Educating the Class of 2030 for Employability and Creativity while Reducing Cost
Wildwood, FL (PRWEB) August 28, 2013 -- The LA Times reported that management science founding father Peter Drucker believed, "Students Should Have Studied What They Do Well but schools do not do this. They focus instead on a learner's weaknesses." Educating the Class of 2030 from http://www.textbooksfree.org/ emphasizes what students do well, their Special Intelligence. This should be done in accordance with Howard Gardner's model of Multiple Intelligence. His mathematical, spatial, bodily movement, musical, verbal, interpersonal and intrapersonal skill areas are all important. See Educating the Class of 2030: http://www.textbooksfree.org/Educating%20the%20Class%20of%202030.htm .
Curriculums should be designed to maximize Special Intelligence because increased competition in our flat robotic world means there is little economic and personal gain from trying to improve skills related to what someone does not do well.
Math and verbal Core Intelligence skills are emphasized by traditional curriculums. We need to set a minimum level of achievement for Core Intelligence based upon the individual and their career choice. In the words of education guru John Dewey, education should..." prepare him for the future life…” "it means to train him so that he will have the full and ready use of his capacities..." Trying to educate all students to some preconceived capacity of core intelligence skills too often fails. Doing so has created a dropout generation and a large group for whom going to college was a poor economic investment. See Economics of a College Education: http://www.textbooksfree.org/Economics%20of%20College%20Education.htm .
Grades 1 to 8 should determine and exploring a student's Special Intelligence while bringing their Core Intelligence to an acceptable minimum. This should be an enjoyable time, a creative time. It should not be the rigorous time of some Asian countries and U.S. tiger mothers. Their over emphasis of academics just causes anxious unhappy students and produces inconsequential gains. Lester Thurow, former Dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of The Future of Capitalism: How Today's Economic Forces Shape Tomorrow's World states, "Education is a very lumpy investment where often there is little or no payoff from having a little bit more." See The World Changed Causing Good Jobs to Disappear: http://www.textbooksfree.org/Interesting_Thoughts_Concerning_Education_Page3.htm .
Germany graduates 97.2% while educating toward employability and self-esteem. Her academically oriented students take a vigorous curriculum but 55.9% are vocationally oriented students who finish school at 1 PM and graduate at 15 with a basic qualification of practical skills.
“Crucially, Germany cut out the third-tier schools for weak academic performers. It's terrible for integration, it's terrible for results. (The best Chinese schools, adds Sir Michael Barber, have also modified their obsession with high-fliers to ensure that they address the “long tail” of underachievement—something that hampers Britain's performance, too.)” Many of Germany's less academic graduates enter the “vocational education system that combines state-funded classroom sessions with practical training conducted by companies.” Apprentices receive a modest salary. ”The system has helped keep youth unemployment at 7.9 percent, the lowest rate in Europe." See How Germany Educates Toward Student Self-Esteem and Employability: http://www.textbooksfree.org/Interesting_Thoughts_Concerning_Education_Page2.htm.
Eliminating the 10% summer slide learning loss with four twelve-week terms would be an important improvement. Each day would consist of four structured academic classroom hours and two unstructured hours which would be very individualized for elementary school students. During high school a student's individualized curriculum would determine the when, where, and what of structured unstructured time. Students could work, take more academic classes, volunteer, create groups to compete for academic prizes, attend career-focused academies, play sports and whatever else American ingenuity determines enhances education and creativity. http://www.textbooksfree.org/Educating%20the%20Class%20of%202030.htm#Reasons_for_change.
The new daily schedule would allow teachers to earn extra discounted pay for teaching more than four structured classes or they could bank credits for future use. Some teachers might prefer to use free time to manage extracurricular activities. This schedule is used by U.S. Universities where students have only 15 fifty-minute class periods per week plus application labs. It allows the world's best colleges to save money, keep teachers happy and produce many well educated graduates.
Cost savings would begin immediately as some students leaving campus after traditional classes for structured unstructured education would free classrooms allowing over-crowded systems to close older less efficient buildings. If enough teachers teach additional classes, fewer full-time teachers would be required. Some states would allow systems to morph into the German vocational model with students graduating in less than twelve years as they leave for vocational programs, military experiences or to as a recent US trend indicates, begin the college or junior college experience. Some systems would invest the dollar savings in early childhood education or my favorite, prenatal care. It’s tough to teach unhealthy from birth children.
WALTER ANTONIOTTI, 21ST CENTURY LERNING PRODUCTS, (352) 748-6741, [email protected]
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