Wednesday October 29th, 2014
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Volume 17
Issue 1
EDUCATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY OPINION: What needs to be said about education in The United States by Oliver Ullman
century version of a lecture, even though teachers who use them still leave many kids ur education system is an old broken in their class just as bored after they finish with their slides. down Volvo and we’re trying to So how can we change this trend? To fix it with a paint job. Our teachchange the way our teachers teach, we ing methods remain rigid, even though flexibility is more important than ever. And have to change the way our students learn. Instead of learning what we learn just by hearing is useless to us as we teach “As other countries adapt information and writing it down we and learn in and evolve to find better need to make sure an uninspired that they can apply fashion. ways to educate their that information Where did it students we’ve stuck with in a hands-on, all go wrong? interactive enviThe truth the same system, and ronment. In a way, is, the United we’ve already done States’ educhanged only the this, but we’ve done cation system minor details.” it entirely in the hasn’t been wrong way. To meet heading in the standards, and to show ‘progress’, we’ll right or wrong direction: it’s been headhave ‘hands-on’ labs and activities, like in ed in no direction. Though we’ve gotten a class like science that end up taking days slightly better at how we teach, the way to explain a small amount of curriculum. we teach has changed too little too late, Think about the last time you did a lab in meaning that as other countries adapt science; was everybody in your group proand evolve to find better ways to educate ductive? How much of your time was spent their students, we’ve stuck with the same system, and changed only the minor details. Lectures, the most popular method of education, are reaching fewer and fewer students in a generation where a growing number of children are being diagnosed with attention deficit disorders. To give our schools partial credit, many have begun to realize the value Students performing coding functions, following along with Sue Johnson in her 3rd period Java class. Photo by John Honan learning of new technoloand how gy in fixing these much time was spent mindlessly doing? problems. Monarch itself is now very much Often all we do is look up the infora computer-oriented school, but instead mation or complete the instructions, and of using the new technology to create new then be told what we’ve learned. There methods of learning, we’ve tried to revive needs to be a better blend of self-learning and update our old methods and make and teaching in our schools, otherwise we them shinier. PowerPoints are just a 21st
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Sophomore Marcus Cassar(left) and junior Geritt Duffy(right) working on a chemistry lab during Kathy Packard’s 3rd period Advanced Chemistry class. Photo by John Honan
throw ingenuity out the window. Schools also need to become more flexible in how they allow their students to learn, and how they prove their knowledge. Currently, people with learning disabilities get accommodations like extra time on tests or extended time on homework assignments, but that doesn’t address the real problem: some students just don’t learn the way everybody else does. Everyone in our school learns better in conditions that acknowledge their many quirks and habits, some students like a quiet room to be taught in while others revel in the energy of a loud one, or prefer self-teaching to being taught. Some students can learn a lot from group activities while others may find themselves spacing off. We have also known for a long time that almost everyone is either an auditory or a visual learner, meaning that someone may learn a lot more from hearing a lecture than by watching a powerpoint, and vice-versa. Obviously individually tailoring school for each student is ludicrous, but schools must allow more options for personalized learning and teach more effectively with it. If we allowed our students to take more control over their own education, we would instantly allow them to learn more eficiently. For example, just like certain classes
are advanced or regular, certain classes would allow more freedom than others. So, a student would be able to take a regular biology class, or take an ‘intuitive’’ biology class that would still include labs and dissections, but allow students to have more control over how they learn and how they demonstrate what they’ve learned. A student would be able to present a project through a speech, PowerPoint, or whatever method works best for him or her. Tests could also be taken orally or regularly since some students just don’t do well when they have to sit down and fill in bubbles for an hour and a half. Yes, our education system is evolving. And yes, some teachers are working to give freedom to students. But most of the overall changes we make are the wrong ones. Using technology for the sake of technology makes no progress for students, while hands on activities just end up taking too much time while teaching very little. Clearly what we need is to be more flexible. Some students may benefit from using computers in class while others may not be able to resist going on Facebook. Every change in education affects students differently, and until we end our one size fits all teaching styles, students’ full learning potential will be left untouched.
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