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How can we empower kids to reshape the education system? *A TEDActive Education Project Question*
http://on.ted.com/projects
The TEDActive Education Project will explore how children can make an impact on the education system. We hope to come out of this project with fresh ideas for ways kids can start an education revolution.
At TEDActive2011 in Palm Springs, an amazing group of individuals came together as a group to come up with a simple micro-action solution for empowering kids to be a part of the education reform conversations. After a quick 36 hour period of time, the team made a website that allows students to upload videos of their ideas on education reform.
You can empower a student to share their voice at http://elev8ed.org.
Also, please share your own ideas here, or by starting a new conversation tagged with TEDActiveEDU so we can all follow.
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Andrew Gill
Some how an overdose of 'chocolate' based edcuation does not feel like a good idea......
Dominique deSalle 30+
We don't allow children to vote. Now, why is that?
Tao P 50+
I think we can vastly improve education by giving children more choice in what they want to learn. A child who loves horses is much more likely to enjoy reading books on horses.
We should also get rid of almost all tests and quizzes. I feel there is far too much judgment of children in schools today.
@Andrew: Young children know, when given a choice, of how much and what kinds of food they require. It is only after years of being told to 'finish your plate' 'eat this as it's good for you' and refined sugar addiction that they lose this ability.
Mark Meijer 100+
Dominique deSalle 30+
Sorry, really don't want to put you between a rock and a hard place.
Mark Meijer 100+
I'm not suggesting the blind lead the blind. I don't think anyone is suggesting to have kids get the ultimate say, that's why I specifically refered to what they're capable of "with proper care and guidance". They should not simply be thrown into the deep, but certainly we could loosen our grip a little and take their input into consideration, rather than dragging them kicking and screaming by the hairs of their necks.
So here are some more worn-out idioms for you to trip over if you'd rather continue on that track. Either way I don't think I have much more to add.
Mark Meijer 100+
Dominique deSalle 30+
Does something need to change? Absolutely. But it's complicated.
Question: Know what's being demanded by a large and growing number of parents in Canada? Parents who will line up for days in order to enroll their child in this particular type of school? Parents who will daily drive their child across and into town in order that they may attend these schools?
Answer: Traditional Schools. Schools that focus on the 3 Rs, where students dutifully read, write and do arithmetic. Where the teacher lectures and gives homework. We have countless requests to open more of these schools. We cannot meet the demand.
How odd is that?
It's not that something needs to change. Everything needs to change, all the time. Now we find if only we had not been so diligent in dismantling and reorganizing schools, we could have saved a ton of money and been on the cutting edge of learning. Well, at least what the public believes anyway.
Who knew?
Background: Canada is rapidly transforming into a country of non-European stock. With this comes a change in how things are and will be run. People of European descent in Canada must acknowledge and accept that things won't always be done exactly how they want it. Including how we educate our children.
Someone always finds change harder. Particularly ones who sense they are losing or in danger of falling behind.
Mark Meijer 100+
In sticking with seeming paradoxes, there's always something worthwhile to inherit from prior lessons (as Canadian parents are apparently also thinking), and at the same time there is always something worthwhile to discover new. Just because there are clear instances of bad ways to go about correcting course, doesn't mean we shouldn't. It only means we need to also think about *how*. Now, you may have noticed the first word of the question that serves as title for this conversation ;)
Of course the basic premise here is that forcing education down a fixed path is causing more problems than it solves, and that therefore we need to introduce adaptation into that path, and for that adaptation to be based on anything relevant we'll need the input of students (of any age really). If you agree that everything is changing all the time and we'd do well to organize around that, then certainly you can see where the need for feedback and flexibility comes from.
So the question is not, can we safely drop all responsibility for our children's future direction into their own laps, yes or no. The question is *how* can we responsibly involve them in those choices that affect their future direction. It's their choice after all, since it's their direction. Our job is to help them make those choices in a responsible way, of course taking children's stages of development into account.
Felipe Edgar Ortiz
Dominique deSalle 30+
There are state and/or provincial politicians leading the way who feel unfortunate to be handed the education portfolio. Add to this layers of junior starter politicians at the district board and local board levels who bring their own agendas that are not pedagogically sound.
This makes for some very interesting dynamics indeed. Messes always have to be cleaned up after their play at teaching party is over and before the next tour bus arrives. Adding children to the equation should prove interesting.
The perception that meeting the educational needs and demands of society is simple and can be done from an armchair and the "Hey, how could it possibly be any worse" attitude displays arrogance; is dangerous and insulting.
