We always hear how America is now ranked 35th or whatever in math in the world. Other countries are now better than us and America is falling behind!!! So what?
What if that’s not a bad thing?
What if that’s happening because our kids are getting more creative and have found better things to do than follow boring rules and studying for standardized tests?
I think everyone should have foundational skills in all areas, but you can’t be the best in everything. Maybe we should focus on being the best innovators rather than the best rule followers.
Robots and computers are, after all, very good at following rules.
Interesting perspective. I’m a fan of the idea of letting people explore–doing so helped me develop skills more valuable than taking tests. However, we need to be able to measure our success. What key performance indicators for our educational system would you suggest?
Definitely true. Developing the KPI’s would be a challenge because I would dream of a curriculum that emphasized personalization rather than standardization. I would look to how forward-thinking, project-based schools measure success. It might end up being a bit more fuzzy, like projects spun out, passion projects worked on or something along those lines.