Now that schools are out across the country, headlines abound regarding the seemingly inevitable summer learning loss or “summer slide.” But if this phenomenon is real, then what happens after kids graduate? What does that tell us about the quality and impact of mass schooling?
It is impossible to think that an archaic, industrial model of forced schooling can keep pace with the new, tech-enabled, information-saturated economy. Success in the future requires agility, inventiveness, collaboration, and continuous knowledge-sharing. A truly transformative 21st century education model will cultivate, rather than crush, human creativity.
The word amateur doesn’t get a lot of love these days. When we hear “amateur,” we think of a dabbler — someone unskilled and undisciplined who flutters from one hobby to another. The word amateur used to have a different meaning, though.
I have become more and more uncomfortable with asking kids how they are doing in school. Not only does that send the message that yet another adult is defining them by their school performance, but also that doing well in school equates to learning. Which it doesn't.
Schooling and education have become inextricably linked (with mixed results), but prior to passage of America's first compulsory schooling statute it was generally accepted that there were many ways to become educated.
In an interview with the Arizona Capitol Times, Mosley states, "The number one thing I would like to repeal is the law on compulsory education."
