Why The Arts Will Become Much More Important In The Next Few Years

If you're an artist you already know the reasoning behind this. Unfortunately, for many schools, they have focused so long on Math and Science that they have really done a lot of damage to upcoming generations. Of course, it hasn't been 100% the fault of the schools. Most of it has come from the pressure put on schools by the No Child Left Behind Act to perform "Adequately" in Math and Science.

If not voluntarily, then schools will change their focus by sheer necessity in the near future. I'll tell you right away that I am an art teacher and a musician. I also do scene design work with our theatre department. So, admittedly, I'm a bit biased towards the arts. However, I believe I'm right on when I say that our education systems have been heavily out of balance with a dominance towards "core subjects," such as Math and Science. If there were any subject that should be a core subject it is Art due to its inherent nature to teach students to be creative and innovative thinkers. Math and Science have there place, but they are essentially worthless without the capacity to think creatively.

The thing that many people forget (or more likely because they have never been taught) is that at the heart of mathematics and scientific thinking is curiosity and uncertainty. Pioneers in both of those fields were essentially artists. They were curious about the world in which they lived. They developed systematic ways of thinking in order to try to understand the phenomenon around them. They were creators of theories and formulas and rational systems of thought. But we don't teach that to our students. We teach them to follow the formulas of those artists in order to get the "right" answers. Somehow the fact that these are just tools to use gets interpreted as if they are the only ways to frame one's perspective. We have developed a bunch of followers, and very few leaders.

We live in a very diverse world. On top of that, it is changing continually at an incredible pace. It is essential to become comfortable with ambiguity. Artists know how to deal with ambiguity. As the world changes, new ways of framing issues becomes necessary. This is what artists do. There are no formulas for us. We create things as needed. Artists are designers. We value the process as much as the product. Life is a process. We must value it as such. The work must always be refined and we have to be okay with the fact that we never fully reach our visions, but we must continually strive to come closer with each transformation of our work. As a society, that's how we progress as well.

Our world today is one in which we can find information instantly. Most rational thought processes will eventually be replicated by computer technology, many already have been replaced. However, human beings are very complicated creatures. We're more than just logic processers. All of those aspects of humanity such as: intuition, emotions, and spirituality, are developed through the arts. They cannot be replicated by computers. The only way we can become complete is to cultivate those aspects of ourselves. Our current systems of education are failing at this, for the most part. Ironically, we're not doing so well with the rational thought processes either. We desperately need a balance of both types of thinking.

As employers increasingly realize that they need innovative thinkers, we'll have to better serve the creative sides of our students' abilities. As we come to the realization that most of the jobs that our students will have don't even exist today, we'll have to teach our students to understand that the world doesn't just happen, we create it. They don't have to follow the paths that have already been laid out. They may have to create a new path.

The schools of the future will have to realize these facts and adjust accordingly. If we fail to do so, our public schools will cease to exist. However, I have faith that educators will be able to transform ourselves as we need to. We'll just have to get the bureaucracy out of the way.

NCLB Left Behind?

Today President Obama granted waivers to 10 states to be exempted from No Child Left Behind. That's a great victory for those states. Now, we can only hope that the state governments don't impose as ridiculous demands as NCLB imposed upon schools, since they are required to design their own accountability measures. I have hope, though, that this is the beginning of a greater era in education.

The Most Likely Scenario

I remember one of my first professional development sessions as a newly hired teacher about 10 years ago. I was in a group of 3-4 other teachers, and the Principal asked us to envision what the school of the future will look like. Our task was to actually draw what we thought it would look like. I remember thinking, "OK, I got this. I'm an art teacher. This should be no problem." I can draw anything. The thing I never expected was that I would eventually draw everything. I drew the school building,but then we began discussing field trips. So, I drew a post office and a zoo. I drew a doctor's office and a park. We discussed how kids would get to school. So I drew bike paths and bus routes. Soon, we had an entire community on our chart paper. This was the school of the future, and it was so integrated into the community that it became indistinguishable from all other aspects of daily living.

