here's what one of my teachers emailed me Hi -------,
He (Dave I think?) is definitely an entertaining, intelligent individual. I’d be happy to chat school politics with you at some point, as would probably most of the teachers on this list. However, here are a few brief notes of mine.
I agree with one of his viewer’s comments in that his hashtag (#don’t-stay-in-school) is a poor one that doesn’t represent the point of his original song. Perhaps #make-school-more-relevant might be a better choice.
If you research it (like he was doing with his Finnish documentary), I think you’ll find that several school systems (Scandinavian, Canadian, etc) do have altered school systems, where the students finish early (12 – 16) and then choose paths from there, whether they be vocational (hands-on jobs), college-prep (where they would take more advanced Algebra, English, etc.), or other routes.
Don’t forget that a lot of what high schools (at least in the USA) teach are dictated by colleges. It would be awesome if we allowed students, by their freshman year, to pick a career choice/idea and pursue it. However, at this time and age, the average adult changes careers at least 5 times (that number could be high – too lazy to back up my info with a source), so the issue comes up when suddenly an 18 year-old decides to switch careers. Now, instead of being a mechanic, he wants to be a mechanical engineer. Being a mechanic, let’s assume he took very few math classes, and by freshman year, the furthest he got was Algebra 1. Now, he gets to backtrack and somehow (colleges don’t teach math that low!) remediate 4 years of math before he can get into college, and then, take another 4 years of math there. Wouldn’t it have been easier if he at least had the pre-requisite math classes to get into college so he didn’t have to start at ground zero? The long-winded point I’m trying to make is, yes, high school goes a bit into the impractical with upper-level classes. However, we have to give every student a fighting chance to go to college because who are we to say you shouldn’t go? In fact, are you ready at 14 (wise in your ways you may be) to say, “Eh, college isn’t for me.” Remember, generally where we leave off in our teaching is where colleges start their courses.
I, and probably almost every other teacher ever, would love to see more classes taught that address important life issues. However, I don’t see those classes replacing all of our current ones, as 1.) I think you’d be hard pressed to find enough content to completely fill 180 days x 6 hours a day of school each year, and 2.) See my above comment about going to college, which is still important with regards to many extremely important types of jobs.
Does our, and probably every, education system need a major overhaul? Absolutely. However, it’s not going to happen overnight, and it won’t be easy to change a 100+ year old institution. It’s nice to see the attention that his videos brought towards this topic, and even nicer to see it resonate with you J If you, or others, have ideas on changing the future of our education system, try to get them out there! It takes a large part (or maybe the correct part) of our population wanting something to actually get that thing changed. The more it’s spoken about, the more likely it is to get noticed.
As always, best wishes,