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The Gaffer's Philosophy:
Part 59: Graduation and Higher Education:
July 14, 2003:
The question arises, in a completely dynamic system of primary
education, when is a student finished? Let's follow a student
though our system where his interest guides his study group choices.
The first two years are simple enough. The student arrives at
the school and is placed in a particular room with a group of
about 20 other students. This is and will remain the student's
homeroom for some time. It is a safe place where he will check
in each day when he arrives. In charge of that room is the student's
guide. So far so good.
Near the end of the second year, because of his involvement in communication and investigation he will have developed some interests. As he does, his guide will help him to focus on investigating things pertinent to those interests. As he begins his third year, his guide will help him select elective study groups where he can learn more about his subjects of interest.
As his learning continues, his interests will develop and change over time. That is to be expected. Over time all healthy people become interested in many different things. Think about it. Did you used to enjoy bridge? So did I. Now I find it boring. We change, our interests change. This is even more true of children who are much more dynamic.
Eventually, our student will discover a fit and begin to focus in a specific area. He will begin to expand his elective study group involvements to acquire the tools he needs to underpin his interest. If he is interested in astronomy or music, he will discover that the underlying structure can only be understood in terms of mathematical relationships. By golly, he will need to get into a math study group.
Now this student need not be limited to the primary guide he began with. As he gets older and more advance he will probably graduate to a higher level advisor or guide. He will move to a different homeroom, perhaps even a different building. This new guide will be someone with a more specialized background who can help him focus or specialize as he wishes. So our student continues growing and building his tool set, always guided by his own interests. As the kid evolves the guide will be someone he comes to see rather than someone he has to show up for. At some time the homeroom, guide and even the institution will become superfluous.
Eventually, after many studies and investigations, our student will reach the point where he realizes that the k-12 environment has no more to give him. Even with specialized study groups, he will have acquired a full background in his areas of interest. I expect, that will be way beyond the point where k-12 ends now. It will be what we now call college and even graduate studies. Now, to go beyond that the student must become his own guide.
So, he is finished with his basic education and he must matriculate or graduate. He, with the support of his family and advisor-guide well select the time. Graduation probably will not be a public affair. He may be the only one matriculating on that particular day from that particular facility. So graduation will be a family and friends affair and will happen when the student is ready.
This will not be a certain date or time in the person's life. It will be a culmination of a process. This will probably occur at a much younger age than we would now think possible. There will be one graduate, not a gang of people graduating all together ready or not. It will be the coming out or coming of age for the student, much like a bar mitzvah. He assumes adult status in the world. He also gets an official certificate if he wants one to hang on his wall. Of course, he will continue on his own seeking different sources of knowledge. He will have acquired the tools and developed the habits of investigation for education. He will also be prepared to participate in the large community. He will be ready to create or seek employment of some kind.
However, what our student will not have is a particular skill set for a particular occupation. He will have a broad background with specific knowledge in his particular areas of interest. This is an important difference from what we do now. I think our kids should follow their interests and learn a great deal as they go along. What they should not do is focus on acquiring a particular skill set. That is a final early employment or preemployment step. In our fast moving technological culture, skill requirements come and go like popcorn. It is a waste of time, and will become even more so, to acquire a skill set before it is needed. The responsibility for specialized training must shift to the employing organizations.
Industry will have an enormous problem with this at first. They will no longer be able to rely on universities as their first filter. They will have to implement programs for figuring out who can do what they want done, and who wants to do it. They will no longer be able to freeload off of the system. They will have to provide their own resources for grooming people for their particular environment. Some enlightened companies make attempts at that already. However, even they are bound by the conventional thinking of curricula driven training.
Now, it is important to realize that education should never end. If we support the natural bend of our kids, it never will. They will always be curious and always seeking answers. Education should never end, but there is a point beyond which the cost becomes the responsibility of the student rather than the community.
We cannot say anything meaningful about higher education at this time. Surely it will change profoundly when we start turning out highly educated geniuses from our basic system. We won't know what they will need or where they will go from basic education. We cannot even know that basic education will be thirteen years long. It may or may not end earlier. Perhaps what we call higher education will merge into it. Where we go from there the students will have to decide. We cannot do it for them because we are too ignorant. I suspect the students will just direct their own education working with their peers. The student will become his own guide as the only one who has a clue as to what he needs. He will have to seek out the experts.
I doubt if higher education, whatever it becomes, will need rah, rah football teams or competitive sports of any kind. We probably will not need special institutions anyhow. Universities and phony rah, rah enthusiasm will become superfluous. Professional athletics will become completely divorced from education. I think they will fade away. If they survive at all they will become the province of the primitive mind.
So, in my notion of education, higher education becomes more
of a mentor affair. Then we must wonder how research gets done.
We can be sure industry will do self serving research. But, there
should always be directed research toward larger goals. That can
only happen well when we have superior people in government. Currently,
that kind of directed research is money wasted. It becomes pork
barrel. Real directed research would be for things like alternative
energies, exploration, and medicine. There will be more on government
responsibility in research in a future essay.
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