As I think back on the conversation we had that resulted in that vision of the future I realize we were essentially right on. The brick and mortar schools we occupy today will soon be relics of the past. We live in a mobile society that is getting more mobile each day. The digitalizaion of the world has allowed most jobs to be performed, not only from home, but literally from anywhere in the world. We skype, tweet, text, blog, and post status updates all day long. Students won't tolerate sitting in a classroom for 8 hours each day for much longer, nor should they.

Even when I was in college, there were classes offered outside the classroom. The technology is now outdated, just 12 years later. However, we have grown a lot from those early experiments in distance education. I even took 2 of those early video classes. They were nothing more than a video taped lecture version of the actual class. I met with my teacher one time at the end of the semester. The rest of the time I watched the videos and took the written assessments that were given to me along with the videos, which I mailed to my teacher each week. It was a horrible model for learning, but it was an early step in liberating the students from having to take a class at a particular time and location.

If we fast forward to 2012 it's easy to see how that concept can be applied using our current technology to be adapted into an engaging and meaningful experience. Just think about the rapid pace of technological advancement that is occurring and imagine the possibilities in 10 years, or 20 years. At some point, the line between school and the rest of life will be almost gone completely.

The role of teachers is already changing. We are no longer dispensers of knowledge. The best ones understand that we have to engage students in meaningful experiences that are authentic. I always found it curious when teachers would say things like, "When you get out in the real world things are going to be different." That should have been our first clue that something was wrong. First of all, the last time I checked school was a part of the real world. Secondly, if school is so different from the "real world", then why aren't we frantically seeking to align it with reality? Meaningful experiences are based within the larger community as students interact with their peers and with the people in the community. Some of my most memorable experiences in school were field trips. I usually learned more in one field trip than I learned in several weeks from a textbook. And I still remember those lessons because they were developed along-side emotionally relevant connections with others. What if everyday were designed in a similar way?

In closing, here are a few of my predictions:

Time will be flexible. Sitting in class all day will be replaced with mostly experiences within the larger community to make learning more authentic and meaningful.

Textbooks will be gone. They will be replaced by ipads and whatever similar digital devices are developed within the next few years.

Teachers will be in more of a consultant and coaching role than what they are currently.

Grade levels will be replaced by individualized portfolios of progress for students.

And we can keep our fingers crossed that standardized testing is abolished and becomes a distant memory so that we can once again instill joy in teaching and learning!

The Beginning of Something New

I've been thinking about starting an education blog for quite a while now. However, I've been struggling with exactly how I want to approach it. Education is such a massive topic. There are so many different issues involved that it is easy to lose focus sometimes. On the one hand, I don't want it to just be a place to rant and rave about the shortcomings of our current educational system. On the other hand, we can't talk about the future of education without thinking about areas that are in urgent need of transformation.

I have titled this blog "The Future of Education" because I have come to believe that one of our greatest roles as citizens of this country is to envision what we believe education needs to be, and focus our efforts on making that vision a reality. Every citizen, especially educators, needs to realize that we create the future. Since it doesn't yet exist we have a great opportunity to make it as we wish. That is powerful stuff! But it's also a great responsibility that we carry to be well-informed and open-minded enough to consider all of our options.

As an educator, I constantly hear uninformed (or misinformed) people making comments on the current state of education. And even worse, many of those individuals are actually the ones making educational decisions that are adversely affecting future generations of citizens. It seems to be more and more common for people to blame teachers for everything that is wrong in education. I heard it asked somewhere recently, "Why does America hate its teachers?" I've been pondering that question ever since. Indeed, I think that is the same quandary which has driven many would-be educators into more respected fields.

Although I agree that much is wrong with the current educational system, I will also tell you that a lot is right. Much of that doesn't make it to the media, but it's not all gloom. But at some point, we all have to get on the same team and think beyond our own individual interests in order to transform education into a form that is best for everyone. I hope the blog sparks conversations and initiates actions. Afterall, talking the talk is only important if we also walk the walk.

I think it's safe to say that the schools of the future aren't going to be anything like the schools the current generations graduated from. We'll change by design, and lead the way to our own vision or we'll change by default as technological and social changes drag us along leaving a messy trail of worn-out practices and ideas in the wake. The good news is that we have a choice, and we have time (but not much).