Death of Education, Dawn of Learning

At our fabulous end of year lunch today, we were talking about the possible death of No Child Left Behind when the new administration is in office next year. While we all agreed that SOL’s have been a terrible travesty as they have focussed all education on testing, there was a pause when I announced what I see in the future: personalized learning for every student. Well, I used the language Individualized Education Plan which I think got us off on the wrong foot, raising fears of even more bureauocracy, but, really: with less fearful regulation surrounding them, don’t you feel every student deserves their own plan, fitted to their own learning style and needs??

Then I watched a video created in part by Pearson Education and heard internationally renowned educators saying the kinds of things I hoped to hear educators say: the old model doesn’t work in the new millenium. Take a look yourself, and see what you think.

Coming soon, I will be working with a group of professors to develop some new pre-orientation programs aimed at helping students with the intellectual transition from high school to college. As someone who teaches first year students, I am painfully aware that K-12 has not prepared them well for what I will be asking them to do: think independently, analyze, pursue an idea with passion, collaborate with others in their learning community, make mistakes and get messy! The plan of these “pre-o’s” is to give students a taste of what learning can be like once they are free of SOL’s and standardized testing. We’ll be using the materials from AAC&U’s LEAP project to do this, which ties success in the 21st century economy to the methods and golas of liberal arts education. It is a really exciting project. Stay tuned for results!