Grades, bureaucracy and students and a vision of the future

In his paper on education, Paul Hillsdon, who was a 16 year old student when he wrote it, provides a powerful critique of education based on his experience of schooling.

He is particularly critical of these three elements: grades, bureaucracy and students.

Grades
Paul argues that grades are where we go wrong. The moment students start to focus on getting grades that’s it, the grades become the focus rather than teaching and raising of a capable child.

Bureaucracy
As schools have grown as organisations so has the bureaucracy that surrounds them. By looking inwards at the way the schools are run and organized, so focus has shifted away from the needs of the student.

Students
Children now have grown up with technology. They are not the children the education system has been designed for.

So what’s the solution?

• To rebuild the way our education system works from the ground up.
• For teachers to become the facilitators of learning
• For schools to provide experiential, project-based learning
• To develop these six skills proposed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills: critical thinking and problem solving, communication, creativity and innovation, collaboration, information and media literacy and contextual learning.

 

These are just some of the areas Paul covers in his paper, which is available to download here.

[Photo credit: evmaiden]