Their conclusion? American K-12 schools are increasingly
becoming places where testing crowds out learning and higher education is more
interested in magazine college rankings than producing intelligent, thoughtful,
and creative young people. They use
data, anecdotes, and research to document a case for a re-imagined school
experience, PreK-16. They describe a
dreary and desperate future for our children if we continue on our current
path:
“Our country may continue to stumble from
education reform to education reform like a drunken sailor… We’ll prioritize
measuring irrelevant things and drill the innovation and creativity out of our
youth… Our wealthiest parents will continue to get their kids into top
colleges, arrange the ‘right’ internships, and—despite education’s
failings—help their advantaged kids pull ahead.
The rest will plod through enervating school years, leave with abysmal
career prospects, and have citizenship skills no better than mob
psychology. As the ranks of the
chronically unemployed youth swell, the rift between the unrelenting rich and
the disenfranchised rest will rip our society apart. We will fail as a country, not because other
nations defeated us, but because we defeated ourselves.” (p. 59)
I don’t think the future
is as gloomy as Wagner and Dintersmith envision, and I am excited about the
creative and exceptional learning opportunities available to Needham’s
students; but I do believe educators, parents, and policy makers should consider
how, exactly, we can best prepare our children for a world that requires
innovative, nimble, curious, empathetic, and engaged young people—young people
who will become adults in a dynamic, fast changing, and often unforgiving
world. As my mentor Dr. Tony Bent put it to me: We owe it to our students to think about how we are preparing them for their future and not for our past.
On Thursday, March 24th
at 7:00 p.m. in the Newman Auditorium, the Needham Education Foundation and
Needham’s PTCs will sponsor a viewing of the film, Most Likely to Succeed, which is based on Wagner and Dintersmith’s
book and has been widely acclaimed. A
panel discussion follows and will provide an opportunity for Needham’s
community members, students, faculty, and parents to discuss the film’s premise
and the educational experience and expectations of Needham’s children.
I hope you can join us
for this important conversation.
