What I Believe

When I talk to parents about their children, they all pretty much say the same thing:  “I want my child to go to the best schools, so that they can receive the best education.”

I couldn’t agree more with this sentiment. That what I want for my own children as well.

So then why are we still teaching kids in the same format as if it were the late 19th Century? Why is our education system still predicated on a schedule and curriculum that would produce docile factory workers as if it were the mid-20th Century?

Part of the problem is inertia. It is simply easier to continue with a system that has been in place for a couple hundred years.

But if American education is going to bring itself into the multi-variant, fast-moving economy of the 21st Century, then we need to rethink our current approach to learning.

How do we achieve this goal? I think the answer is much simpler than we’ve been led to believe.

I have a teenage son, Jake, who is very bright. When he was in the third grade, he was engaged, eager to learn, and couldn’t wait to be dropped off at school each day.

Learning was fun. It was fresh and new. It felt to him like an adventure.

Fast-forward to today, and Jake is just starting high school. He is bored, and disengaged. And no matter how much I tell him about the benefits of learning, his grades always seem to slip.

Like any mother, my first reaction was to freak out! My son was at-risk of failing his core classes, and I couldn’t allow that to happen.

So I thought about the ways in which we could improve his outcomes. I set up after-school meetings, I stood over his shoulder as he completed homework assignments, and I emailed regularly with his teachers.

This led to slight improvements, but nothing substantial. Now I really started to worry! Did my son have a learning disability? Did he have trouble focusing for long periods of time? Would he need specialized tutors?

These thoughts plagued my mind, keeping me up at night, and worrying me sick.

And then I walked by Jake’s bedroom one weekend, and heard the most peculiar sound.

He was in the middle of a Zoom meeting with his Boy Scout leader. They were discussing the work Jake had recently done to earn a particular merit badge. To my utter amazement, my son had learned Morse Code in its entirety (in a very short period of time), and was now demonstrating his knowledge to the Scout leader.

Why had he taken the time to learn this code in such a compressed timeframe? Because it was part of the series of badges that Jake had chosen to pursue, all leading towards a goal that he himself had set. Each successive merit badge involved learning skill sets and problem solving that was of direct interest to him personally. And the Scout leader gave Jake the room and time he needed to accomplish it all.

If only I could have recorded that Zoom meeting!! It was clear from the sound of his voice that the subject-matter excited him. He talked enthusiastically about the ways in which he approached the goal of learning Morse Code, how he put it all together in his mind by way of trial and error. And how he and a team of his fellow Scouts would make use of all the finely-tuned skills they had acquired over the year.

And then it hit me.

Jake went out of his way to learn a subject (without anyone having to nudge him along) because he liked it. He saw why Morse Code was relevant, he recognized its value, and he understood how learning the material would lead to earning more badges.

If we want to change education (and get kids excited and engaged), then we have to flip the current model. We have to consider a full range of options (which very well might have seemed radical only a few short years ago). And we have to be willing to experiment continuously until we find a better way of teaching our students.

This innovative way of approaching education is applicable to every facet of life. It is important to continuously find new and exciting approaches to problems and situations and to bring new ideas into our work and personal lives.