What Is the Purpose of Education?

As we prepare to launch another school year, this excellent article by Wesleyan University President Michael Roth is a welcome invitation to consider a most elemental question; what is the purpose of education?

With anxiety levels understandably rising among students and parents, fueled by an uncertain economic future and the ever-increasing cost of education, there has been a predictable movement towards a more utilitarian view of education and an increased emphasis on learning as a tool for economic advancement.

Roth articulates several strong arguments against adopting this narrower conception of the purpose of learning.  Some of these arguments are high-minded (and, I think, deeply compelling) abstractions such as the need to prepare critical thinkers who will be active and contemplative citizens, or the added richness that such an education brings to the very experience of living.  Others, though, are every bit as pragmatic as the "more you learn the more you earn" hard-liners could ask for.  In short, and with no small dose of irony, this more practical line of reasoning holds that a liberal education is the best remedy for the very uncertainty that has propelled us towards the vocational emphasis so much in vogue these days.

The logic is clear; vocationalism requires that we know what a student's work is likely to look like in both the near and distant future (and, therefore, the knowledge they will need to do that work).  With the exponential acceleration of change, though, one thing we know for certain is that we truly can't imagine what jobs and skills will be in demand even in 2025 and certainly not in 2050.  Futurists are fond of citing the fact that of the 10 fastest-growing professional fields today, a majority didn't even exist a decade ago.  Therefore, the classical education model - which focuses on learning how to learn rather than absorbing a discrete and fixed body of knowledge - is the best preparation for the many and varied jobs and skills our students will assume over the course of their lifetimes.

At Friends, we certainly believe in this approach, which is why our Teaching and Learning Paradigm focuses on the timeless qualities we seek to develop in our students so that they will be prepared to thrive in and help to shape a future we can't yet fully conceptualize.

See the link below to a funny bit from Key and Peele that imagines what the world would be like if we gave teachers the respect and attention we give to athletes.

http://huff.to/1H2wBXD

If only!

One Vision of the Future of Classroom Learning

In this thought-provoking blog post, John Katzman, founder and CEO of Noodle, 2U, and the Princeton Review, gives a somewhat unconventional prediction of what the classroom of the future might look like.  Rather than a technology-laden "mission control" type of atmosphere, he predicts that there may actually be less technology in classrooms in the years ahead, as asynchronous learning is enhanced outside of class and the time when students are gathered together in one place becomes more focused on in-depth human interaction.  This remarkably old-school vision for new schools seems like an utterly logical prediction to me.  It puts technology in its proper role, as an aide to rather than a replacement for the most timeless quality of a truly transformative education; the face-to-face exchange of ideas.  It imagines technology as a tool that facilitates this exchange by allowing for more efficient and effective use of students' time beyond the classroom, so that the time spent in community can be richer and more productive.  This not-so-radical vision of the future grows from an abiding belief in the value of social learning, and elevates the classroom to an arena for the shared process of reflection and discernment that is so valuable to the making of meaning. A brave new world indeed!

A Wonderful Article by Friends School Teacher Josh Valle

I’m always amazed by the multiple talents that my colleagues possess.  In addition to the many gifts they bring to their day-to-day work here at school, many members of our professional community are talented artists, musicians, woodworkers, etc.  And, of course, many of our employees are also brilliant writers.  I came across fresh evidence of this fact recently when I read this article on "Spiritual Nurture and Young Children," written by Pre-Kindergarten teacher, Josh Valle, and published in Friends Journal, a highly-respected publication serving the Quaker community.

 

For those of you who know of Josh’s thoughtful and insightful work with our youngest students, it will be no surprise to you that he so powerfully articulates in this piece the delicate balancing act of the teacher’s craft between guidance and openness, between the inherent desire to direct our students’ experiences and the educational benefits of relinquishing that  control.  And he does it all through the metaphor of a stink bug!

 

I hope you enjoy this thought-provoking article as much as I did!

Playing with Fire (and Nails, and Tools, and Mud)

This article from NPR Ed includes an interview with Erin Davis, a documentary director whose latest film The Land traces the development of the adventure playground movement.  Her film focuses in particular on a playground in Wales known as "The Land" that features all the elements we modern parents spend so much time and energy keeping out of our children's lives; fire, tools, nails, and lots of sharp edges.  It's important to note that, especially in Europe (where these facilities have become increasingly common) there are "playworkers" who staff the playgrounds and monitor the safety of children, but are trained to intervene only if absolutely necessary.

I am eager to see the film when it is released, as this phenomenon seems to me to speak to the natural impulse all children have to take risks and the benefits of allowing them to do so.  As Davis says in the article, "(Children) have the play drive. It's up to us to kind of provide the kinds of opportunities for them to really follow through on it."  Personally, I know hardly anyone of my generation who did not occasionally play in unsafe spaces like construction sites, or, for that matter, woods, at great length  and entirely unsupervised in their childhood.  And yet I know almost no parent of my generation who will admit to allowing their children to do the same.   In Davis's mind, "...what's really happening at the heart of The Land is child-directed play and loose parts. So kids have time, space and stuff. I think the very first baby steps we can do is provide kids with loose parts that are simple, and follow their lead in what they are interested in."

While I don't anticipate the students at Friends playing with fire (with or without playworker supervision!) anytime soon, this documentary and the movement it chronicles raise some much-needed questions about the way we conceive of play, freedom, and risk in modern times, and whether, in our quest for maximum safety we've forfeited valuable opportunities for our children's growth.