A New Equation for School

There has been an ongoing story with regards to school for decades, one that is being re-categorized from non-fiction to fiction; it is the idea that you go to school to prepare yourself for a job in the workforce. For many, that equation extended to post-secondary education: more school = a better job.

That equation is increasingly becoming a myth.  As Will Richardson writes: “with many college graduates making lattes at Starbucks, the traditional narrative of a four-year degree being a ticket to a middle-class life just isn’t playing out for a growing number of kids.”

I don’t think that becoming a server at Starbucks is what these young people had in mind when they enrolled I post-secondary education.

Where the school = a job equation breaks down is when you consider the type of person that companies are looking to hire (and the type of person so talented that they start their own company or work for themselves).  These people, the ‘game-changers’ so to speak, are not talented because they went through a school system that taught them the same thing as everyone else.  Rather, these are the people who went ‘beyond school’ and followed their passions.  School, for them, was merely a hurdle to pass along the way to doing what they really wanted to do.  They sometimes did the bare minimum to get through school or they dropped out of school altogether to follow their own passions.   It is these people who are being hired for their talents and ideas.  Those other people who went through school assuming it was the way to that mythical job are the ones working at Starbucks.

Parents are starting to catch on to this pattern.  The homeschooling and ‘un-schooling’ movement is growing.  While these parents are, perhaps, on the ‘fringe’ as the biggest risk-takers (big risk = big reward… another equation that is not always true!), leading independent schools are starting to recognize that the rules for school are changing. 

·         In an age where knowledge is a mouse-click away, teacher-driven classrooms make no sense.

·         It is highly unlikely that our children will be able to have their own creative, original thoughts when they’ve been boxed up in schools for years.  See Ken Robinson here, and my own post on Lego and the Box, here.

·         Thus, a whole-scale common curriculum also makes no sense.  There are essential skills for every student to master, but if each student is provided the same schooling I find it difficult to conclude that different ideas will somehow emerge.

·         Projects, extending well beyond a single subject and a system of bells and scheduling, will take a prominent role.  Schools following the new rules will realize that children need to be creators of knowledge, not merely consumers.

Those who play by the old rules will still find success; but the law of diminishing returns will take precedence.  Whether you are a parent or an educator I challenge you to lead by adopting a new equation for education.