Educating Students in the 21st Century: Part 5

By Mike Duncan, Superintendent

 

“If you want something you’ve never had, then you’ve got to do something you’ve never done.” 

                                                                                                            Dr. Seuss

So what?  What’s it all mean?

Preparing students for life beyond school has never been more challenging.  Based on your feedback over the past two years, we feel your support and encouragement to change the dialog around education.  Reaching consensus was easier than expected:  We need to equip students with skills to navigate a dynamic and rapid paced world.  Regardless of whether you philosophically believe the mission of schools is to produce employable workers, responsible citizens, or both, we can all agree that students who can think critically, problem solve creatively, communicate clearly, and collaborate effectively are better prepared than the students who memorized volumes of loosely connected factual information only to discard it immediately after the test.

It would be disingenuous to tell you we have this all figured out, because we don’t, but we have a plan.  We are engaged in professional learning and curriculum revision so we can deliver high quality instruction focusing on critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration.  To this end, we are in the process of refining and defining the most important knowledge and skills in the Georgia Standards for Excellence so students can engage learning deeply through inquiry.  Educating our children must be more than telling them what to think, but teaching them how to think.  Students must be given opportunities to make meaning and discover understandings in all content areas.  Being told what you should know and how you should think breeds laziness, apathy, and dependence.  It’s just not the American way, so I leave you where we began: “In times of change learners inherit the Earth: while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” (Eric Hoffer)

P.S.

I would like to thank our partners, The Center for Authentic Intellectual Work and EdLeader21, from whose ideas we have borrowed liberally and shamelessly.  Additionally, I would like to share with you sources that have framed our thinking:

·         Tony Wagner, The Global Achievement Gap

·         Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind

·         Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat

·         Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, Understanding by Design

·         Amanda Ripley, The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way

·         Ken Kay and Valerie Greenhill, The Leader’s Guide to 21^st Century Education

·         John Hattie, Visible Learning

·         Mike Schmoker, Focus