Lego, School, and the Box: Part II

(Part 1 of Lego, School, and the Box can be found here)

Imagine that you have been given the following selection of Lego bricks, and asked to create this machine:

 

You are then given the following selection of parts:

 

What would you do?

Chances are that you would ask for some instructions.  (And, of course, these clear, step-by-step instructions exist).

 Now, instead, imagine that you were given these bricks:

 

And, these items:

And anything else you wanted to use.
 
And instead of having to create what someone else chose, you were allowed to create whatever you chose to create… but the big challenge was that by creating something, you needed to contribute to solving one of the world’s issues or create something of significance to society.

Would you still ask for instructions?  Or would you try to make your own sense out of the situation?

Which scenario would motivate you more?

Naturally, all of these seemingly silly questions are a metaphor designed to elicit thoughts on today’s education system.  In most schools, just as with the first building scenario, our children are told what to learn, where to learn it, how to learn it, and even when to learn it (interestingly, the question of why they need to learn it doesn’t seem to come up too often).   They are boxed in by arbitrary limits that exist purely because some ‘expert’ curriculum writer, or even, in some cases, ‘expert’ administrators and teachers have identified, often without even meeting your child, exactly what, how, where, and when your child should learn.

As Will Richardson and many others point out – this was fine practice in an era of information scarcity.  However, in a changed and rapidly changing world being ‘boxed in’ will never bring about ‘outside of the box’ thinking.  In the classroom of the future – and in excellent classrooms today – children are in the driver’s seat with regards to their education.  The world is their playground and the challenge is not learning things in a set way; rather, it is seeking out the finest experts and materials to solve real problems.

How does your school measure up?