The structure of school

We could use the present disruption to redo education.  But we won’t.

We have often mentioned the experiences and observations of one of our consultants, who works as a part-time tutor for High School students, emphasizing preparation for college.  He has passed on his uneasiness at the highly structured, very rigid process by which teenagers are taught specific things, tested in specific ways, and sorted into institutions of higher learning. We are impressed both by the importance attached to details (taking Algebra II Honors versus regular) and by the lock-step progression (Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Precalculus, Calculus).  And we share his suspicion of standardized tests.

We are not specialists in education, but we have taught in a variety of formal and informal settings.  Perhaps more important, we have learned many things in many different ways.  We’ve gone through the standard lecture-quiz-test classes, among two dozen other students; picked up things in seminars and discussions; read textbooks and papers; polished our French in evening classes.  On a fellowship to the Agency for International Development, one of us went to one- and two-week training courses that were structured more like games than anything else.  We’ve concluded, not surprisingly, that there are many ways to learn, that different students learn in different ways, and different subjects are best handled in different ways.  In other words, a rigid structure attentive to details is certainly not the best way to go.  And one can become highly educated without a formal qualification.

Now the system has been thoroughly disrupted.  Over much of the world classes have not met for months, and may not for months yet.  Students are having to learn from on-line videos and lectures, with minimal contact (from teachers or other students).  There is much discussion and debate about how best to administer the standardized tests, assign grades, conduct virtual classes, adjust the college-application process to the new reality; to say nothing of actually going to college.

In some ideal universe, this would be an excellent opportunity to step back and rethink the whole process of education.  We could escape from the established structure, at least for a time, and try to work out something different.  Perhaps something with more diverse paths and methods of learning could be devised, something less dependent upon each student checking a certain set of boxes on the application form and being sorted into a certain slot.

Of course it won’t happen.  Teachers at every level, almost without exception underpaid and overworked already, are scrambling to provide something for their students at short notice, with few resources, often without the technical skills necessary for the new situation.  And few school districts had the resources to properly execute the old model; anything new, more flexible, more diverse would almost certainly be more expensive.

But maybe the students can start thinking outside the structure.  They are being forced to be more self-reliant in their learning; perhaps they can also be more self-reliant about the whole process, and what they accomplish with it.  At least they may realize that the way we’re doing it is not the only possible way.