We have this existential choice in education. Do we put our priority on engaging and inspiring
our students and teachers or testing and measuring them. And when somebody says we need to do
both I say you can’t do both. You know once you start putting numbers out in newspapers
in performance review, once it’s a numbers driven education system the inspiration and
engagement is gone.
When you do an experiment the very process of observation does change what you’re observing
so I’d be very curious of what your thoughts are about that.
I think part of what you’re observing is the confidence that the kids have with self
expression and with speaking to adults and speaking to cameras and I see that here as
well. You know today I had lunch with four Fellows who are in the Fellows program and
every one of them went down and talked about what they were doing and it was with such
incredible poise, confidence, so articulate. That’s what happens when you activate people
and allow them to realize their potential and treat them respect and give them the opportunity
to have high expectations of themselves and let them live up to them. You know we so underestimate
what students and people are capable of doing if you give them permission to be creative
and collaborative. And so I think the film in some ways… you know I didn’t make the
film so I’m just speculating that that’s what we’re seeing as well. It’s not just
that the walls were open and the kids were used to having people come by but that they
really have self confidence that they wouldn’t get in any other way except to be trusted
and allow their own learning like they are.
What I’m wondering is, why are we not seeing it on a larger scale a lot of time.
You know there are sparks and embers of great learning going on in all schools across our
state. How do we turn them into a bonfire? And what I find is, just as in higher-ed,
right, there’s Evergreen…
And regarding the question of ‘why so slow to change’ I think is a very complex one.
I mean we’re talking about an institution that’s roughly over a hundred years old
in this country that’s rooted in all sorts of things. I really feel like right now there’s
an ongoing battle over sort of the common sense understanding about public education,
particularly K-12 public education in this country, and there’s a very sort of stereotypical
quote-unquote American pragmatism around numbers and efficiency. There’s a whole framing
about education that we just cannot seem to let go of. The thing is this. For the folks
that I work with, to put it bluntly, I feel like we are outgunned. It’s very interesting
to see like, take any of the various state legislatures across this country, a lot of
those folks vision of education is this narrow thing and they come from a very particular
sector of the business community to and I feel like they just won’t here anything
outside of a particular paradigm.
I hear people constantly saying that K-12 education will not change until college entrance
requirements change. I know Evergreen is completely different. I didn’t go to Evergreen.
My husband did and I love what Evergreen stands for but most colleges, the majority of colleges
still have these requirements that rely on an index score which is your GPA combined
with your standardized test score. And then high schools feel this responsibility to prepare
their kids for these tests and we at the middle school… so it’s just this cycle. So how
did these kids at High Tech High, 98 percent of them get into colleges without jumping
through these hoops and what have you seen the influence on higher education?
I think you’re just really stating the problem and I agree with what you said and it’s
a very scary situation because it’s this huge Catch 22. Whose going to break the cycle
and I tend to agree. I mean you can blame the parents, you can blame the system, you
can blame the standardized testing, companies. I don’t think there is any one culprit.
I think it is a whole system of interrelated dependencies that are wrong. But I do believe
like Ted that it’s going to be broken through the economy. And I think that’s what’s
different about this film from other films is that it’s really stating this economic
problem that it is unsustainable to our economy that we’re turning out people who don’t
have the right skills for the times. So it’s not going to be an easy fix but I do believe
that it’s going to just work out eventually and it’s going to be painful and it’s
going to be messy.
I think that regardless if whether the purpose is to earn money or the purpose is to just be fulfilled
human beings that this approach is the better approach.