I heard it again. I guess educators are still not reading my blog. “We are preparing students for future jobs that do not exist yet.”
Remember Dick Tracy and his wrist radio/phone. People look at that and marvel at the insight about the future that these authors had. Not so fast. They made many other predictions that have not born out from massive wars over food destroying the world by 1980 to flying cars for the masses. The future is not developing like it appeared on The Jetsons.
How do you prepare students for jobs that don’t exist yet? Do you teach them the latest product that Google wants you to buy or do you teach them to read, write and do basic math? Since most of my students think they don’t need such frivolities because they are going to be rich athletes or video game beta testers, let me take an illustration from sports.
If your football team has lost 10 games in a row you don’t go out and try to come up with some fancy play that will work in a game you haven’t played yet. No, you work on fundamentals. You spend your time developing endurance, memorizing patterns and assignments, blocking and tackling. You work on the basics not because you know things are changing but because only the basics will allow you to know how to respond to new situations.
Apply it anywhere but especially in education. Get ride of modern educational theory. Dump Common Core. Put away the calculator and computers, pass out the paper and books, and sharpen the pencils. It may not be sexy but it will prepare the next generation for an unknown future.
homo unius libri
But if they learned to think, they might ask questions, and THAT could be dangerous for all involved!
ReplyDeleteIf pressed they will agree that reading levels are down. If honest, they will admit that even the SAT and ACT tests have been dumbed down. And remember these are the people who also like to say, "There is no such thing as a dumb question?"
DeleteGrace and peace