Tipping toward a change

As I contemplate writing this piece, it seems logical that this bit of communication should address what I consider not only my vocation, but a passion: education. Education is central to my individual and our collective success in negotiating a complex and rapidly changing world.

Much is written about education, often largely condemning a system that all of us experience. This negativity is limiting. So let’s look to the future changes in the system as being both substantive and meaningful for those of us who will experience it for the first time, as well as for others who will return to develop or hone skills in order to fully experience the world around us.

Research on effective learning and teaching increasingly shapes education based on the needs of our students as they enter the global society. But new knowledge, although at the heart of the conversation, is significantly hampered by a bloated bureaucracy that stifles the creativity needed to change a system that many revere. Educators find themselves overwhelmed with regulations that require compliance, often to the exclusion of good practice. The tipping point appears near. Our system, mired in memories, needs to be freed to create meaningful learning opportunities for students of the present and future.

Being shackled to outdated ideas that promote education as something done “to” as opposed to “with” someone confines us. Instead, on the horizon are opportunities that support student engagement and their ability to advocate for themselves, their communities and people of the world.

We possess the knowledge to address the needs of students today comprehensively, in a way that results not only in improving living conditions of those in our region or state, but in the world as a whole. The main focus of a realigned education system will no longer be assessment and accountability, though those remain important. Instead, the core of the system will be meaningful engagement with students. Our best educational thinkers strongly suggest that learning and teaching are integrated activities that are directly related to an interdependent relationship between students and teachers. This relationship forms the foundation of a strong system designed to enable students to master skills relevant to successful citizenry.

Daniel Pink, in “A Whole New Mind,” and Thomas Friedman, in “The World is Flat,” emphasize six essential abilities that must be taught in order to successfully negotiate our world. Our revised system will provide learning opportunities that facilitate growth of individuals who can design, problem solve and create. Communication skills will permit them to demonstrate their level of self-understanding as well as the ability to persuade. Analysis of facts will be basic to the skill of synthesizing, so that the application of concepts can be transferred to a variety of situations while facilitating big-picture thinking. Empathy, an essential skill, permits understanding of the essential interactions of participants in the global community and the relationships required to prosper. Play, often seen as frivolous but necessary for balance and mental health, is necessary for the overall health of a successful society. Finally, learners must be taught to explore the meaning of being educated and seek to understand that collaboration and cooperation for the greater good is more important than accumulation of material wealth.

We are poised on the edge of relevant change in education. Respectful conversation and broader vision are needed to move the system forward. We are at the tipping point—do we have the collective will to embrace the memories, put them gently down and create change that can be productive and exciting for all involved? Yes, it is time.

(Berneice Brownell, Ed. D., is currently the superintendent at Eldred Central School. Her experience in education spans preschool through higher education. She is a native New Yorker whose public school education was the foundation for life-long learning.)

This bi-weekly column is a part of a valley-wide initiative to encourage an engaged citizenry. For a complete archive of visioning statements and for more about the visioning initiative visit upperdelaware.com.