There is a concept in the theory of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) that suggests systems are significantly influenced by their initial conditions. Complex Adaptive Systems develop patterns of 'order' that emerge out of the seemingly chaotic 'soup' of interactions between lots and lots of 'agents' (independent agents following 'rules' to guide their behavior).
Anyone that has been involved with public education can see that the school system is a very complex system. There are a great many rules that guide the behavior of everyone involved (everyone! including parents, teachers, administrators, young people, and the communities in which schools exist).
I've been in many situations over the last 25 years where teachers and administrators were asked, what the future of school 'should be.' Or they were asked, what kinds of things would need to happen to make schools 'ideal.'
The kinds of answers that were given will not surprise anyone. These answers have been the same or similar with a few variations in almost every setting I've been in.
The kinds of things that were suggested included:
- community involvement
- parent involvement
- creativity
- personalized learning
- problem solving
- thinking skills
- alternative assessments
- choice
- brain-based learning
I could go on - but the point is, when asked, most people want the same or similar things for schools (and for the young people) but why aren't those thing happening? or better said, why aren't those things happening in a systematic and systemwide way (all of these things are happening in little bits somewhere in some school or district - but no where is the kind of schooling we need for young people to be successful in the 21st Century happening in a systemic way).
Why is that?
I would contend the reason schools and schooling is the way it is - is because of the initial conditions that were present when the idea of free public schooling was conceived. In other words, the patterns established at the early stages of the development of the schooling system are the very same patterns that make it difficult, if not impossible, for schools and schooling to do the things on the list above.
In other posts in this blog I have written about some of the original conditions.
The free public school system was created to 'school' the 20% of the young people that were too poor to attend a private (meaning a paid) school. The intention for this free public school system was to provide 'the basics' (reading, writing, and arithmetic) so that these poor young people would be good citizens and there would be less crime.
In another recent post the origins of the high school system was discussed. High schools were designed to educate about 5% of the young men in this country so they could make the connection between elementary school and higher education (college). High schools were designed to be 'feeder' schools for colleges.
From a recent article by ASCD Executive Director, Gene Carter:
This month, as high school students across the United States receive their diplomas, our failure to improve that system will be evident in the number of students who don't. Studies of graduation rates indicate that nearly one-third of high school students drop out before graduating. That means that one student drops out every 26 seconds; between 6,000 and 7,000 drop out every school day; and 1.2 million drop out every year. Among African American and Hispanic students, the graduation rate is about 55 percent, or roughly one in every two students.
Furthermore, the studies raise questions about whether the students who do graduate will be prepared with the problem-solving, critical-thinking, and oral and written communication skills needed to succeed in an increasingly global market—questions that are echoed in the public's perception of high schools as reported in last year's Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll. The poll found that 40 percent of respondents do not think most public school students leave high school prepared for college, while 50 percent think the same students do not leave school prepared to do skilled jobs.
Today the cry is to transform schools to teach 21st Century Skills. These include life and career skills, innovation and learning skills, as well as information, media and technology skills.
It is clear that schools and schooling as we know them have not changed much since their conception. Sensitivity to initial conditions - and the patterns initially established when schools were first implemented - make changing schools very difficult. Even when we know what 'should be done' it still isn't.
That makes me think that we need to change our thinking about what schools and schooling are, why they exist, and what they should do. Schools and schooling must be re-conceived and re-designed if we are to establish patterns that can be useful and successful now and in the future.
Labels: factory schools, industrial model, redesign
