How the Past Effects the Present: The History of U.S. Schools

***This is Part I of a “Lost Blog Post” Series.  Over the few weeks I will be completing unfinished blog posts from topics from throughout the semester. Enjoy!

Recently, I took a Gallop StrengthQuest Assessment.  This exercise was a personality assessment of sorts that listed out my top strengths as a leader.  In my Top 5 Strengths, “Context” was listed. As an individual who identifies with the context strength, I believe that “the answers to the future lie in studying the past.” I will use my strength of context to analyze the past in order to develop solutions for the future.  To do this, I will examine both the Graves text Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk presentation which both address the history of instruction in American schools. 

Graves on the History of American Education

Within Chapter 2 of the Graves text, the American education history is briefly explored (Pg. 40-44).  The colonial period of America (from 1600 to 1840) emphasized content with a primary focus being religion.  Reading was largely taught on a need to know basis to survive socially and religiously.  In the years during and after the American Revolution, for political reasons, reading and reading education took a more patriotic approach. Starting in 1840, Horace Mann, the individual responsible for compulsory primary education in America, began to develop a method based on whole words and letter sounds that lasted for half a century.  In the early 1900s, basal readers were developed that promoted vocabulary words through repetition and pictures first appeared and were used for most of the century. The current trends in reading education tend to focus on implementing technology in the classroom to provide a stronger focus on phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency.  However, due to lack of training and funding, many of the new and proven educational methods are not being implemented in classrooms.

Sir Ken Robinson

 In his famous TED Talk, Sir Ken Robinson discusses the history of American education in his “Changing Educational Paradigms” speech. Robinson opens by pointing out that preparing students to have the skills to survive in an economy that we cannot even predict will look like at the end of the week is a challenge.  However, it is impossible to try to meet the educational needs of the future by doing what we have done in the past. The current system was designed for a different age, the age of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.  At this time, students were in large part being trained in schools the basic skills they would need for factory jobs.  As a result, students come out of schools good at following instructions, but lack creativity.  In addition, they know a little about a lot, but lack deep understanding of anything. He goes on to compare schools to a factory setting with ringing bells, set shifts, and separate facilities.  He also points out education separates by batches of age group not necessarily ability levels.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html

Taking Action

Clearly, American educational practices need to change in order to support the varying needs of students. While our current educational structure may of worked at a previous time, its methods are now clearly outdated. In this technological age where creativity and innovation are so important, our schools need to work to promote such thought.

While many know that this system needs change, the American political system lacks the motivation or the funding to make a difference. Much like the current issues the United States faces with our rising debt, Social Security Reform, and Medicare reform, it is much easier to ignore the problems with our nation’s public schools than tackle the issues head on. The outdated structure of our educational needs updated.  The best way we have to fix these issues is to educate the public about the problem and possible issues.  The more the public is educated on issues regarding Education, the more pressure will be applied to our lawmakers, which will hopefully incite more action to be taken.