Our Search For New Educational Ideas Continues!

The options for schooling are numerous and in 2010 we explored several of them. I hope that 2011 continues to offer new and innovative ideas for development of the Intellectual Path.

During 2010, I explored several known options for schooling including home schooling, magnet schools, charters schools and online schools. Each of these has evolved out of a concern that our nations educational system is failing. Costs are rising, almost out of control, and performance by our students is either lagging behind the world, or at best, matching it. But our nation needs leadership in the educational sector and keeping the status quo just isn't good enough.

The four primary alternatives previously explored in 2010 have some things in common from which we can perhaps learn something. Whether it's a home school, a charter school, or magnet school, we find that smaller class sizes matter, and do benefit student performance. We also find with these three alternatives that less bureaucracy and less requirements to meet onerous bureaucratic rules and regulations benefits the students. Where teachers and administrators are held to more direct performance standards, they live up to them! We did see that in many cases, the use of technology can leverage the student's experience, and the case of undergraduate programs, may provide a much less costly alternative to community colleges or universities.

In all cases, we find that the importance of school to the students support group is important. Where students have a strong family around them that is supportive of life-long learning, they tend to be more intellectually curious and generally better students. Tied to this, we did also discuss the importance of a nation generally sharing a set of values and morals. We discussed the 1963 Supreme Court decision that eliminated prayer from our public schools, and accelerated a movement toward our nation looking inward to solve its' problems, not upwards!

Perhaps the most uniform finding in 2010 is that the problems with our nation's schools are complicated, mostly because of the size and diversity in the system. The current public school system attempts to be all things to all people catering to all religions, all scholastic aptitudes, and all other general qualities of the student body. Perhaps this is a situation that is at the root of the problem. Like so many other institutions that get unwieldy and unmanageable as they get big (the federal government comes to mind, or General Motors), the public school system may just be so big that it cannot effectively perform its task. Perhaps as we move forward continuing to look for better solutions, we'll find that just as private businesses change to accommodate customer demand, schools will have to as well. And perhaps that change will include more specialized schools, either in academic concentrations, or even in the trades.

I think also that we'll continue to see a growth in the home school movement. As I've discussed in earlier articles, this is not purely a religious issue, but rather is a method of parents taking direct responsibility for the education of their children. By definition, you have involved parents, and the systems, structures and resources to successfully home school a child are growing and evolving rapidly.

I am aware that the issues facing education of a child are complex, and as the father of six, I'm intimately aware of the issues parents face. I do believe though that we can find solutions to these problems, but to do so, as with so many other things, we need to think truly outside of the box and not be chained to ideas of the past that, although we can learn from them, are holding us back from embracing new and innovative ideas.

New World - New Work - New Education

This was the title of one of my very recent speech at a local business school, where I literally went mad, shouting and screaming at professors and teachers to help them realize what we all are doing to the future of our students!

I am a corporate trainer and have nothing to do with the educational systems and models. However, my pain is obvious and apparent, and so thought of sharing it with you people... I can only wish that I am taken positively, and even if this is not the case, I personally won't mind much.

This article has to do nothing with any of my deliberate research - it is very spontaneous, blunt and "as I thought" kind of stuff.

To make things look more professional, I have included several quotes to help you realize my pain.
We are living in the world that was never so unpredictable, materialistic, fast-paced and crazily growing. Everything is changing, and changing with immense pace. What is true today will be an obsolete literature tomorrow.

The bad news is that Education system in Pakistan is as good as the democratic or the religious state of this very country - Confused, Haphazard and typically ad-hoc. The good news is that this system is not that good in any other part of world, so as we can consider them the bench mark. US, UK, Germany, France, India, Singapore and all others... we all are sailing in one direction.
The first and the greatest flow in educational models is the judgmental approach... the approach which tells student how good or bad they are. The misery is that most students take it very seriously. Shame on us as teacher and facilitators to do such a crime. If the creator never did it for humans, how dare can we do it to our fellow-beings.

Another concern, that has been disturbing my mind is the amazing "irrelevance". What is taught at schools - Primary, Secondary, Higher Secondary, Colleges, Universities... what so ever - it has to do little or mostly nothing with the real world. Educational syllabus is structured, predictable and provides an outline - Real world is insanely unpredictable, least structured and has no boundaries. How, by any means, can we prepare the youth of today for the challenges of tomorrow with such a syllabus. Food for thought: How many schools include Reader's Digest as the part of their syllabus... A teacher asked me why to do so - I screamed, "Why Not!"... At least it has a connection to what the child sees outside your "Prison look-alike" schools. Think about it as well... University students having laptops with a Wi-Fi connection, where they search the taught topic, come up with the most recent literature available, and discuss it further. It may sound odd to many, but you know what - it will be a hell to many of us around [so called teachers], because than we know - they [our students] will beat the living hell out of us!

