A Must See Video - Making Schools the Nexus of Community Activity

This link below is a must see video by an architect that designs schools. This is one of the best and most understated presentations I've ever seen about the possibilities for redesigning schools to be integrated into the community and a 'nexus' of activity.

http://www.schoolsmovingup.net/mpstudy/movies/movie3.html

He describes something that is actually a great opportunity - some day - to do an invitational design process with experts from different domains in a community. He calls it a NEXUS development team with experts in 6 domains (that make up a community). He defines something amazingly reasonable and possible to do. This is something every community in the US should be considering right now.

It's one of the most inspiring views of transforming public schooling I've seen in a very, very long time.

Industrial versus Knowledge Based

In a very early post to this blog I wrote about the hierarchic organizational model and how model is out of sync with the current environment the education system finds itself a part of.

One of the best arguments for reinventing public education is that it is still very much the same as it was when it was designed and it is out of touch with the current world - what to say of the world of tomorrow. The public school system was designed to produce factory workers (as stated previously).

In a recent interview with Edutopia Alvin Toffler explains his point of view about what might need to be done with the public school system. In the article he says, in answer to the question, How does that system fit into a world where assembly lines have gone away?

It doesn't. The public school system is designed to produce a workforce for an economy that will not be there. And therefore, with all the best intentions in the world, we're stealing the kids' future.

In the article he poses several questions

Do I have all the answers for how to replace it? No. But it seems to me that before we can get serious about creating an appropriate education system for the world that's coming and that these kids will have to operate within, we have to ask some really fundamental questions. And some of these questions are scary. For example: Should education be compulsory? And, if so, for who? Why does everybody have to start at age five? Maybe some kids should start at age eight and work fast. Or vice versa. Why is everything massified in the system, rather than individualized in the system? New technologies make possible customization in a way that the old system -- everybody reading the same textbook at the same time -- did not offer.

Some of the answers to these questions might lead us to a system that is customized for each individual and where there is No One Right Answer for public education. In the article he also espouses several ideas I've discussed and will discuss further in future posts - integrating 'school' into life and the community.

To read the entire interview, click here...