Beyond School

Another in a flood of articles from TIME this month on getting beyond schools:

I wish I’d had this guy as an economics teacher in high school! Listen to the philosophy of education in his comment:

[The Henry Ford] Academy lowers the firewall between the classroom and the world beyond it. Students in an economics class put principles into practice with projects in which pairs of students pretend to be married couples living on a budget. “What good is it to teach them about math and economics at school if they still go home and spend $200 on sneakers or $2,000 on a stereo they can’t afford with interest payments of 28%?” asks Charles Dershimer, a faculty member. “It’s crucial for 21st century education that kids are able to see how classwork relates to what’s going on around them.”

This is something all students and parents should read: “third world” students in India and China are working much harder, and will quite likely take American(ized) students’ jobs in the 21st Century global market:

Barrett says the Friedman [The Earth is Flat] admonitions led to the decision this fall to “kick up the level of rigor” in the curriculum even more. “It becomes more apparent the deeper you get into the book that what we used to consider third world countries are now outdistancing us in terms of research and, more than anything, work ethic,” he says. “I want our kids to realize they’re not just competing with the kid next to them who didn’t do his homework. They’re up against a much [bigger group] that’s working very hard to take the job they want.“

And listen to this principal’s philosophy as he accepts that students who won’t change will have to drop out so others can compete with 21st Century skills:

Despite such challenges, Graham agrees with his principal that the stricter mandates are appropriate. “It’s going to be a fight initially and we might see the dropout rate climb a bit,” he predicts. “But this is about having our students ready for where they want to go in life, with the ability to work in teams, reach conclusions, make connections, think logically and problem-solve, because those are the essential skills for the workplace now.”

–Notice the absence of inert factual knowledge in his list of “essential skills.”

Oh, but what about the SAT? Sigh.

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