I have been reading and listening about ever increasing tuition fees of schools at all levels. Honestly, I don't mind it, as I know, it's just the beginning. Educational and Healthcare cost will further rise by many folds in near future... my complain is only that by charging such a hefty amount, what's the use if these schools are producing nothing but clones... In my opinion, if a school system can't ignite the spark in the kid to be him / her self - the school system should be immediately adjourned. Today, when I recall my best teachers, it is true for them that "They made me fall in love. They helped me figure out who I was."

Our toughest "learning achievement"-mastering our native language-does not require schools, or even competent parents. It does require a desperate need-to-know. Great teachers are great learners, not imparters-of-knowledge. Great teachers ask great questions-that launch kid's lifelong quest of discovering more. The world is not about "right" & "wrong" answers; it is about the pursuit of increasingly sophisticated questions-but the misery is that we increasingly reward answers, and penalty is the very fate of questioning individual. Shame Shame! Please note... The Three Most Important Letters ... WHY?

Richard Paul, Director, Center for Critical Thinking says, "We need to shift the focus of learning from simply teaching students to have the 'right answer,' to teaching them the process by which educated people pursue right answers."

Now consider what Jordan Ayan had to say in his book, AHA!... "My wife and I went to a [kindergarten] parent-teacher conference and were informed that our budding refrigerator artist, Christopher, would be receiving a grade of Unsatisfactory in art. We were shocked. How could any child-let alone our child-receive a poor grade in art at such a young age? His teacher informed us that he had refused to color within the lines, which was a state requirement for demonstrating 'grade-level motor skills.' "

Schools are busy participating in the massive suppression of creative genius... If you are reading this article, and belong to any senior level position with your school - try this, and you'll testify my words (not 99 but 100%)... Go and ask, "How many artists are there in the room? Would you please raise your hands. FIRST GRADE: In mass the children jump from their seats, arms waving. Every child is an artist. SECOND GRADE: About half the kids raised their hands, shoulder high, no higher. The hands are still. THIRD GRADE: At best, 10 kids out of 30 would raise a hand, tentatively, self-consciously. By the time you'll reached SIXTH GRADE, no more than one or two kids will raise their hands, and then ever so slightly, betraying a fear of being identified by the group as a 'closet artist.'

Now if this happens to you, come and meet me - as I will personally congratulate you for participating in this mass 'creativity destruction campaign'.

For what I had to say, and what I have to say about the school system, a substantial amount of testimony exists from highly regarded scientists like [Nobel laureate] Richard Feynman, Albert Einstein, and many others, that scientific discovery is negatively related to the procedures of school science classes.

One last word - "Learning is never divorced from feelings." Children learn what makes sense to them; they learn through the sense of things they want to understand.

Cyber-Kids - The New Education

Computer software, as we know it today, was first used in the early 1940s. Built in 1943, the Type 19 Synthetic Radar Trainer was a flight simulator manufactured to mimic on-board instrument data for pilots in training. This program would lay the basis for educational curriculum across the United States. The Type 19 was not only the introduction of applicable computer software, it was the precursor to the educational uses of computer programs and software worldwide.
The first educational curriculum fashioned for schools was the product of a joint collaboration between IBM and Stanford University. Although nominal programming languages, like BASIC and LOGO, were being taught to doctoral level students as early as 1963, the 1967 release of IBM's project was a failure. Its prohibitive cost of $10,000 was insurmountable for the school districts of the time.
The personal computer made its debut in 1975 with the launching of the Altair 8800. This computer changed the opinion of educational software entirely by making the dream of computing without a massive mainframe a reality. The introduction of a computer costing approximately $2000, meant schools districts could begin to incorporate computers and educational software into select schools. The subsequent release of the Commodore PET and the Apple II further fueled the demand for computer-based education in schools.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, the majority of educational software programs were developed for the Apple II platform. The inclusion of superior graphics and sound quality, however, spurred a phenomenal demand for fun and appealing learning games. Additionally, the ascendance of the Internet in the mid 1990s opened the market to a larger amount of learning program manufacturers. Whether you owned a PC or a Macintosh, it was easy to be bewildered by the sheer volume of available educational games.
The prevalence of educational software has resulted in its inclusion in virtually every grade level of learning. This software is often geared towards making education fun. Popular characters, vivid colors, and captivating soundtracks have revolutionized these learning games. The mixture of education and fun is what makes educational software so popular. Learning simple arithmetic is now a magical quest or a ride through the cosmos, while reading and writing comprehension are used to decode sacred scrolls that zap attacking goblins. This model of learning has made learning software a seemingly permanent facet of contemporary education.

Teaching Our Kids - The New Education

Teaching our Kids

When our kids go to school, what do they learn? They learn from two levels, one level is from the schools curricula, the other from their peers, but it's not so much what they learn, but how they learn to learn.

Learning "what" involves remembering what happened yesterday. We don't have to create a new writing system every year, we can use the one developed years ago. In the same manner, we learn how to become engineers, doctors, and attorneys. This is one level of necessary learning; by memorizing the past.

There is another level of learning, however, a level that in many ways is far more important than any other - a level of insight. Insight is another way of saying spontaneous discovery without books or lectures; a discovery about ourselves and about life.

