21st century schools needed

Anyone who has read Tom Friedman’s “The World is Flat” or seen Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” knows that our times are radically different than they were even 10 years ago. Our children and the “yet to be born” are inheriting a world and way of living that is becoming unrecognizable. The awesome power and potential of the Internet and the new technology being created is transforming how we communicate and collaborate while at the same time we are on a collision course with destructive environmental issues the results of which are impossible to calculate.

I’m reminded of Buckminster Fuller’s words, “There is no environmental crisis, or food crisis, or energy crisis. There is a crisis of ignorance.” As an educator, those words are disturbing. Why are we so ignorant? What is it about our approach to education and our way of living on this planet that has caused this crisis?

These are complex questions that I often think about. What is it about how we have been educated and continue to educate that is not working?

According to a study conducted by the Manhattan Institute of Policy Research in 2002, nationally, 34 percent of high school students graduate without the skills and qualifications to attend college. Not only is the high school dropout rate increasing, that number does not include the number of students who stay in school, but have mentally “dropped out.”

Equally alarming is the number of students who begin college but do not graduate and the fact that the students who do not graduate as well as those who do end up with a huge debt before they even get started in getting jobs.

Ironically, most college graduates rarely find employment in the fields they majored in. According to the Economic Policy Institute, unemployment for college graduates in 2003 constitutes 5.3 percent of total unemployment and has been increasing. One of the reasons is the offshoring of white-collar jobs in information technology and financial services. This explains why there is a weaker job market and why more college graduates have to move back home with parents and take jobs for which they are overqualified such as carpenters, landscapers, waiters and waitresses

In a survey conducted by the Partnership to Public Service, 45.1 percent of college seniors expect to have a debt more than $10,000. Nellie Mae, a leading provider of higher education loans, reports the average loan debt of $30,000 and quite higher for graduate school students. This debt will increase as interest rates rise. Of the students surveyed 31.2 percent feared being unemployed and 13.4 percent feared a terrorist attack – that means their fear of unemployment is higher than their fear of terrorists.

Our young people – the ones graduating from high school not qualified for college and the college students carrying a large debt and fearing unemployment – are only part of the problem. The concern I’m raising is how to live in the 21st century.

How can we create learning environments that prepare students for their futures when we are not even certain what the future will be like? How can we overcome the “crisis of ignorance” and become educated to meet the economic and environmental challenges we are facing?

One way is to look at the present trends that are shaping the future and to ask what future do we want and what skills will we need to achieve that future. By asking those questions, we can create 21st century schools that are more relevant to the world we are living in. Right now, the emphasis on NCLB standards is stifling educators from creating relevant curricula for the 21st century.

Equally disturbing: our approach to education does not consider how the brain works and how people actually learn. Why do so many children lose their uniqueness and joy of learning?

For many students, it’s the extra-curricular activities – music, theater, sports – that excite and fully engage students. These activities bring out the best in young people and foster important skills – the ability to collaborate and commit to a high-quality performance – to do their best.

Students choose these activities and I’m convinced that if students had more choice in what they learned and classes were more project- and problem-based, more experiential and hands-on, students would develop the essential skills for the 21st century. In other words, the three Rs would be replaced by the three Cs – creative problem solving, collaboration and communication – integrating the basic skills in deeper, more relevant learning experiences.

New models for schools are being created around the country. Hi-Tech High in San Diego and spin-offs of that school are being developed. The Met and Big Picture Schools developed in Providence are also being replicated. Thirty Project Based Learning Schools under the EdVisions network have opened around the country. The Great Maine Schools Project is working at “reinventing the American High School” – all of these attempts are being funded by the Gates Foundation.

At present, however, most schools still follow an obsolete Industrial Age model. The NCLB legislation is emphasizing skills that are being learned through drill rather than developing those skills through relevant learning experiences that prepare young people for the 21st century.

We have the financial resources to create schools that build on our understanding of how children learn and the technology to offer learning experiences that bring an awareness of the challenging environmental and economic issues our children and their children will be facing. We have the financial resources in this country to lower the cost of college, eliminate student debt, have high schools that are more exciting, relevant and actually prepare students to live in more sustainable ways.

We have models and the financial resources to create 21st century schools, but unfortunately, our leaders have other priorities.

Arnold Greenberg is co-founder and director of Liberty School – A Democratic Learning Community in Blue Hill.