20080926
Teaching skills not facts
I was sent this link by a coworker as it sort of applies to one aspect of what I’m working on in my current detail assignment. It paints a rather bleak picture of the capabilities of our youth (which for me is anyone under the age of 35) and our education system. With this ‘No child left behind’ unfunded mandate (or should it be ‘all children left behind’?) we have established a system where the metrics require that we teach our kids what to think instead of how to think. We teach to the test now. When I got my Ph.D. I realized that it only meant that I was self motivated and knew how to think – nothing more, but also nothing less. Please view the video the link above points to. Realizing there is a problem is the first step in solving it.
Hooda Thunkit said,
September 27, 2008 @ 1721
Joe,
You have hit the nail squarely on the head, because of “the test,” teaching now teaches what is needed to pass the test and very little else. This has also changed/influenced the students, by emphasizing “the test” and what to learn, rather than how to think and learn.
Back when Abe and I were pups, my curiosity did more for me learning (and thinking independently) than anything that was being taught in school. However…, since the teachers of that time were charged with teaching everything, my formal education was a mere starting point for me and what I have learned, by virtue of their basic, rounded education and my natural curiosity took me beyond the education I learned/received in school.
As for Tony’s presentation, it reminded on one of my educational weaknesses that I wish I could go back to and relearn, my communication skills. Sadly, I’m stuck with muddling through and picking up bits of missing wisdom/skills as I go along instead.
As I went through 30 years of work at my last job, I realized that my employer foolishly hired based on someone having a sheepskin to hang on the wall rather than if they had any practical knowledge of the job they were expected to do, while those with the experience and skills did the work while Mr./Ms. “sheepskin” learned a slight amount by exposure to their truly learned employees working for them.
I say a slight amount because, although they had the sheepskin, they were clueless as how to learn what they needed to know to be effective, much like what Tony talked about.
Even the least educated person is very good at something, if they have the curiosity and the will to learn.