Discover Why People are Frustrated With “What” Schools Teach
It’s no secret everyone wants a better school system in America. Teachers, parents, students and even elected officials all agree on one thing — let’s build better schools.
But as soon as everyone says, “I want a better quality education” the debates begin.
As a 20 year educator and considered an expert in the field of education, I have unfortunately been in the middle of these debates. Although I love a good debate, when we focus too much on arguing and not enough on solving the problem, it becomes a huge issue for me. So I have dedicated the last 12 months to trying to solve the school curriculum problem once and for all.
The Curriculum We Use Now
Most people have a general understanding of what curriculum refers to. Usually when I mention curriculum to the average citizen, they think I’m talking about textbooks or learning topics. And they are correct to a certain extent, but that’s not the entire story.
Right now, our entire school system uses what is referred to as a 19th Century curriculum model. Think back on your own school experience, a 19th Century curriculum model is a system of single-core subjects, where you go from class to class, such as English, Math, Science and Social Studies.
What made the 19th Century model so robust in the 19th and 20th Century was how it made learning content so efficient. In fact, there is no better system for content knowledge growth than American 19th Century schools.
Here’s the problem. We don’t live in the 19th Century anymore.
And this is where the general public and the media is in the dark. Content knowledge is secondary to 21st Century skills.
And hysteria ensues.
The Problem with Our Current Curriculum Model
I want us to have an intellectual and healthy debate on this topic, but in order to do that everyone must be on the same page and have the same information. The only way to achieve that goal is to try and get as many people to read this 4-part series as possible. The more eyeballs on this series, the faster we can improve all of our schools. It’s that simple.
And I have experience that proves it. I started using a 21st Century curriculum in my school program about a decade ago. Four years later, when the first graduation class finished, I started to receive calls and emails from principals and superintendents in the NY and NJ area about what we were doing in my school.
Word of mouth is hard to stop when you are helping kids in ways that no one else can. And that’s what we were doing. I’ll explain more about that later in this article.
Everyone can sense something is wrong with the current state of our schools, but no one seems to know what to do about it. That’s why being on the same page is so important. Without common ground we end up with a lot of anger, hostility, and defensiveness.
All of those feelings are negative, toxic and infect our students. So we want to move away from those negative feelings and begin to open our minds to a better way. There is no reason parents and teachers can’t be on the same page, but let’s be honest about the situation, what happens inside a school is a “secret” and no one likes to be kept in the dark.
But I want to be very clear, there is no grand conspiracy that prevents people from knowing the “secret” of what schools are doing. Frankly, the reason everything that happens inside a school is kept quiet is because it’s too complex and complicated for educators to explain in any meaningful way. What that means is it’s just easier to say nothing than look foolish explaining something that is really hard to explain.
I have dedicated the last 12 months to this project. I have researched and studied and done everything I can to try and simplify what is happening inside schools in a way that wouldn’t make me sound dumb and the average person could understand. And to be transparent with you, I have tried and failed to explain this information in person many times over that 12 month period.
But I think I have it figured it out now and I think you can begin to see how the pieces fit together. I admit, this 4-part series may require multiple reads because it is jam packed with never before seen information and it can be a bit overwhelming. But parents and teachers want to know what is happening, and I believe the average citizen is smart enough to follow along with what I’m presenting.
Let’s start then with an example that illustrates how outdated the19th Century curriculum is in relation to modern day life. The most talked about topic in our lives is the economy.
Thousands of reporters, podcasts and youtube channels dedicate hours of time to this topic, and quite naturally parents want their kids to be financially literate.
One of the biggest criticisms our school system faces is that it does not adequately teach or prepare kids how to deal with money as adults. This lack of financial literacy has even more devastating effects in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods, as well as, in minority communities.
But here’s where we get stuck.
In a 19th Century curriculum, there is only one way to teach financial literacy and that is to create a stand-alone single core course called “financial literacy.” If you are in high school right now, you might be taking that class. Problem solved, right? Not even close.
Let’s focus on the goals first:
- Do students need to be financially literate? Yes
- Do students need to be better with money? Yes
- Do students need to understand how to make more money? Yes
- Do students need to understand how to save and invest money wisely? Yes
If these are the goals we want to achieve, let me show you how a 19th Century curriculum is unable to reach those goals — no matter which teacher is in the classroom.
Here’s where a 19th Century curriculum is severely limited. In a single-core course called “financial literacy” students will only learn the vocabulary of finance and “what” money is, but they will not learn “how” to make money or “how” to save money.
