One of the most alarming findings when comparing the education system of 100 years ago to schools of today is that there is very little difference indeed. And our children are much worse off because of it.
At the turn of the 20th century, the U.S. became the first country to require all children to attend school. Masses of young people showed up eager to learn and viewed education as a ticket to overcoming hardship. Students were praised for listening well, memorizing information and presenting it back to teachers in verbal or written form. Homework consisted of additional readings and repeating back the main ideas in the text. In this way, the traditional public school was born.
For the most part, these students acclimated and became very productive citizens. Many were first- generation Americans whose parents had chosen to leave their homeland and travel thousands of miles to start over. These were families who had suffered a great deal, were familiar with hardship and were willing to give up what little they had in the hopes of a better life. We were extremely proud of our system, and our schools were the envy of the world.
Today, while we use the same teaching techniques, we continue to find fault in our education system, and students are dropping out of school at the highest level ever. Is it because teachers are not doing their jobs? Students are lazy?
I believe the primary reason our school system is failing is “lack of success” among our student population.
Success breeds motivation, and our current youth are not motivated in the same fashion as previous generations. A major factor underlying this lack of motivation is that the traditional school system only teaches to the strengths of a minority of the school population.
Only 38 percent of students prefer to learn traditionally. These are good passive learners, meaning they memorize information from reading and listening. The majority, 62 percent, are compensating to the style of the teacher. Some are surviving, but not getting the results they would like or the credit they deserve for their knowledge. Others are failing and dropping out.
Is it any surprise that non-passive learners have the highest dropout rates? These students’ academic performance improves dramatically when they are engaged in the learning process. Ironically, the skills needed to succeed in traditional schools are not as strongly emphasized in the real world. Yes, we all need to be literate, but how many of us go to work, listen to a person and take notes all day or read literature and write responses? We interact, work together to solve problems, debate, communicate and try to understand the big picture. This is also how “engaged learners” learn best. Unfortunately, this rarely happens in traditional school settings.
Let’s try to incorporate this into school assignments and make schools a less passive experience.
When people encounter success, they keep showing up — adults and kids alike. All students need to experience some success in order to excel in the classroom. If learners are continually told they are not quite cutting it, day after day, week after week, apathy develops.
Teaching is not easy, especially if you teach the right way — which is to give each student what they need to learn, not just demand that they learn. The education system needs to change from simply enforcing standards to creating stimulating learning environments. As long it continues to live in the past, an increasing number of our nation’s youth will have no future.
Dan Loan is director of admissions at Denver Academy
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