Reading Response 6 - Bryan Meyer: Change Agent

You know, when I was reading the "Teaching as a Subversive Activity" selection, I couldn't help but think to myself, "maybe education just isn't ready for this type of change yet." I was really interested in the book, so I looked it up on Amazon and found out that the book was written in the early 1970's! I'm not pessimistic about the hope for the future of education. Believe me, I subscribe to the ideas of inquiry-based, student-centered, and collaborative learning environments more than you could imagine. But, I hope you can understand my confusion when I found out that these ideas about education have been around for almost 40 years! And still, there is little implementation of these grand renovations. What is it going to take to change education? Does research show which changes would be most beneficial? What should be the focus of public education?

I really have no clue what the answers to these questions are and I am beginning to think that we will never agree on a single "best" model for public education. In fact, I'm not sure there really is a single best model. But we will never know what works unless we try new things. With funding, politics, and testing, the public education system has become so rigid that nobody wants, or can afford, to experiment. There are some seeds of experimentation out there with schools that are trying new, innovative structures and curriculum. And for these tides of change to keep rising, these schools will have to show success so that others will follow. The problem is, these students may not perform as well on standardized testing, which has become the ultimate measure of a school's performance, because they have not been taught in a way that caters to testing. I don't know what I can do to help change education. That is a question I plan on investigating well into my career. All I know is that I will try my best every day. Hopefully I will change something. If it's not education, maybe it will be some kid's life.