#36 - The Basic Idea

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Aug 26

Written By Roberto Publico

There is a lot to the education system; history, tradition, know-how, textbooks, materials, curricula, programs, people, money, organization. In addition, it just has a lot of inertia. It just goes and goes. (see our opinion on What is Education?)

But, the simplicity is just this:

Get an idea from here to there.

Beyond the simplicity, there are complications and implementation problems:

How do screen and collect ideas?
How do you package the idea?
What vehicle do you use to deliver it?
How do you make sure students are interested and paying attention?
How do you know if you got the idea across?
How do you gauge if it’s being retained or how long it’s being retained?
Can students recall it and then use the ideas to create new ideas?
Do students have the ability to execute ideas and move forward? It’s one thing to recognize a problem or situation, it’s quiet another to put the solution into action, even if it’s only speaking out about it.

We can wrap simplicity in all kinds of complexity and significance making it look complex. Publishers design textbooks to be pleasant, interesting, visually interesting and, above all, non-confrontational. Academics are not considered any longer. (See our opinion regarding Textbook Guidelines). The pedagogical community pushes psychological-based concepts and makes you believe it all so complex and, thanks the stars, you have them to sort it all out for you. (See our opinions of Psychobabble). The government maintains its original mandate, but is most interested in pushing this cause or that and is more interested in influencing society through grants and regulations.

Should we throw it all out? No. There are a lot of good materials, good people and good methods, all worth keeping. Governments at the local, state and federal level and other groups and organizations have made valuable contributions to the system.

Along these lines, the US Education Department (ED) has, as one of its missions, the investigation, cataloging and reporting of “What Works.” The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) has been farmed out to a private organization, is now a digital operation and seems to be interested in “progressive” things and only has the apparentcey of suppporting classic and traditional methodology. (see our opinion on Disbanding the Education Department).

Any way you look at it, the system should be reviewed from top to bottom. If you ask them how they’re doing, they say “fine. The system works great” That’s like asking the fox who would be best to guard the henhouse. In spite of all this so called investment, the US has fallen from 1st to 25th (or worse) worldwide in reading, math and science. A lot of advances and discoveries are worth keeping and probably add to our know-how. But, the current system is not working and a change is imperative. We can’t go on like this. Something has to change.

So, let’s go back to the basic idea. There needs to be an idea and then we have to figure out how to get from here to there.

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