"...we part with tender relations stretching far behind us, that never can be exactly renewed..."
Funny how Bill Gates would use the same term you would use to describe an old version of Windows. I'd be interested to see how Bill Gates proposes we bring high schools up to date and it will be more power to him if he can do it without forcing everyone to buy his computers and software. Sounds more like a marketing and business opportunity to me.
Perhaps, but whether his motive in giving the speech is "a marketing and business opportunity" is of no consequence to me. What matters is the content of his speech, and in particular the ideas he espouses in regard to reforming the educational system, which is mostly based on 19th century thinking, by making it more divergent and responsive to the individual needs and interests of the students by involving them in the process of discovering and solving problems that have relevance and purpose. A good Latin phrase to keep in mind is respice finem: goal-look toward the end.
Scot
It's not the schools, it's the kids.
Exactly.
I've enjoyed reading your blog! You've been added to my blogroll, and I look forward to your future posts.
I agree with the 3 R's Gates put forth. Parents have to teach the kids to care about learning from an early age, and schools need to make sure they're learning what they need to function out in the real world. I see way too many kids graduating who can't spell or speak proper English [if I hear one more "can I 'axe' you a question", I'll scream! LOL].
but what's keeping our kids from learning?
Thank you Kendralynn and Michelle for your recent responses. I've only recently started "blogging" to fill up the time and space that I now have since my son has left for college. It never occured to me that by "blogging" you would have such a wonderfully interactive audience interested in sharing ideas and experiences alike.
Scot
Didn't that guy drop out of college?
I am interested in both the content of Gates speech and the context from which he speaks. There is a lot I agree with in his talk as you present it.
Where I have a fundamental value conflict has to do with some of the hints that Gates, and other buisness/industry folk, said regarding curriculum that prepares folks for work or college (which then prepares kids for work). Our curriculum is already preparing kids for work - to be docile employees who can be somewhere on time and can go from station to station to do their time/work (50 minute periods).
I believe education needs some revolutionary changes, but ones that actually teach kids to think critically about themselves and their world. It needs revolutionary changes that are not driven to support business and industry. And it needs revolutionary changes that root kids in their communities rather than prepars them to be nomadic slaves to the workplace.
When we can think, we are creative - which means better producers and better consumers (by better I don't mean consume more, rather wiser). When we are learning to think rather than to work, we are able to learn to work more easily, The downside for business and industry is that we may no longer be the sheep they prefer, allowing ourselves to be dominated in the name of business. And when we are rooted in our communities, we are more connected to ourselves, our people (not just family, but those we live among), and the land on which we depend for survival.
Ok, just rambling. I do believe that Gates and his ilk mean the best when they speak about education, but it always translates to me to be: we need kids to be dependent on Microsoft, to trust and unquestionably follow adult authority, and to be docile enough to control.
khalil:
I can see us sitting down to a cup of coffee over this topic. Whether Gates has ulterior motives or not certainly is debatable, but like you say, our present educational system "needs some revolutionary changes." It seems to me, though, that the real problem with the design of our present educational sytem is that it is largely inconsistent with what we know. It does not foster the kind of environment where we can "think" or be "creative."
Perhaps William Glasser says it best in his book, The Quality School (1990), "Schools should be a place where students have the freedom to take control and responsibility for their learning, and to make autonomous decisions in regard to their learning." I believe students should be given opportunities to have control to learn what they want, when they want. As Glasser puts it, "non-coercive" instruction (ibid).
It has been my contention that what most educationalists and teachers fail to understand is that learning is not necessarily the result of teaching. It is the result of being actively involved in accomplishing or achieving something. Our present educational system, based on 19th century objectivist philosophy, is the anachronism that kills the spirit of learning. And as such, it is enabling instead of empowering.
Anyway, now I'm the one who's rambling on here. I enjoy reading your posts on your site, and have blogrolled you to mind.
Let's keep in touch.
Scot
I think most parents and educators are waiting for technology to get to the point where we stick kids in a box and everything they need to know is pumped into them via a wire leading to their brain.
Isn't that pretty much what we're doing now? Pumping facts into their brains and having them spit them back out on tests so their schools can keep up with the asinine No Child Left Behind bit?
I do think Gates is looking for another way to grab a share of the market, as he has done with his Foundation's supplying libraries with computers. The computers are loaded with Microsoft softwear and have setups that are next to impossible to change from the settings the Foundation wants.
Perhaps the fact that Macs are so widely used in schools is a factor, hmmm?
Thanks for leaving me a comment through BlogExplosion. I responded to your question, and will be using your joke in the future on my site.
http://www.crazypromofun.com/200...ew-
holiday.html
Morris
RE: prying1 & Elizabeth:
Thanks for commenting. It seems I might develop some of the ideas reflected in the responses I've recieved on this post, and expound on them for my next article.
Anything concerned with making our schools better or even revamping the whole system is a subject I am interested in! I do not think taxpayers or parents are involved enough in teaching kids. They think the government should take care of that, while they selfishly pursue their careers or romances. Money alone will not educate our children. A true education starts with love.
It does start with the parents, doesn't it. Or at least it should. It's a matter of priorities. Do we put our children first, or not? Thanks for responding.
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