Ready for the 21st Century?

I just read a great article from the president of Wake NCAE, which is an affiliate of the NCAE and the NEA

A few quotes from the article:

“I am not ready for the Twenty-First Century, and I don’t think many of us are.”

“We take I-Phones, cell phones that video stream, and computers that do amazing things away from our students when they come through the door and say “here is a pencil and a book… go learn!” Are we crazy?”

“We all need to get up and start moving toward something that goes beyond our wildest imagination. The voters, the County Commissioners, the teachers, the parents, the school board, the business community… all of us need to stand up and say… “This is not acceptable. We are not just standing still, we are going backwards.”"

Chris’ Thoughts:

We ask our students to leave their generation’s tools behind when they come into the classroom, and we think that we are truly preparing them for their future?

What is the purpose of education? If it is just to get in 12 years of curriculum while maintaining high end-of-course scores, then we’ve done our job. But if the real purpose for education is to get these youngsters ready for a career and life in the future, then we really need to rethink the way we are doing things.

I remember back when I was a student and was not allowed to bring a calculator to class. We were told that we needed to learn how to use a slide rule (look that one up in wikipedia). I think the slide rule is a great way to see how numbers relate to each other, especially how multiplication and division relate, but routine math is not what we are teaching in high school today. We need to teach the concepts and let the kids use their tools to solve the problem. After all, they will be using these tools, and others that have yet to be invented, to solve the problems that our generation has left behind.

We have to incorporate the technology of the day into the classroom so that we will be truly preparing these kids for the world of today, and hopefully tomorrow.

So are you helping to get the kids ready for life in the 21st Century? If not, I hope you get ready before we start talking about the skills needed for the 22nd Century!

Well, at least that’s the way that I see it. Let me know what you are thinking, and stop by again soon for more of my ramblings.