At this level of insight, a student might be studying about world wars, which would be about yesterday. Then, suddenly, the student might spontaneously question the whole concept of war itself. He or she might even come to a conclusion that war is caused by individuals, the microcosms of countries that fight with each other. This might in turn challenge the student to discover a solution, within each individual, to mankind's Achilles Heal; the wars that tear humanity apart.

This type of insight and inquiry is quite removed from dreary memorization, so mundane, yet admittedly necessary in education. This insight is the life that is missing in education, and why students are dropping out in droves. The spontaneity of life, the adventure, and discovery of life is missing, and we search for ways to instill this passion that students so need and deserve.

So, how do we promote this spontaneity among our students? How do we encourage them to think for themselves instead of conform to a failed system that turns its back on life's realities and continues to promote illusions through dry concepts and dated ideology? It all begins with each teacher letting go of his or her past.

The past is tradition, security, and beliefs, and completely ignores this very moment and what is actually happening in it. The teacher that teaches current events from a standpoint of teaching how the past influences current human behavior does a service to her students, but if that teacher has not gone deeply inside of herself, and discovered her own thoughts and feelings, and how her thoughts and feelings create the hypocrisy of tradition and the illusion of security in beliefs and ideals, then she can never teach passionately, and passion is the difference.

When she sees clearly that conformity in education is safe, that it is risk free, but that it is also killing all hope of positive change in a world that is becoming more aggressive and violent each year by spitting out little automatons that recite the dogma of economics that so separate us, only then will she teach differently.

Street smart, intelligent kids aren't buying it anymore, even though they can't communicate what they are feeling. It is an isolation from life that they feel in our educational institutions, an estrangement, a disconnect, and they are simply dropping out. This is what is actually happening, and the drop outs aren't unintelligent; in many ways they are heads and shoulders above our outdated systems.

The kids want to know why we are struggling to make so much money, why things have become more important than people. Is it because we are fearful that we don't have enough? The dress codes of our kids, the old, ragged, baggy clothes, are a dead give away of their feelings. They are mocking our values.

Our kids want to know, for themselves, what life is really about. But since their educators have never taken the time to find out for themselves what life is all about, and are themselves simply products of the establishment, we are in a gigantic "Catch 22" with no way out. But our kids are taking a way out; they are dropping out.

As with many things, such as health care and a basic, respectable standard of living, this article will be ignored by policy makers, the ones in power, the ones perpetuating an educational system that is a dinosaur. Nothing changes until change is forced upon us, because we become comfortable. "Let them drop out, who cares? Let them live on the street and starve, who cares; I am taken care of."

It's only when the tide becomes overwhelming that the ones in power are replaced, but if the students still have not learned to go deep within themselves and actually question power, and question the hatred and greed that separates us, then the new ones in power will only succumb to the same pressures as their predecessors, and humanity will continue down the same road of violence since the beginning of time.

Who will instill in our kids the passion of discovery, the challenge of the inward journey so that things can change? What religious institution is teaching this instead of indoctrinating their youth with stale ideals and rote dogma? Who has the courage to forge a new, brave world?

Who will teach our kids to awaken themselves and discover their real potential, not the potential to be a successful businessman, but to be a human being, a potential that lies dormant? How do we teach our kids to be visionaries, fearless and unencumbered to change a world that is on the verge of self-destruction? We need visionaries, not robots.

Online Schools - The New Education Frontier

Online schools have become the new education frontier due to the possibilities they provide for those who cannot attend traditional college. Accredited online and distance learning programs can offer studies that will help students obtain the education necessary for entrance into a professional career. Students can study around their current employment and personal lives to prepare for a better future. Numerous online schools and colleges offer training that can be completed at different levels and specific fields of study, allowing students to follow the career training path that meets their goals.

Prior to enrolling in an accredited online program, students should decide on the career that they will be pursuing. Many options are available to ensure that the training received will meet the standards for the desired occupation. Studies can be completed in areas such as:

• Accounting and Finance
• Graphic Design
• Business
• Management
• Travel and Tourism

After choosing the profession that will be pursued, students will need to select the level of training that they wish to obtain in order to enter the workforce. The level of certificate or degree that is available will depend on the career that is chosen.

Various levels of accredited online learning are available to those who have an interest in obtaining an education through distance learning. Students can choose to earn a:

• Certificate
• Associate
• Bachelor
• Master
• Doctoral

...degree depending on the career they are pursuing. The level of educational study that is chosen will determine how long students must spend on their studies. Certificate programs can range from a couple of months to around one year. Undergraduate degree training programs typically last two to four years, and graduate degrees can take an additional two to four years of training to obtain. Coursework will vary by level of online schooling and the career being pursued.

Students can choose from specific areas of study that will help them obtain the education they deserve. Different fields offer a variety of career and specialization options for students. Online schools offer training in technical writing, real estate, education, computer networking, and more. Other opportunities for online training include the study of media studies, information technology, human services, and much more. After selecting the career and training area, students can enroll in an accredited online program and begin completing the training needed for a professional career. Once training is completed students can seek employment in a number of professional workplaces.