Let’s go a little deeper. In most “financial literacy” courses, students are introduced to the concept of money and savings. Students learn the vocabulary, like savings accounts, checking accounts, interest rates, and bank loans, but they will never learn “how” to use a bank to make money or build wealth.
Parents want the school to teach kids “HOW” to become successful. But it’s impossible for a 19th Century curriculum to meet that goal. The 19th Century is hyper-focused on WHAT, not HOW. And if we want schools to begin to teach kids HOW to be successful, we need to upgrade to a 21st Century curriculum.
A 19th Century curriculum doesn’t just limit students learning though, it also hamstrings teachers. Teachers for the last 50 years have been trying their best to make a 19th Century curriculum relevant to kids lives. This is where the pandemic may have provided us with a small window of opportunity. The only way to seize on that opportunity is to stop using a 19th Century curriculum that is past its expiration date. And yes, curriculum’s have expiration dates.
Try and remember your own K12 experience. Was your teacher focused on WHAT or HOW? Did you ever learn HOW to make things work when you became an adult? Think about Algebra class. Did you ever ask your teacher, “when will I ever use this stuff?”
The only reason you asked that question is because schools teach kids WHAT, not HOW. You learned algebra, but you didn’t learn HOW to use algebra in real life.
The point I’m trying to make is our schools’ biggest problem is the 19th Century curriculum. The problem isn’t the teacher. The teacher isn’t allowed to decide what to teach. The teacher is forced to stick to a 19th Century model. They must focus on content knowledge, not HOW to be successful in the 21st Century.
That’s why a 19th Century curriculum is so damaging because it hurts both students and teachers.
Shifting Focus from WHAT to HOW
Over the last decade, more and more research has been published that confirms the need for this shift. The 21st Century does not care as much about WHAT, it rewards people who know HOW to make things happen.
A little later in this article, you will see how much the 21st Century rewards people who know HOW.
Before we get to the rewards, let’s focus on the research that tells us we need to shift from WHAT to HOW. This is where two of the world’s leading curriculum experts come into play. In 2017, curriculum experts, Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Dr. Marie Hubley Alcott wrote a book called, “Bold Moves for Schools” that outlined how 21st Century curriculum works.
The biggest key is to move away from single core subject courses and move more toward a cross-curricular model. Let’s go back to the financial literacy course for a second. In a 19th Century curriculum, teachers must teach students the WHAT. What is money? What is a bank? What is a savings account?
In a 21st Century curriculum model, teachers work together to show students HOW money works, how to make money, how to save money, how to invest money and maybe even how to have 1 million dollars in the bank when they retire.
Why can’t we just do this now? Why do I even need to write this 4-part series? These are really good questions, but the answers are real and honest. The reason schools can’t just start teaching HOW is because schools are limited by the 19th Century curriculum and mindset.
And we are all affected by this 19th Century ceiling. No one in America has ever had a 21st Century education. We have been using this curriculum model for over 100 years. We already know the poor outcomes. The low student test scores, the economic disparities, etc, etc, etc.
There is another side to the dangers of maintaining a 19th Century curriculum in the 21st Century. And this will become more clear in the next section, but the reality is experts are not communicators. Teachers are not leaders. Administrators are not problem solvers. And educators are not good at selling. I want you to try and remember the four words in italics because they will be important later in this article.
The bottom line is schools are very good at teaching content — the WHAT. Take a look at standardized tests, what do they measure? Standardized tests measure WHAT a student knows. That’s it. And if that metric were important in the 21st Century, I would care what the test scores were, but since the 21st Century could care less about content knowledge, so should you.
To prove my point, just google anything and in 2.3 seconds you will have an answer. Before the internet, our country needed schools to teach kids WHAT to know. But after the internet, we need schools to stop wasting time on WHAT and start focusing time on HOW to use that content to do something useful in life.
Starting to see the shift?
Let’s take this a step further. Most classrooms ask students to spend all day looking up information and filling out worksheets. In a 21st Century curriculum that assignment is useless. Instead the first part of the assignment would be, you have 4 minutes to find as much information on this topic question. And the second part of the assignment would be the class working together to figure out HOW any of that information is relevant to our world.
Non-educators label this critical thinking skills, which is fine, but as you will see in the next section, it’s really learning 21st Century skills.
What’s important to take away from this section is that WHAT you know is no longer a priority in the 21st Century and in business. There are millions of people who know things. What employers, venture capitalists, wall street and tech start-ups want are people who know HOW to make things happen.
