Network Schools – Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for

In his op ed column “After the Pandemic, a Revolution in Education and Work Awaits”, Thomas Friedman describes his and Ravi Kumar’s vision for the future of the workplace and education… and it is nothing like what we have in place today. Instead of valuing the accumulation of static information, Mr. Friedman’s future schools will inculcate a joy for learning. Instead of preparing students for a specific strand of work, they will prepare students who are flexible and who can change quickly.

I was heartened to see Mr. Friedman advocating a shift to experiential learning, but I don’t see either political party advocating the kinds of structural changes to schools that are needed to make this kind of change a reality. The GOP wants to gut funding for “government schools” and the Democrats want to provide more robust funding for the paradigm we have in place— the paradigm that Mr. Kumar righty sees as outmoded. If our country is to move in the direction Mr. Friedman and Mr. Kumar describe we need to stop measuring K-12 schooling based on standardized tests that compel teachers to focus on a narrow curriculum and stop measuring post-secondary schools based on ROI. We need to use technology to restore the joy for learning described in A.S. Neill’s Summerhill and to create the links to mentors described in Ivan Illich’s Deschooling Society. Instead we are using technology to replicate traditional instruction on platforms like Zoom, to gather meaningless test data, and, most chillingly, to monitor students 24/7.

I tend to disagree with many of Mr. Friedman’s methods for implementing changes. He ascribes to the neoliberal notion that the global marketplace will ultimately sort out the best way forward while I believe enlightened leadership in the government is often needed to set a direction and tone and put safeguards in place. But I do share his optimism that we will eventually muddle our way forward… and I DO see the possibility for the kind of positive outcomes both he and Mr. Kumar envision for the future.