Synthesis 3 - In the year 2025

In the year 2025, I'd really like to see schools that do more interdisciplinary work and cooperation between the subjects. Additionally, I'd like to see more hands-on projects. So many students throughout history up to today spend too much time hearing direct instruction and doing quiet work at their desks. Too often, students don't even get a chance to interact with a peer group or their communities. They have to be quiet and sit in their desks and do their work. I'd hope that in fifteen years, we could move further from that. For awhile now, the student-centered classroom has been more in vogue. Let's take it a step further.

The ideas put forth in Teaching to Change the World, by Jeannie Oakes and Martin Lipton, help support the trends in education policies through American history. At one time, schools were seen as factories, when cities were seeing mass industrialization. Later, they were seen as corporations, then markets. Today, schools are also seen as instruments of equity and social justice. "Even as policymakers have looked to assembly-line production, corporate management, and free markets for ideas to guide their efforts to make schools more effective and efficient, they have also sought to ensure that schools are fair and democratic (437)." Students need to be learning about proper behavior and their responsibilities to their communities and the world. There need to be more projects that students can do together, divise themselves, and learn to implement in their communities. Perhaps an 8th or 12th grade civics/government class could design and plan a service project to do for the community. Students need to be given the tools to empower themselves in their own communities. As technology improves and changes all the time, students will have access to more and more advanced machines. They will learn important job skills while they learn how to create.

Students should also be working in an interdisciplinary fashion. When a social studies class is learning about the Great Depression, English classes should be reading The Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men. Lessons should make sense to students, and should flow seamlessly from class to class. As in the video 10 Big Ideas for Better Classrooms, students shouldn't have huge breaks between their classes, and teachers need to all work together on curriculum.

Both of these ideas should be an easy sell to administrators and other powers that be. Community involvement is incredibly important. Think of how many people don't currently vote. How different could that be if in school students got involved in their communities? Further, as has been discussed in Nine Shift by William A. Draves and Julie Coates, life has changed dramatically in even just 100 years. It is now changing exponentially quickly. Being able to implement technologically advanced projects will give students a leg up in the real world. Having classes flow together and make sense will allow teachers to become more of a community, even interdepartmentally. It will help projects span several subjects, and it will help teachers to understand student work load. It will foster respect between teachers of all subjects, and will help the students truly get into whatever subject they are learning.

A few small changes would really vastly improve student involvement and learning. With a little innovation, new technology, and teachers and administrators who aren't afraid of change, the entire educational system could be revamped and revolutionized.

Synthesis 2 - In the Year 2025

The year 2025, while not very far away, will likely bring some very real changes. However, I doubt the overall responsibility of the schools will change too much. I think the biggest changes will include a responsibility to educate students about new technologies. Today, schools often fail to teach sufficient technology classes, and do not make them mandatory. In the year 2025, schools should absolutely be teaching mandatory technology classes for every student. Students should graduate from high school with a strong foundation in computers and other technologies so that they are as prepared for life in college or a career as possible.

Just like today, however, it is a school's responsibility to teach its students about citizenship, and to educate them as much as possible about life in a democracy. Having an informed populace is extremely important to the functionality of a democracy, and schools must educate with citizenship ideals in mind.

Teachers need to make sure they are always varying instruction to engage students in learning. As mentioned previously, schools need to be teaching technology, and core teachers need to be using it as well. So many students today respond positively to using laptops, producing podcasts, and so forth, and I know it will just increase in popularity in the next fifteen years. Teachers need to give students choices and options to do projects that really engage their interests. Teachers need to make sure they're not just standing up in front of the class and droning on with lecture. Students need several different types of instruction (group work, debates, webquests, etc.) to keep them engaged.

Teachers also need to be sensitive to individual students. If students are underperforming, the teacher needs to make sure he or she is meeting with the student to assess the problem. Just like today, teachers will need to have an arsenal of tactics to make classrooms engaging, but will want to put an emphasis on technology in education.