Paradigm shift
How much more time does the existing educational paradigm need to prove that it works?
And don’t come at me with comments about how being student-centred is the paradigm. Anyone familiar with schools knows this is the exception, not the rule.
No, the paradigm I’m referring to is the one that sees students as minerals to be mined for achievement. This is what dominates. It’s this that anyone who tries to bring some freedom and life into school fights against.
And it doesn’t work. Even when we double down on it, as has happened in education systems worldwide over the last 20 years. Every indicator has got worse.
And yet, no one in that paradigm feels the need to justify themselves. The only question seems to be, what approach within it is best — more focus on the basics, better feedback, stricter classrooms, higher expectations?
I couldn’t care less.
A friend of mine, Duane Grace, CEO of Tiaki, has two great questions he asks:
What’s the daily cost of failure?
Once we know it, are we prepared to pay it?
The existing educational paradigm carries a big cost. It’s so big, even the privileged have stories of it, and it’s this: it sucks the life out of kids, puts out the spark, and reduces education to the soulless pursuit of achievement.
Don’t tell me I’m wrong. I bet you’ve got your own story. I bet everyone you know has.
Is this a price you’re prepared to continue paying?