A Manifesto
To all business leaders, leaders of charitable organizations,
philanthropists,
and everyone who is not satisfied with the current state of the
educational reform
Nowadays business leaders and
businesses of all levels are in a great need for highly qualified workforce
(just watch or read the news).
That is why business leaders and businesses of all levels are calling for
transforming current state of STEM education (click hear for a typical example – one of
many!).
However, everyone who is
familiar with the history of education knows that similar needs and calls are nothing
new.
Since the first shock of the
Russian Sputnik (1957) politicians, government officials, business leaders have
been trying to transform STEM education to prevent the U.S. from losing its
competitiveness (for instance, just check the list of corresponded federal and state laws).
A logical person should ask, why, despite all the efforts (and
billions of dollars) the urgency in transforming STEM education hasn’t
lowered?
The answer is actually simple.
We live in a very different
world than it was decades ago, but the discussion about education has not
changed a bit.
The decades-long battle can be summarized as a collision between
“charter schools and merit pay” supporters vs. “we need job security and more
resources” advocates.
I came in education from
physics.
Physics had known a similar
“clan vs. clan” collision. Close to a hundred years ago physics was in a crisis
(like
the current education is).
Physicists debated if the newly
discovered tiny objects are particles - just like tiny balls, or waves - like ones
seen on the surface of a lake.
Eventually the crisis had been
resolved.
Turned out the question itself “is it a particle or a wave?” was just a
wrong question
(like: “Who won 1063 Super Bowl
on Mars?” - the question itself has no sense!).
The new microscopic objects
(electrons, protons, neutrons, even atoms and molecules) were neither particles
nor waves. To resolve the crisis scientists had to invent a completely new way
of thinking about the nature.
Turned out that the old way of
thinking, which perfectly worked for analyzing macroscopic phenomena, just
could not be applied for analyzing the microscopic world.
A new paradigm had to be developed and be used to replace the old one.
The fact that decades of reforms left
education in a state that still needs serous
reformation is a clear sign that the debaters need to seek a new paradigm,
because, clearly, the current one does not really work.
Yes, there has to be a way to
weed out teachers who cannot teach (are they really teachers?). Yes, there has
to be a way to provide incentives to teachers who do a good job. But on the
other hand, there is no
evidence that a merit pay works. And on average only one in five charter
schools visibly outperform public school in student learning outcomes (“the
majority do the same or worse”).
Continuing the debate and seeking the solutions using the old paradigm will NOT bring the so-needed changes in STEM
education.
I’ve been in education for many
years, teaching physics, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, logic, problem
solving; studying teaching physics, math, and problem solving; helping teachers
with teaching physics, math, and solving their professional problems;
consulting administrators on the efficient managing of teaching.
The history of business
demonstrates that often a breakthrough in a certain technological field is
brought by the outsiders in the field (an example? Netflix!). Currently
business leaders provide tremendous efforts to support STEM education by
helping teachers with solving everyday professional problems.
However, from a strategic point
of view, the time has come for business leaders to drive the reformation of the way STEM education is currently being
reformed.
Business leaders – as the outsiders for the field of education – could
and should generate the search for a NEW PARADIGM of the educational reform.
I would be happy to offer my
view on the most important elements of the new paradigm.
If you would like to learn more
or to become a part of the force driving the reformation of the way education
is currently being reformed, please, feel free to contact me and/or to set up a
short meeting, or please pass this letter to your associates.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. Valentin Voroshilov
