| | | | Learning in the 21st Century |
By D. Lynn Byrne, Ph.D. 
Many U.S. elementary and secondary schools, public or otherwise, are social dinosaurs. Despite “expert” rhetoric and the push for academic success and achievement (i.e. high grades, completion of xx number of credits, and high standardized test scores), our schools have not evolved much beyond where they were 100 plus years ago. U.S. students still spend 6 to 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, ensconced behind desks, listening to lectures or committing facts and figures to memory. Certainly, there are exceptions to the norm (and there are some truly exceptional schools servicing the needs of our PreK-12 students); but, this is still the typical modus operandi at most U.S. schools.
Recently, Claudia Wallis and Sonja Steptoe of Time magazine took a look at the state of elementary and secondary education in the U.S. The authors marveled that, despite the intense focus of the public, media and the government, few schools, districts and states have really sat down to take a deep look at the skills and experiences students will need to effectively live and work in the 21st century. Perhaps our schools and educational leaders are not thinking about the issue, but some people in the workforce are.
Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future, believes that we are moving into a conceptual age and the major employers and careers will be in areas that heavily target creative/conceptual thinkers. We'll always have a need for accountants, analysts, researchers and the like; but the businesses of the conceptual age are likely to outsource these activities and keep only those employees that can understand the context of situations and see the bigger picture.
Of course, what we do with PreK-12 education has a direct impact on our students’ future ability to operate in a creative/conceptual world. If we, as a society are to help our youth transition into this type of employment fully, we must work together to build schools that support this type of thinking. Parents, teachers, educational administrators/leaders, experts, employers and workforce specialists all need a voice in the development of programs and curricula that will help our students gain the skills they need to (a) think outside the box, (b) interact with people, (c) learn and care about the world they live in and (d) gain an understanding of and envision using the resources they have in new and interesting ways.
Our elementary and secondary schools need a heavy dose of reality. Teaching a child to add 2 + 2 and come up with 4 is meaningless unless the child also learns how to relate this concept to his/her world (i.e. 2 apples + 2 bananas = 4 servings of fruit or a nice salad for brunch). Learning in context. Real-world concepts. Dynamic/creative activities. Big picture thinking. What a concept, hmm? We just have to find ways to encourage our educational leaders to toss out the standardized curriculum, standardized testing, 8:00 - 3:30 mentality and refocus their efforts on the future needs of our children. It could work...
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