The path to get to HOW is very different than the path to land on WHAT.
In order to change our schools from how they were originally designed in the 19th Century is going to require people like you to share this 4-part series with all of your friends and family so everyone can be on the same page for once.
21st Century Skills Research
I’ve been talking a lot about shifting from WHAT to HOW, but you might be wondering how does that happen in reality. Thankfully, we can turn to the research provided by Georgetown University’s Center for Education and the Workforce, who published a comprehensive study of the American workplace in 2020.
This groundbreaking report revealed to the world the skills most valued in the workplace. And although their results surprised me, they make complete sense once you realize schools only teach WHAT and not HOW.
When people use the term 21st Century skills, they usually refer to technology or technology-based knowledge, but what makes Georgetown’s report groundbreaking is that it clearly defines 21st Century skills in a business perspective. Knowing 21st Century skills from this vantage point gives educators a clear path to create robust 21st Century curriculum maps and learning goals.
But before we can dive into 21st Century skills, we need to first identify what the other skills are in order to compare them against 21st Century skills. There are two other types of workplace skills: manual labor and liberal arts.
Most people are very familiar with manual labor skills. We are referring to skills that require us to use our hands, like anyone in the trades or manufacturing, forestry, and construction for example.
Not as many people may be familiar with the term “liberal arts” skills, but these are more associated with collegiate level skills. Any skills that require you to use your brain would fall under this category. Thus jobs in our service-economy would fall into this category, such as, analysts, researchers, evaluators, scientists, coders, consultants, coaches, teachers, financial planners, etc.
Luckily, Georgetown researchers dug deeper into the labor market and identified five new skills. These five skills do not fall into the manual labor or liberal arts skills categories. That’s what makes the Georgetown report so fascinating.
These five news skills require people to work with others. What’s even more interesting is that Georgetown’s report showed that these five new skills have emerged as the most valuable in the workplace. What that means is people with this set of five skills earn more money, get more promotions and retire with more money and security.
Can you see why it’s so important schools know about these five skills? These are the rewards I mentioned earlier. If you have these five 21st Century skills, you are eligible for more rewards.
I have written about these five skills before and even talked about them on my Twitter and Instagram accounts, but for brevity, here they are again:
- Leadership
- Team Building
- Problem Solving
- Sales
- Communications
Let’s look at them one by one.
If we leave a 19th Century hat on, our school system would tackle learning the five skills like this:
What do kids need to know about leaders?
What do kids need to know about teams?
What do kids need to know about problem solving?
What do kids need to know about sales?
And finally, what do kids need to know about communications?
You see the problem now? Our school system looks at everything through the lens of WHAT. Schools are hyper-focused on content knowledge, the WHAT of learning. But the 21st Century has passed the school system by. The 19th Century school is in the 21st Century’s rear-view mirror and can’t catch up.
A 21st Century Spin
Here’s how a 21st Century curriculum tackles those five new skills. First, we need to remember that we are moving away from single-core subjects. That’s an important aspect here. In the 21st Century model I used in my school, the English and Social Studies teachers collaborated and the Math and Science teachers worked together.
Remember the four italicised words from earlier, can you recall them now?
It’s ok if you can’t, but I wanted to prove a point. If you were taking a standardized test, you would get points for remembering those four italicized words, even though they have zero relevance to reality. That’s the danger of teaching WHAT all day.
Here’s the 21st Century difference.
The five new skills become the learning objective. Schools stop focusing on the specific content inside English, Science, Math and Social Studies, but instead allow teachers to delve deeper into topics because they all support the learning goals.
In a 21st Century curriculum, teachers would teach leadership, team building, problem solving, sales and communications in five learning units. And here’s the 21st Century twist, every teacher, regardless of subject knowledge teaches the same learning unit at the same time.
Let’s see how that would look in your school. For instance, when all 9th graders start the year, they would be exposed to the learning unit of leadership in all of their classes. That means the English, Math, Science and Social Studies teachers all focus on leadership as the learning objective.
This is profoundly different from how schools educate today. But here are the three key advantages to this 21st Century approach.
- Students are no longer bored to tears with WHAT the 19th Century curriculum was trying to get them to memorize.
Could you remember the four italicized words? Right now, schools are too hyper-focused on kids remembering the content of single-core subjects, which leaves no time to focus on HOW to make things happen.
