No, I'm not the marketer, but I have recently become a huge fan of Seth Godin, and I eagerly look to his daily emails for three reasons: inspiration, a kick in the pants, or a paradigm-shattering new perspective. Today, his post, The Coming Meltdown in Higher Education (as seen by a marketer) landed squarely in the third category. In this post, he explores five compelling reasons why higher education is headed for a crash. I think he presents a new and vital perspective that all parents need to seriously consider. I'm not going to regurgitate his post since you can click there now and read it, and that's just what I want you to do. Right now.
Go ahead … I'll wait.
Done?
Brilliant, isn't it? Here is why I think this is a GOOD thing. We can only hope that this pending melt-down in higher education will, in turn, affect elementary and high school education . When the goal is not simply to get the highest test scores to gain access to the (artificially) highest-ranked colleges, only then will we see some authentic shifts in educating our children. As it is, the entire education system has become like a house of cards, each step preparing for the next, all under the outdated pretense that education needs to churn out factory workers for jobs that no longer exist. For a great commentary on the evolution of our education system, listen to this!
I'm sharing this here on my blog because the educational future of my son is important to me, and as conscious parents, I think it's important to you, too. For those of you who choose to homeschool or are seeking alternatives to traditional education, this is just one more piece to support you in your choices. When we're going against the flow of mainstream society, we can never have too much support, right? Share this with your friends and family. Help them better understand why you're making the choices you're making, and why these choices serve society in the long run. Spread the word.
I'd love to hear what you think of this. Do you think we need to wait until the effects of the melt-down trickle down to elementary schools, or can we affect change from the bottom-up? How do we help shift the popular opinion that "It was good enough for me, so it's good enough for my kids"?
The Future of Education – from a marketer’s perspective
on
Thursday, April 29, 2010
6 comments:
Ooohhh... this is such a BIG topic. Of course, I love Seth Godin (for the same reasons you do) and I already homeschool my son (for all these reasons and more), so I'm in the "preaching to the choir" section on this.
I don't know if there is any real hope that we can change the public education system, simply because it is such a huge, bureaucratic institution that relies on public funding.
Schools are trapped in a vicious system of needing to prove they deserve the funding, by producing high test scores, which makes them focus on only the testing, at the expense of actual teaching and learning. At the end of the day, it comes down to the money, and whenever money is the objective... well, the way things *should* be doesn't seem to matter at all.
One of the things we ARE empowered to do is to refuse to support or endorse that system, by taking our kids out of it. I have made that my #1 priority right now, and every decision I make is based on that idea. I want my son to love learning, life, childhood, himself, challenges, adventure, others... and all those great things that are not particularly valued in schools.
Maybe the best way I can help shift popular opinion is by example... by practicing what I preach. I can't *make* anyone do anything, but I might be able to inspire a person or two along the way. Enough inspired people just might make a difference.
Thanks for your thoughts on this, Lisis! You are, indeed, one of the choir, but like you inferred, if there's enough inspired "singing," perhaps others will want to join in.
After ten years as an elementary teacher trying to change the system from within, I finally quit in frustration four years ago. I have to say that I agree with you that the only way to change this system is to opt out. Then, "from the bottom-up" becomes more about building something completely new, with new goals, new motives, and new results.
I feel hopeful as I meet more and more people who are willing to look beyond the idea of the neighborhood school, or even private schools, which(save Waldorf schools) are just more of the same, take a risk and give their children something far more valuable. Kudos to you and the wonderful example you're setting.
Cheers!
Alexis
Hi Alexis, Thanks, another great referral (and I loved the vaccine one you tweeted this week too). As you know, I am hoping we can change education from within. I don't think we have much choice but to at least try. History is full of changes that no one thought were possible at the time, from women getting the vote to civil rights and more. I support people's right to homeschool/unschool and maybe I will make that choice myself someday. I certainly think it should be more supported.
But in terms of the future of our country, and the world, that isn't really a viable answer. Most people CAN'T homeschool their kids. And of those who could, honestly, there are many we wouldn't want to do so. So I believe in the power of public education. For many, many kids and parents, it is the only option, and a powerful way for them to change their lives.
