Students are spending about 10 hours a week less on homework but receiving better marks than the previous generation.
How can that happen?
Are kids today that much smarter?
Are educators more compliant?
Is this drive to ensure that every student achieves success becoming a compromise to educational standards at the expense of actual subject knowledge?
Hey, I don't know. I'm not in that gig.
I know in the profession that I'm engaged in, there has certainly been a sea change, or let's just say, a significant shift and I can't honestly say whether or not I find it good or bad for the industry, readers and advertisers. It's just a change at this point in time.
I might buy the argument that technology has allowed our students to absorb more information more quickly than ever before. Some of that information might even be correct, if you're referring to online sources.
Thumbing through books will soon become a thing of the past, reserved only for those who wish to take a leisurely stroll through a nostalgic experience, sort of like those who still enjoy riding a horse to a certain destination as opposed to hopping into a half-ton or ATV to complete the trip in one-quarter the time. And yes, there are infrequent occasions where a horse can take you to a location an ATV or truck could never get to. That's why we have horses. We like them.
So are our educational experiences in today's classrooms being condensed for the sake of saving time and educators' desires to have a good guy reputation?
Probably not.
I would hazard a guess and say it's probably just that changing environment thing. After all, if the top kid in the graduating class 40 years ago got an 88.2 per cent average and today it's 98.3 per cent, what difference does it make?
And, in fact, the terms and standards of marking and measuring student knowledge are shifting in the school divisions across this province, as I speak. And from what I have learned about this shift, it's for the better because it gives educators an even better opportunity to measure each skill set in a variety of settings, not just one product that regurgitates a lecture or written notes.
Classical education is still classical education. One learns how to think, act and work, or they don't, and there isn't an educational system on this planet that will change those basic functions. That's why there are successes and there are failures and that's why we're all here. We can solve the problem, or we can be the problem. And half the time, we're doing one or the other of these things.
As the old saying goes, sometimes we lead, sometimes we follow, some times we get out of the way, sometimes we get in the way and sometimes we're like George Bush and do none of the above.
So we can mark success or failure in any manner we wish. Society and the workplace will provide the final judgment anyway.
