Rates of Change – What does all this mean for public schooling?
One of the arguments I have for re-inventing public schooling is the rapid rate of changes taking place in society. Schools and schooling are the most disconnected institutions we have on the planet. By disconnected I mean, what is taking place inside of schools is disconnected from what is taking place outside of schools.
Sure there has been a push to get technology into schools – but that technology has been viewed and used under the same fundamental operating principle that is driving all schooling (control and compliance) and the methodologies technology has been applied to are the same fundamental concepts as traditional teaching (sit and get; drill and practice).
There is a large amount of data from many sectors of our economy and society that demonstrates increasing rates of change moving towards exponential rates of change. We see increasing rates of change in global population, in consumption of resources, and increasing pollution. We see the same types of changes in the use of technologies like fax machines, cell phones, computers, and the internet. The amount of data being digitized and stored on computers somewhere in the world has followed a similar curve.
Over the last 100 years the system of public schooling (including colleges and universities) has changed some but very little compared to the rest of society. This gap, which we can call an Opportunity Gap, continues to grow. The longer we wait to make necessary changes the worse it will get. And this gap actually explains a lot of what people are experiencing today in public schooling.
Every organization in the world is facing the challenge of managing within this environment of rapid change. In the competitive environment the amount of pressure on companies to adopt and stay competitive is quite significant. Product life cycles for consumer electronics companies in some competitive markets have shrunk from 18 – 24 months to around 6 months and some companies complete the entire cycle from concept, through development, through to the end of a products life in that time period.
More significant for leaders and managers of organizations (especially large ones) is having an understanding of the impact this kind of environment has on ‘how they manage.’ How you manage in an organization that is moving fast – staying up to speed with the rate of change – is different from how you manage in an organization that is moving slower. And managing a slower moving organization that is attempting to close the Opportunity Gap is different still.
Partly because of the fact that schools have been kept separate from the rest of society, and partly because of the slow moving changes within the schooling system, the managers and leaders in that environment have not felt the same kinds of pressures as business leaders. Until recently society has not demanded these leaders to have the same kind of competence. But that luxury is quickly being eroded. Pressure from the outside is growing and the skill sets of school leaders will be challenged significantly.
Here’s a short video that makes the argument for re-inventing schools better than I could with pages or writing:
3 comments
Hey Michael,
I read your blog and wonder what type of idea you have for how the educational system can catch up and keep pace with today’s technology? It is difficult in this country to sell the importance of re-vamping our educational systems. Where is the money going to come from? In fact, over the past couple of decades programs are being deleted from our schools because there is no money to support them. Imo, I think we need to go to private institutions rather than public educational systems and try to sell a voucher system once again or perhaps something similar. That takes the lack of accountability out of the equation since private institutions will be competing with others and it would behoove them to keep up with the latest information and knowledge to sell their school over others.
I do mention this in my blog essay entitled the Power of Educational Empowerment @ http://kimberlyellman.blogspot.com
With respect to the YouTube video, what sticks in my mind the most with regard to your thesis, is the fact that the knowledge a IT 4-year-degree student obtains in the 1st year of college will be outdated by the 3rd year of their education. Wow, all the more reason for updated school system as well as continuing education. What is scary is the exponential growth of the human population on an earth that can not possible sustain such an increase. Our resources are already low and if it continues @ the current pace, I’m afraid education will be the last on anyone’s list of important problems. We will be solving the problem of no food, living space, energy resources, etc.
A P.S., if you will…. Believe it or not, the solution to the population growth of the human race on our planet is EDUCATION…. educate the women and people of other countries about birth control and educate them to become productive members of their societies rather than staying at home making babies…
I appreciate your comments. You have a number of ideas that are important. For me, the most important change we need is in the way we think about what schools and schooling are. I have said in this blog that a large part of the problem is that we have a schooling system and NOT an education system. I believe there needs to be a complete change in the way we think in order to even come close to creating an government sponsored, public education system.
Young people keep up with the pace of change in the ‘rest of their lives’ but then come to schools and have to sit still and have content thrown at them. They are not engaged and don’t see the connection to the rest of their lives. For those that can, they figure out how to play the system and make it through. For those that can’t they drop out – even if they are physically still in school.
The idea of introducing market forces into the current schooling system will only make things worse. The whole concept of a free public schooling system needs to be rethought first.
Leave a Comment