Read this!

Just a small sampler of something that resonated very powerfully for me.  This is an extract from a valedictory speech delivered at a school in California by a retiring humanities teacher.

The increasing tendency to see schools, colleges and universities as businesses has led to a focus on what most clearly results in immediate economic reward. And while economic growth is important, a myopic fixation on the short term has dangerous consequences. Just last week, the L.A. Times ran a front-page story asking if a college degree is still “worth the cost.”

And recently there has been serious talk of encouraging new college students to choose a major, to focus early, and to graduate in three years. While I realize that there are real reasons for some to finish in three years, most of the articles I’ve read suggest students refrain from taking classes that don’t apply directly to a career.

Don’t do it. If you can afford it, explore whatever interests you. Learn another language and spend a year abroad. Take a few courses in philosophy or in ethics along with the courses in accounting and microbiology. Life right after high school, in college or not, should be a time where it is normal to discuss random topics all night long—stopping only when the sun takes away the dark and reminds everyone that a new day is coming.

What I want you all to realize about this more “efficient” educational future is that whatever remains untested, or whatever is not immediately applicable to a career, becomes unimportant. The humanities and the arts, creativity and music, are being diminished at every level.

Consider how many times you have heard reference to a crisis in math and science. Now consider how many times you have heard it reported that, as a country, we suffer from a crisis in the study of history and literature and music. I keep waiting—but such a news report suggests a comedy skit more than a serious warning. 

Without much discussion, without any discussion, we are allowing decision makers to discard programs that develop skills that I believe are needed to make life richer and foster an appreciation for diversity. We are allowing others to discard programs that, I believe, are needed to keep democracy alive. Your significant contributions to maintain many of these programs in Irvine gives me hope that many, maybe most, of you agree with my concerns. But how long can this community hold out against national trends toward more efficient, businesslike schools, and severely limited opportunities?

I ask each of you—graduates, educators and parents—to remain concerned with our collective future by, at least, being wary of reactionary pressures toward educational efficiency. Significant learning is often accidental.

Read the rest of this splendid piece here.

I am often challenged about why one should spend time -- and lots of it -- teaching young people to sing.  This is why.

A real education revolution does not rest on putting computers in every school.  Treating technology as an end in itself is of no educational value whatsoever.  It is an example of the obscenity that underlies debate over education policy here in Australia -- be it performance pay for teachers, or punitive approaches to youth unemployment ("earn or learn").  Ideological education is left to the political parties, who promptly act to withdraw support from any activity not aligned with their interests (so-called "voluntary" student unionism, for example).

A real education revolution would involve the abandonment of every ideological position available under the present terms of debate.

Since when was it good policy to impose blinkers on every student in the pursuit of accountability in schools?  Discuss.