An Educator's Manifesto: What Is School For, Anyway?

I just watched a TEDx video where Seth Godin spoke of stealing dreams and asked the question, "What is school for?" He claims that our industrialized school experience has stolen the imagination of our children and robbed our future generations of choice, ownership, voice, and authentic learning. He sounds a bit bold, but is he wrong?

My personal experience in the public school system, as I have learned of late, was very different from the norm. My mother spent the night in front of a school named Booker T. Washington in order to guarantee a spot in a magnet program funded through a grant with great amounts of money. They only took 100 students a year, and I was afforded the opportunity to be one of those children. In this program, I would develop a love of learning, experience meaningful field trips, investigate the world around me and the issues it faces, and design products to publish to a public audience. The world was my oyster! I remember traveling to NASA, participating in flight simulations, creating hi-tech audio presentations, and building robots to solve everyday problems, and this was in the 90s! The equipment was state-of-the-art and so were the teachers that were chosen to facilitate this endeavor. The result? I became an intrinsically motivated person that took feedback, modified my learning, and continued to explore new challenges with a happy heart and a smile. I know I sound like I am bragging, but I literally became a person that tackled risks simply because I knew it would make me a better person in the future and would build my repertoire of knowledge and skills.

Fast forward 30 years, I am now an educator in that same public school system that has long-since terminated the magnet program and the wool has been pulled from my eyes. I have witnessed the complete opposite of what I experienced. Children are being assigned one-size-fits-all lessons with no opportunity for thinking outside the box. As a teacher, I made sure to implement engaging lessons with elements of interest, relevance, and open-ended thinking. I jumped on the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) bus as soon as it became a trend, traveling to conferences, modeling for anyone that would listen, and spear-heading some campus-wide events that brought much success. I presented at regional conferences that focused on STEM and created materials for willing participants. I even ventured as far as a state-wide technology conference where I showed people how to use technology to engage students in cross-curricular learning. I did all of this in hopes to start a movement where educators are not afraid to take risks in the name of education. I want teachers to feel comfortable with new technology and strategies. I strive each day to make a positive change in the people I encounter, and I feel that my goal in life is to instill a growth mindset, help others feel at ease with technology, and encourage the motto of, "Everything is fun if you let it."

The issue with public education today is that our funding comes from big companies with deep pockets and a monopoly on curriculum and standardized testing. Without a change in our system, it is difficult to make significant changes within the classrooms. There are educators out there that are going against the grain, implementing an authentic learning journey for their students, and developing soft skills that are imperative when gaining a meaningful career in today's world. These skills include problem-solving, effective communication, collaboration, perseverance, and responsibility to name a few. We now have computers that perform massive algorithms for many calculations so the industrial way of thinking is obsolete. Our generation needs to produce thinkers that can tackle problems such as hunger, global warming, and cancer. You cannot solve those issues by memorizing multiplication facts or applying the Pythagorean Theorem.

Another issue we face is that the definition of "implementing educational technology" is extremely subjective. Many educators believe that giving a student a website with math games on it will suffice. This, I believe, was never the intent for educational technology. These students should be developing the games on a math website, videoing student tutorials to share with the world, creating a robot that does calculations for them, or even building their own computer so that they can present information to the class. We have dumbed down our society to the point that we are so connected, but we have no idea how or why. We could be collaborating with literally anyone in the world, and yet our students play "Fraction Pizza Restaurant" on a website with a misaligned curriculum. We have missed the point of what educational technology truly is in the classroom.

So I will ask again, what is school for, anyway? Is it for passing a standardized, multiple-choice test that determines the amount of funding a public school will receive? Is it for having a place to put children during the day while their parents work? Is it for sitting six feet apart while not socializing, repetitive hand-washing, and independent work on a Google Slide presentation? Or is it something else? My purpose in this field is to extend my reach as far as possible to encourage the proper use of educational technology in the classroom with collaboration, networking, designing new products, and developing true connections that foster a love of learning. Is that too much to ask? We shall see.