can leave whenever they like after meeting a minimum requirement and are not required to take more than the mandatory classes each year. It is important that students have these freedoms because a common problem in education is that some students learn very quickly while others may learn more slowly, or have personal reasons that don't allow them to devote as much time to school. A highly motivated student may move through the system quickly under a high load of classes while someone else may move more slowly. In the current system many inadequate students will continue to the next grade to take harder classes simply because the school doesn't want to put up with the hassle of holding them back. Another advantage of the dynamic, student lead system is that One student may focus on one type of classes before needing to leave for a more specialized college beyond the public system, while another may decide that they need a job sooner than later and begin taking courses related to the field of a job they can start doing immediately, perhaps while still taking courses headed for a long term goal. Standards and requirements would include taking specific classes before being a certain age, which would be accomplished by the attendance of mandatory classes, making students suitable for entry level jobs. The same method would be used for the the completion of classes required before leaving the schooling system entirely, which would not be based strictly on age, giving students a large window to complete their public education, and they would leave as fully functional adults. Incorporating the standard array of classes at a young age is important to giving students a small experience of everything, while beyond that the mandatory classes only include everyday math and real world skills. The idea is that students will then have the freedom to take classes they want while still becoming real world ready, and because students are not required to spend as much time on subjects that are not interested it the same total number of classes will be taken throughout the system while producing more self-driven specialized students, competent at a basic level for entry level jobs, entry level jobs within a specific field, as well as prepared for higher level education in said chosen field, at no additional cost to the system. Additionally, each class can cater to the students demand and interest in the subject, since they would not be weighted down by uninterested students that for some reason must attend.
Finally, one of the greatest advantages of a fluid education is that the curriculum is dynamic. As previously mentioned, alternative methods of education do not settle well into the existing, established, and highly rigid system. In Ken Robinson's How to escape education's death valley he points out that all most most successful public education systems "individualize teaching and learning" and "recognize that it's students who are learning, and the system has to engage them, their curiosity, their individuality and their creativity". A dramatic rethinking of how we educate from the ground up, as he puts it, is a massive task, and will ultimately be different for every academic discipline. A more flexible and student driven system could be implemented relatively quickly with existing teaching methods and standardized tests with all the same previously mentioned benefits, but also be highly receptive to changes to how teaching is actually executed as those decisions are more slowly rolled out. The existing system is old and becoming irrelevant. It's designed like a production line, or a strip mine, and it's hard to change. If any progress is to be made, reorganization to be dynamic and receptive is a better step moving forward than simply adding or rethinking if there is nowhere to put the new ideas. Not everyone is the same, and not everyone should be taught the same, and following these propositions everyone would be able to make their own choices.
Works Cited
Chalk. Dir. Mike Akel. Perf. Jeff Guerrero, Chris Mass. Virgil Films, 2007. DVD.
Robinson, Ken "How schools kill creativity" TED. TED Conferences, LLC, February 2006. Web. 4 December 2013.
Robinson, Ken "How to escape education's death valley" TED. TED Conferences, LLC, April 2013. Web. 5 December 2013.
