Roughly two decades ago, I read my college freshman English assignment and discovered that I would need to write an extensive research paper arguing for a topic of my choosing. Before beginning, I sheepishly submitted my topic to my professor for approval, believing that she would think its obscure nature quite crazy. Despite my hesitancy, she wholeheartedly approved it, and over the next few months, I carefully formed pages of arguments on why American education should return to the concept of the one-room school.
Let’s be clear: I had nothing to do with this idea coming to fruition. However, my point is that allegedly crazy ideas from normal people like me can actually have legs. And sometimes, simply verbalizing those crazy ideas and then trying them to see if they work just might be what’s needed to change education for the better.
Play Faculty Musical Chairs
Mr. Postman’s first line of attack for improved education is to shake up the teachers.“We could improve the quality of teaching overnight, as it were, if math teachers were assigned to teach art, art teachers science, science teachers English,” he wrote.
In doing so, teachers are thrust out of their comfort zones and challenged to look at subjects through new eyes—often the eyes of an amateur who must himself study to stay one step ahead of his students.
Such an action forces the teacher “to see the situation as most students do,” thereby creating greater sympathy or connection between students and teachers, while also forcing the teacher to innovate, think outside the box, and bring instruction down to the bottom shelf, so to speak, thus increasing understanding for students who struggle in said subject.
Ditch the Textbooks
Mr. Postman’s second revolutionary idea to improve education hits at the sacrosanct tomes that nearly every teacher makes the central part of his curriculum: textbooks.The first reason for such a drastic move is that textbooks are boring and inhuman. Although the cut-and-dry, consolidated format of textbooks likely makes classroom preparation easier for teachers, these characteristics automatically disengage a student, convincing him that learning should be low on his list of priorities.
However, worse is that textbooks hide the bias of the writer, “presenting the facts of the case ... as if there can be no disputing them, as if they are fixed and immutable.” This leaves the student with little choice but to be the empty head into which knowledge is poured, whereas an education not dependent upon textbooks and the allegedly nonbiased facts that they contain forces students to engage with ideas and look at all sides of a viewpoint before “[stumbling] toward the truth.”
Turn Students Into Detectives
The final recommendation that Mr. Postman makes is geared more toward the higher grades and seeks to train students to discern between fact and opinion, truth and fiction.Many teachers today pontificate from the podium, Mr. Postman explained, often passing their ideas and opinions off as facts for students to mindlessly ingest. However, students will learn better if teachers purposely insert opinions and errors into their instruction, letting students know that they'll be doing this and instructing them to watch for such errors to pop up. Once spotted, students must research other ideas, discuss them with their peers, and then present them the next time that class rolls around.
This course of action creates excitement and interest as students stay on their toes, looking for “gotcha” moments to bring to their teachers. It teaches students to not trust everything someone in authority tells them but to test all words and actions for truth. It also trains them to debate and discuss issues with their peers, defending their ideas and teaching one another in the process.
Starting at Home
Does it seem unlikely that such radical ideas will ever be infused into the classroom? Yes, but then we would have said the same about microschools once upon a time, and look what happened with them!The fact is, education will never change for the better unless we’re willing to come up with crazy, innovative ideas that operate outside the restricted norms and then take a risk and try them, not only in our schools but in our homes as well.
So start small! Teach your kids something that you don’t know much about yourself. If nothing else, it'll show your children that someone is never too old—nor too proud—to learn.
Pick a topic that your children are learning about in school from textbooks—say, the Revolutionary War—and begin reading historical fiction books with them. Chances are, they’ll get caught up in the emotion and story and soon know more about the subject than their teachers.
We can improve education; we just have to be the first ones to take the crazy steps to try allegedly radical ideas.
