In 1893, one in four Americans visited the The Chicago World’s Fair where the crowds stood in awe of the first Ferris Wheel and admired new, promising inventions. It was an inventor’s paradise where creativity was extolled and envied.
Nikola Tesla demonstrated AC powered gadgets to visitors munching on new foods like Cracker Jacks and Shredded Wheat. Aunt Jemima Pancake mix and diet carbonated soda made their debut beside other inventions like hot plates, fans, radiators, and even neon lights. By all accounts to attend the fair was the experience of a lifetime. The inventions sparked visions of the future. Hopefulness and excitement permeated the crowds. Oddly enough, this was in complete juxtaposition to what was happening in education at the time. Just a few months earlier, the Committee of Ten had introduced national education standardizations.
The drive for standardization was simple - it was the industrialized era. As factories were established all over the country, it became financially beneficial to produce the same items, no matter the location. Standardization was then the gold standard for industry and demand for standardized workers impacted education. The creativity and enterprising natures of inventors, such as those at the World’s Fair, were slowly phased out of popularity. What students studied and when they studied it, was the same all over the country. And it hasn’t changed in over 100 years.
In the prologue I shared why my family and I carved our own education path. In many ways, when you are stripped of choices, the decision to follow the road less travelled is an easy one. And since venturing down that road, a lot of hazy thoughts and realizations have clarified and fallen into place.
My husband works with big data in a job that did not exist when he was in school, using a variety of skills not currently being taught. We told ourselves it was fine because the kids were in elementary school, so we had time. Then came middle school and the nagging feeling that they were completing the same assignments, the same classes, and the same worksheets as we had done 30 years earlier began to grow louder. Why were they not being taught coding? Or how to navigate and manage their time on the internet or even their cell phone usage? What about how to creatively problem solve? Why were kids encouraged to be so competitive that team assignments and sharing were actively discouraged? I knew the school had thought about the future, but they had chosen to insulate themselves from the modern day, opting to create a cell phone free zone and ignoring the possibilities, as well as challenges, of the internet. As more rules were introduced and modern tech became contraband, the kids were not being prepared for the 21st Century. And that is a very big problem. Just ask the industry titans of today.
In a 2016 USA Today article, IBM President and CEO Ginni Rometty said that modern industry “jobs are being created that demand new skills – which in turn requires new approaches to education, training and recruiting.”
Recognizing traditional schools are not preparing students for jobs in the modern economy, IBM and other major companies have invested in creating vocational high schools and educational models that prepare students with job skills such as coding, cloud computing, robotics, and real life situational internships.
Technology is changing, jobs are changing, and so is our way of life. To cordon off students and prevent them from learning about technology in favor of isolated core subjects defeats the very purpose of education, preparing children to be the workers of tomorrow. The Committee of Ten aimed to prepare students for the next century. But, now, nearly 20 years into the 21st Century, we are still training our children for the 20th. It is time for us to look forward.
Technology is exciting. It infuses every aspect of our lives and most of the time we take it for granted. We carry phones that have more computing power than NASA had when the Apollo missions were being flown. It was only 20 years ago when flip phones allowed for texting and making calls. Can you imagine what phones will be like 20 years from now? Consider a 5 year old in Kindergarten, and the futuristic phone they will have for their first job, and what their work life will look like with this kind of technology? How about when they retire around the year 2075? We are doing a disservice to kids today if we do not prepare them for the modern economy. Worse yet, if we do not prepare them, society too will be negatively impacted.
The other week I was talking to a recent college graduate who is looking for work. She had several interviews, but not one offered her a job due to her lack of computer programming and usage skills. She told me, “I only used my computer for word processing. I had no idea what a computer could really do.”
She is now taking several computer operations and programming classes and I have no doubt this initiative will impress her future employer. But how about the schools and college she went to - why didn’t they prepare her for the modern economy? What were they thinking when they accepted large tuition checks for an outdated education? And this story is far too common.
Using the SIBE framework is to allow each and every learner to succeed and thrive in an uncertain future. Our society depends upon this individualization. Currently our outdated system educates only about 20% of all students. And with an aging population, much more than 20% of the future workforce will be required to support them. Therefore, It is vital that every child be educated and prepared for the 21st Century. Unfortunately, people are talking about what needs to be done, but very few are actually able to enact it.
It is tough to make sweeping changes, especially when you cannot guarantee an outcome. I had no choice - the traditional school system failed us. So we guinea-pigged a theoretical framework - and it worked. Now that the kids love to learn, have self-agency and are self-directed, I know it works.
#sibe.rocks