But it is a mess, no question about that. Although I have to say, there are bright posts everywhere. I don't love everything about my daughter's school, but the parent participation and relationship between the parents and teachers is excellent and an inspiring example of how education should be viewed as a community endeavour I think. So there are models and examples, and I do hope we don't all give up on changing it.
Hi Lisa! I really appreciate your thoughts. While I agree that it's completely unreasonable to think we'll one day become a homeschool nation with no public education, the idea I'm going for is that it may take a mass exodus (by those who can and are so inclined) to wake the system up to the hard truth that it no longer serves the way it used to, and that it needs to change completely.
I do know there are bright spots everywhere. I used to work in one in West Linn, Oregon. If every school district operated like that one, we'd be in great shape. But the reality is that until we, as a nation, get away from test scores as both the measuring stick and the goal, then teaching will remain focused on that goal. If we were measuring things like relational abilities, creativity, innovation, and metacognition, school would look a lot different. But since those are tricky to measure in any standardized way, we won't measure them, and so schools won't value or support them. It's the curse of standardization, the outdated aim of the industrial revolution, that we seem to be hell-bent on maintaining and honing.
In this polarized political climate right now, I don't see how anyone would be able to sell the nation on eliminating standardized testing and embracing completely innovative approaches in education. Times of depression or recession historically bring about a rise in fascist-type thinking. If anything, we'll get even more restrictive before we'll reach the breaking point and give way to new ideas.
I think charter schools are a step in the right direction, though they have to jump through so many administrative hoops that it's extremely challenging to pull one off successfully and maintain a strong program. Teachers are underpaid for the privilege of working at a school that actually cares about what it's doing for the development of its children. Many don't last long due to burn-out. And they still fall prey to the testing bugaboo.
My district up in Oregon (West Linn/Wilsonville)was a magical place, but it was a very small district with one visionary superintendent who passionately supported every stakeholder for decades. In huge districts with superintendent turnover every couple of years (or more in San Diego!) there's no way to build lasting change. There's no way to enroll every stakeholder (parents, children, teachers, administrators, unions even)in supporting a shared vision. But huge districts are political stepping stones to more lucrative government positions, and so there is a vested interest in keeping them huge.
All that said, I deeply respect your faith in the power of people to affect change. I actually hope I'm one of those many people, and I've hoped it for a long time. One part of my role is to help people recognize the damage being done to our children, and therefore our future. We're all used to this system, for better or worse, so we tend to accept things that, from an outside perspective, would be unacceptable. The frog-boiling story would be apropos here. Little by little, we're boiling our children, and we don't even notice how bad it is because it's happened slowly, over time, in ways that looked rather reasonable because we, too, experienced the hot water growing up.
Now look ... you got me started. :-) Can you tell this is my hot-button topic? I tend to avoid writing about it because this is what happens. I might not stop. Who knows? Maybe this will be the subject of yet another book.
I so appreciate your ideas, Lisa. You always help to stretch my thinking and push me to further clarify, and sometimes shift my thinking. That is priceless. Thank you.
Cheers!
Alexis
OMG Alexis, I just wrote a massive response to your comment and lost the entire thing!!!!! I guess it was just not meant to be. I don't have the energy to write it again:-(
Anyway, I am with you on the testing stuff, and wanted to make sure you had heard about this new book by Diana Ravitch - The Life and Death of the Great American School System? I heard her interviewed on NPR and it was fascinating. She used to be for increased testing as a way to measure teacher effectiveness and even worked in the Bush administration on this issue. Now, after a few years of working in schools again, she has completely changed her mind. It has caused a complete ruckus in education policy circles - longtime friends are actually not speaking to her! So sounds like it might be a great read.
Thanks for sharing all your ideas here, this is near and dear to my heart too...
Oh I hate when that happens! So sorry I didn't get to read what you put so much time into. (This seems to happen a lot on my blog, so I wonder if there is a glitch here. I'll be switching again soon.)
Thanks for the book rec. Anyone who is willing to switch gears like that (and take such heat for it) deserves to be heard and read. I'll look it up!
Thanks for taking the time to respond. Again, I'm so sorry it disappeared on you.
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