One of the main purposes of this blog will be to make sense of our sessions— to reflect, to synthesize, and to set into motion further discussion and inquiry.
As a group, we’re certainly dynamic and a little scattered, but we’re tied together by a shared interest of wanting to understand what’s wrong with our broken system, and wanting to work on it.
During our discussion, some interesting common threads emerged. A lot of us are talking about some of the same key issues, many of which we will discuss at length throughout the term. A few examples:
We’re definitely concerned about teachers. How are teachers being evaluated? How do we recruit and train effective teachers? What do we do with bad teachers? How much should they be paid? Does this truly correlate with performance? Should they have tenure? How should this be determined?
We want explore curriculum. What’s relevant? What should be standardized? Which lessons are necessary for personal and academic growth (Latin? Health? Citizenship?), and how should they be taught? What effect does categorizing ideas into disciplines have on learning? Where do family, community, and government fit into all this?
Some other variables to continue thinking about— standards, expectations, class size, structures and design, politics… we’ve got a lot to consider.
As Ken said at the end of the session, not all of the issues on the board were of equal import. Some of them embodied others and some may not be issues at all, just symptoms of larger problems. A topic for discussion for those interested and available – what is the most important problem in our Education system right now and why is it more important than all of the others?
And finally, thanks for your support and energy! I’m excited to see where we’re headed.
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