School in the Clouds

 This ted talk makes me think about how young people in school today (my students) constantly ask me- why do we have to know this? Why do we have to learn math when we carry calculators in our pockets? Why does handwriting and grammar matter when everything is typed and there is autocorrect? It was interesting to hear that how we determined what children must be good at dates back to 300 years ago. According to Mitra, students needed to be good at handwriting, multiplication, and division. It is interesting that these skills are outdated in today’s digital world, and yet the criteria for determining what students should be good at has not really changed… Mitra says, “a machine that no longer exists.” He also touches upon education building identical people. This notion has been explored many times in my teacher education classes, that rather than fostering individuality, traditional education can conversely crush individuality and teach one way of thinking or one way of operating/producing something. This is also no longer relevant in a digital age where children create constantly and are exposed to such diverse content that inspires individuality. I agree that the education system is obsolete, as Mitra says, because public schools are still running based on the traditional education system to produce the machine. In reality, handwriting is obsolete, and memorizing your times tables is as well. 

Kids constantly say to me that school isn’t important anymore. I adamantly disagreed as a middle school teacher, arguing about the importance of literacy in all content areas. Then I taught in a vocational high school with future welders and chefs and for the first time saw their point of view. One certain student in particular made great points about how he was going to be a successful welder and didn’t need to waste his time writing a 5-paragraph essay on Romeo and Juliet. I saw his point. I thought- it builds character, it teaches time management… but at the end of the day, if he was able to convey to me the play’s theme and discuss main ideas explored in the play… why does he have to write in a traditional MLA formatted essay about whether or not Romeo and Juliet are to blame for their own deaths??  When Mitra says that the education system is great, “we just don’t need it anymore,” that struck something in me because perhaps not every kid does need to write a 5 paragraph MLA essay on Shakespeare in 9th grade, especially with a smart phone and AI that can paraphrase any Shakespearean play in seconds. As he talks about jobs today, it made me think of the same students who would say, “I’m never going to need to know this for my job” or “how is this going to help me in my future job?” While it is true that it is more difficult, and pays less, to get a job in the humanities, I stand my ground that ELA teaches empathy and other life-important skills, but if it doesn’t talk money to kids, or prepare them for the work force, they often do not see the importance of it. 

When Mitra talks about self-organizing education, that inspired me. Instead of making learning happen, learning will happen if self-governed and self-organized. SOLE (self-organized learning environments)