a better vision for education
spent lunch today talking with colleagues about alternative visions for education. growing up, i often felt like school drained my deep intrinsic curiosity and instead trained me to do exactly the bare minimum required to get a 92.51% in the class.
i think it would be so cool if high schools were re-oriented around long term projects driven by student interests, with tutors helping students dig deep into a topic they have genuine interest in, and using that topic as a foundation for multi-disciplinary learning. i think essentially any topic a student chose could provide rich opportunities for learning anything - a student interested in sneakers and sneaker culture could learn about chemistry, materials science, and climate through the petroleum-derived plastics in polyester and other foams in most shoes. they could learn about global trade, supply chains, and manufacturing automation. he could learn about unit economics, pricing, and business strategy. they could learn about sociology, cultural diffusion, and urban history. tutors could connect students with active professionals working in relevant fields (if we had a collective social commitment to educate the next generation).
i deeply believe everything is richly interested if studied up close. so much is lost in our current system with a linear curriculum of “do it because I say so” work sheet style learning, and it doesn’t prepare kids to become high agency, creative, autonomous adults.