Education For The Collaborative Global Innovation Age

In his article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto submits his conspiratorial beliefs apropos the suggested chicanery and skulduggery present in American school systems to a wide range of audience members, ranging from concerned parents to the worldwide educational community. Throughout his article, Gatto calls into question several aspects of the modern education present in the United States, his scathing and unnervingly well reasoned timbre astonishing readers into reassessing their own experience in the education system. These appalling points, which one may at first believe only exist to steal the attention of any reader, are a key strategy in Gatto’s article which allow readers to set aside prior notions of skepticism towards educational

Ever since standardized testing started being used as a way to evaluate the intelligence of students and the teachers’ ability to educate, the standard of actual education has been diminished immensely. Standardized testing is used in most public and private schools to analyze students’ knowledge. It has affected the way in which students learn and has corrupted the methods teachers use to educate. In some cases, English-Learning and disabled students face discrimination from teachers since teachers have more responsibility to have a high number of passing students. Some countries around the world don’t use standardized tests to rank their students or schools and yet they have been successful. Standardized tests are not efficient on making students learn, they should not be used to evaluate students’ knowledge.

In a progressively more globalized world that necessitates more effective educational practices, the U.S., once the biggest global force in education, has seen its dominance slowly slip out, and its educational status fall even lower than that of several third-world countries. The decline experienced in American school system academic achievement is not as a result of lack of funding, but as a consequence of the overall educational system watering down. According to Gatto, educating children through the existing public school system of America is crippling rather than helping them. From his essay, ‘Against School,’ it is established that the goal of the whole public school system is to limit people’s intelligence in an attempt to create a society that is manageable. Gatto continues to state that action is needed to change this situation. He supports his assertions using current and historical information about the American school system and his personal experience. After reading his article, one realizes that most of Gatto’s arguments are true. It is true that the American education system is making the students comfort to the government and society norms, which is why they are easily bored. This essay’s goal will, therefore, be to support John Gatto’s beliefs.

The American education system has, since its inception, been subject to ridicule and disdain on the parts of many. Despite the fact that many scholars believe that the system has flaws, there has been no consensus as to what needs to be changed. Sam Chaltain, the previous National Director of the Forum for Education and Democracy and now an active participant in educational reform debates, argues that the system should shift its focus on standardization away from students and instead to teachers and schools. Nikhil Goyal, author of Schools on Trial: How Freedom and Creativity Can Fix Our Educational Malpractice, holds that we should do away with standardization altogether, giving children the opportunity to accomplish what they want with their education and allow them to flourish in a less stifling environment. Peter Gow, the author of a multitude of books about potential changes in school policy, focuses on fourth grade specifically, suggesting that a year in elementary school focused solely on cultivating reading skills would greatly benefit students in the future. Although this is a radical stance, Gow’s point remains valid; teaching

“The antiquated educational model our schools stubbornly cling to was designed well over a century ago to meet the demands of an emerging industrial economy”(Mercogliano, 2005, p.2). In his article,

Though many feel that the American education system is a model of success, compared to the educational system of Finland, the American system is in dire need of reform. The focus of these reforms should begin with mandatory recess, teacher salaries, and high-stakes testing. Recess should be a necessary part of the student’s day. Teachers, who are the key to student’s learning, do not make they salary they deserve. Standardized testing is unfair because one test cannot determine a student’s ability.

Education has had three phases of development according, to Van Krieken, 2013. Each phase being associated with a set of beliefs about the nature and purpose of education. Firstly, the advent of the modern system from the mid-19th century to World War II, influenced chiefly by liberal humanist ideas. Secondly, post World War II expansion into the late 1970’s was influenced by social democratic beliefs. Finally, the increased marketisation of education which has been influenced by neoliberalism since the 1980’s (Krieken, 2013, p. 149).

Amanda Ripley the author of the smartest kids in the world and how they got that way worked for Time and other magazines generally stayed away from talking about the delicate situation of education. Until an editor asked her to write a story about Michelle Rhee the new leader of Washington D.C’s public schools she “[slipped] into the fog of education”(1) and to her surprise she became very interested. She began wondering “Why were some kids learning so much-and others so very little”(2) when comparing kids from all around the world to the United States. In some cases kids were “literally begging”(2) to solve problems, while in other cases they were “bored out of their young minds”(2), these contrasting events cause the United States to mostly

Although pedagogy varies across European countries, there are similar roots that have developed into differing strands of contemporary thinking in pedagogy. Hämäläinen explains that “historically, social pedagogy is based on the belief that you can decisively influence social circumstances through education” – and importantly, education is seen as a life-long learning process that does not only refer to children but includes educating adults, for instance in order to change their idea of children.

One of the main responsibilities that education must achieve in a democratic society argues that it is the proper preparation of students for the roles of successful citizens and responsibilities they must be ready to take on when they are ready to take on the world. We do not add together individuals and call it a society. We as teachers, teach children so they can be a part of today’s society. People’s lives are woven together and we share a common life and goals.

As stated in the Atlantis, one of America’s leading political magazines, “Finland 's success is especially intriguing because Finnish schools assign less homework and engage children in more creative play”(Partanen). So how is Finland consistently turning in some of the highest test results? Could the United State’s k-12 education ever adapt to reform its system to reflect Finland 's suggests? To improve the United States current education, schools need to find an alternative to standardized tests and make classrooms more interactive. The curriculum needs to be focused on students’ futures to prepare them for the 21st century, not the past.

The authors’ also go on to mention how “American educators need to lead the development of a new, shared vision for our public schools. If they do not create an inclusive vision for our public schools and learn how to raise much more students to mastery levels of learning, the American dream and the quality of life we cherished will be unsustainable in a global economy” (Pg. 6, Introduction). Though this statement is true in theory and concept – I ask the question: “how can ALL students be held accountable for the same mastery levels if ALL students do not learn the same way, have different learning styles, varied disabilities, speak different languages, etc.?” The answer is simple: They Cannot!

“Our educational goal [is] the production of caring, competent, loving, lovable people” . The students found in the schools across the United State are the future of America. They are the doctors, teachers, business people, lawyers and many other roles, that will be out in the workforce in the years to come. What they learn in school will impact them immensely; it is the responsibility of a teacher to give students the best education in order to ensure the common good of the future. It is essential for students to not only learn content matter, but also the skills to enable them to participate in a democracy. Due to standardized testing, the emphasis of education has become on score and rankings rather than learning. A standardized test does not look at the whole student, the scores provided are on a very narrow aspect of education. In the classroom, there are countless ways for teachers to assess the student as a whole person not as just a score. Standardized tests scores should not be the sole criteria for determining a student’s academic achievement.

Throughout this paper, I will be comparing this approach to a number of more traditional approaches to educational policy analysis such as the rational comprehensive model, politically rational model (Bacchi, 1999), Critical Discourse Analysis (Thomas, 2004) and the effects of globalization through common world education culture and the globally structured agenda for education (Dale, 2000). Examining the strengths and weakness of these approaches as compared to the less traditional “what’s the problem?” approach, can help gain a clearer understanding of educational policy and therefore help us to be (hopefully) informed members of the policy making and implementation process.

Bowles and Gintis felt it was important to write this article, because they believe that the politics of education are better understood in terms of the need for social control in an unequal and rapidly changing economic order. This point is illustrated on page 396 when the authors say, “The unequal