District Administration - February 2009 - (Page 39)

Employees of tomorrow prepare to win the global economic race for their future bosses. intrinsic good (a concept that goes back thousands of years and is therefore antiquated by definition). How can we redouble our commitment to business-oriented schooling? If necessary, we can outsource some of the learning to students in Asia, who will memorize more facts for lower grades. And we can complete the process, already begun in spirit, of making universities’ education departments subsidiaries of their business schools. More generally, we must put an end to pointless talk about students’ “interest” in learning and instead focus on skills that will contribute to the bottom line. Again, we’re delighted to report that this shift is already underway, thanks to those who keep reminding us about the importance of 21st-century schooling. Getting Everyone on Board This is no time for complacency, though. Not everyone is on board yet, and that means we’ll have to weed out teachers www.DistrictAdministration.com whose stubborn attachment to less efficient educational strategies threatens to slow down the engine of our future economy. How can we rid our schools of those who refuse to be team players? Well, we can insist that all classroom instruction be rigorously aligned to state standards— a very effective technique since most of those standards documents were drafted by people steeped in the models, methods, and metaphors of corporations. We can also use merit pay to enforce compliance by stigmatizing anyone who doesn’t play by the new rules. (Come to think of it, here too we’re already well on our way to creating 22nd-century classrooms.) The final distinguishing feature of education that’s geared to the next century is its worshipful attitude toward mathematics and technology. If you can’t quantify it or plug it in, who needs it? Of course, the reason we will continue to redirect resources toward the STEM subjects (and away from literature and the arts) isn’t because the former are inherently more important but simply because they’re more useful from an economic standpoint. And that standpoint is the only one that matters for schools with a proper 22nd-century mindset. One last point. We will of course continue to talk earnestly about the need for a curriculum that features “critical thinking” skills—by which we mean the specific proficiencies acceptable to CEOs. But you will appreciate the need to delicately discourage real critical thinking on the part of students, since this might lead them to pose inconvenient questions about the entire enterprise and the ideology on which it’s based. There’s certainly no room for that in the global competitive economy of the future. Or the present. DA Alfie Kohn (www.alfiekohn.org) has recently completed a book called Crime and Punishment. He expects to begin reading another one shortly. February 2009 39 http://www.alfiekohn.org http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

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District Administration - February 2009 Contents Advertiser Index Editor's Letter News Update Security Curriculum Crisis Response Supervisor's Opinion The Rise of the Virtual Teacher Speaking Their Language Alternate Transportation Routes Opinion The Aftermath of the New 403(b) Regulations How Well Does This Web Site Work? Problem Solution New Products Product Focus Professional Opinion

District Administration - February 2009

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