But you know, you are right, it would be better to have uninformed children rather than ignorant adults involved. Learning really cannot afford both.
Drew Bixby
Jeremy Streich
Funny from what I've seen from most Home Schooled children, I'd say the "professionals" are the problem. A 1997 study showed that "Home school children... out-performed their counterparts in the public schools by 30 to 37 percentile points in all subjects" And now, in 2010, "The average home schooled 8th grade student performs four grade levels above the national average." Home Schooling parents don't require a degree, they are "non-professions" and their solutions are more kitchen chair than armchair. Perhaps we should begin really looking at these bright spots, of the freedoms these children have.
Odd when I talk to the "professionals" about the fact we are considering homeschooling our child, the response we always get is negative. "They won't get the same education," and "they'll be less socialized" despite none of them offering statical evidence of the supposed effects.
We do lots of stats on children's performance, and measure school, state and countries performance; but, I have never seen a letters sent to the parents showing what a given teacher's graduation rate is, or how their students truly perform at real world skills.
"[I]t would be better to have uninformed children rather than ignorant adults involved."
Yes, it would be. Fire ineffective teachers; but you can't the union won't let you. Moreover, my political views and basic belief structure (except religious beliefs) has remained mostly the same since I was about 12 or 14, I won't say I've made all the right choices since then, Lord knows I haven't, but I was more politically aware about current events at 14 than most adults. We see cases like Sirena Huang, a talented articulate 11-year old and we think they are the exception, yes her musical talent makes her an outlier; but, maybe she isn't as rare as we think. Maybe we are stripping children of their potential by an outdated educational model.
Ron Kotay
Scott Armstrong 50+
Despite the fact that many countries are now looking for alternatives to standardised assessment, Anne Tolley (minister of education) has enforced a return to it for all NZ schools.
She is unqualified in all the wrong places.
Dominique deSalle 30+
Of the 180 home schooled programs registered with me, I'd agree that about 1/3 of them are of very good to high quality. I would place my own children into these programs. About 2/3 are below average to awful.
I am interested in where you gained access to this quantifiable student assessment data. Is this data from a reliable source?
Bryan Qu
Erik Shell
Kids aren't reasonable. Biologically, emotionally, and cognitively they are not mature enough to make rational decisions. Using the chocolate analogy, no child would eat all chocolate forever, but they WOULD just eat what they want and when they want to. They have no impulse control. Even when they DO reach a stage of cognitive maturity, they don't just automatically know what is best for education. It needs to be studied and looked at through many different lenses which can take a person well beyond their 40's to even begin to understand what needs to be done. There are adults right now who don't know what's best for education they just say they do because every other adult has ideas so why shouldn't they.
The issue is two sided: You can't ask the children because they will want what is best for them at the time instead of in the long run and you can't ask the adults because they either 1) Are business men who already run the school like a business instead of an educational institution or 2) Don't have the slightest idea of how children learn and what kind of techniques can jive with that.
I'm not saying I personally have the answers, but I'm also saying that kids are the wrong people to ask on this subject. Proper course of action at this point would be to wait until America gets politicians that don't lobby but care, then sit a group of intuitive and far-minded educators in a room and have a debate to restructure the whole thing. Think Plato's "Republic," but for education instead of government.
Dominique deSalle 30+
A great many children experience delayed development for a great number of reasons. I would not normally use the term 'delayed' as every child develops at their own rate, but I will allow its use in order to clarify matters in the simplest of terms. They continue to exist in the trial and error (concrete) environment and never fully reach the formal operational stage until well into their twenties.
What you will find is expressions and opinions acquired via rote learning, probably from parents and older siblings. Children are not able to develop their own critiques, other than common likes and dislikes pertaining to their own comforts. The child's world and interest is geared to the immediate and personal. The broader, larger, abstract world of learning, with all its interlinked relationships, begins to emerge later.
Students will express frustration and say "Why are we learning this stuff?" as they cannot yet 'connect the dots' on these more complex, abstract relationships and concepts. Some adults are unable to ever understand these.
So, this formal operational stage begins at approximately age twelve and lasts into adulthood. During this time, people develop the ability to think about abstract concepts. Skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning, and systematic planning also begin to emerge during this stage. The C & I learning experience (Curriculum & Instruction) is tailored and designed to account for these various levels of cognition.
Bantering about lofty ideals is all well and fun but seriously thinking about having children direct their own learning speaks more to indulgence than logic.
Rob Appleby
Not all children want 'Chocolate'
Adora Svitak 500+