Problematic View of the goal of Education
On the very first page of the December 2006 "Better Teaching" publication, there is an article titled "Use Project-Based Learning model." The article is pretty good; it encourages teachers to assign long-term group hands-on projects as the focal point of a unit. However, the first sentence of the article reads, "Give your students the opportunity to master the content and skills they will need in the global marketplace with a lesson inspired by the Project-Based Learning (PBL) model." The source of the article is from the publication "Edutopia," in an article by Bob Pearlman titled "New Skills for a New Century, Project-Based learning teaches kids the collaborative and critical thinking abilities they'll need to compete."
To me, this language is very problematic, and I probably would not have recognized it in September. Why is the notion that the goal of education is to train students to "compete" in the "global marketplace"? This saddens me, and I wonder if this mindset can or will ever change.
posted by jodi m @ 1:19 PM
1 Comments:
I think that in today's world, unfortunatly, we equate a successful and fulfilling life with how much money one can bring home and what title one carries in life. The focus is not on creating happy, well-rounded individuals, but rather we prepare our children for this ratrace where a few crumbs at the end of the journey made all the difference. We (not us coming out of Westminster, of course) prepare our students to reach for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and are never taught to appreciate the rainbow for what it is. It might sound corny, as well it should, but it's true. Hopefully we will learn to reword our missive statements for our children's educational goals.
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