2. Students will learn and practice the five 21st Century skills in all subjects for four straight years.
Think about that for a second. Right now, students progress through single-core subjects that have very little relevance to each other. Do 9th graders need to study Algebra or Geometry first? It doesn’t matter. What about Biology or Chemistry? Same problem.
In fact, you could switch around the order of when high school students study any single-core class and it will not impact their learning whatsoever.
If there is no order to courses, that means the 19th Century curriculum is no longer relevant in the 21st Century.
3. When students graduate they are fully prepared to tackle the 21st Century.
In order to see this last advantage more clearly let’s look at how an English teacher could use a 21st Century curriculum. The first major difference is the learning objective. The English teacher is no longer hyper-focused on 19th Century curriculum, which forces them to “get through” a list of books, novels, articles and grammar rules.
That type of learning was useful in the 19th Century, but it’s no longer relevant today. Instead, the English teacher is focused on the teaching kids about leadership. Therefore the English teacher will choose books and articles that support that objective. The English teacher will create writing assignments that also focus on the topic of leadership.
But a 21st Century curriculum does not leave the English teacher isolated and alone in the school, quite the contrary, it is critical the English teacher collaborate and work with other teachers. In my school program, the English teacher worked side by side with the Social Studies teacher.
And here’s how powerful that collaboration can be. While students are reading and writing about leadership in English class, the Social Studies teacher can further support student growth. That’s because the students are also focused on the topic of leadership in Social Studies. The two teachers are working together, they are talking to each other, they are sharing lesson plans with each other.
The Social Studies teacher would see the people, places and time periods the English teacher is introducing to the students. Instead of Social Studies class being completely separate and non-compatible with English, it now supports each other. Students can learn about the context and history of the same people, places and time periods they are reading and writing about in English.
That’s only the beginning. This also happens in Math and Science class and this happens in all four years of high school. Students learn about leadership, team building, problem solving, sales and communications four separate times over the course of four years.
That’s how robust learning happens. That’s how you turn a useless 19th Century high school diploma into a powerful resource for the next generation.
If you want high school graduates to be more capable of handling the world, they need the 21st Century skills the world demands. The only way to achieve that goal is to upgrade to a 21st Century curriculum. There is no alternative.
Just because I find this stuff fun to talk about, let’s look at the Math and Science teachers. How would they tackle the learning objective of leadership?
Currently, 19th Century schools teach students Algebra I and II, Geometry and Calculus. Students are also learning Biology, Physics and Chemistry. That might seem important, until you realize the 21st Century does not reward content knowledge in those areas.
Knowing WHAT a quadratic formula is, just isn’t important in the 21st Century, when the internet provides everyone with a graphing calculator. Not only that but YouTube has thousands of teachers and mathematicians who show people how to do every math formula known to man.
Schools need to stop wasting their own valuable time on content knowledge kids and parents can find in thousands of other places. What kids and parents will not find is 21st Century learning. They cannot go to YouTube and learn leadership, team building, problem solving, sales and communications. The school system is in a very unique position right now. It can once again become the beacon of hope for a whole new generation of kids.
In a 21st Century school, teachers are talking to each other. In a 21st Century school, teachers are all teaching on the same page. Thus, the Math and Science teachers would also support the learning objective of leadership.
Who are the students reading and writing about in English class? Those leaders made decisions and those decisions had consequences. The math teacher could support student learning by helping the students calculate the value and impact of those decisions. That’s the underlying issue with being a leader, your decisions impact others. But a 19th Century curriculum does not teach students about the impact. It only focuses on WHAT, not HOW.
And lastly, the Science teacher could also support leadership learning by allowing the students to use their minds to hypothesize about what if. The cornerstone of all scientific knowledge is HOW to use the scientific method. The science teacher could super-charge student learning by asking the students to imagine a “what if” scenario. What if the leader they are reading about in English class made a different decision? What would have happened in the world?
In order for a leader to be beneficial and not harmful, they must consider different scenarios. They must think about the impact of their decisions and they must weight the advantages and disadvantages of each decision. What better way to do that then in Science class, where game-theory can become the norm.
Does this look anything like high schools today? Not at all. And that’s the point. Our K12 system is stuck in the 19th Century. It is stuck in the mindset that WHAT you know is more important than HOW you use that information.
This isn’t a tweak to the system. You can’t modify a 19th Century curriculum to fit the 21st Century. It just won’t work. And I know because that’s what America’s schools have been trying to do for the last 20 years, they have been making small changes and modifications each and every year.
But a real 21st Century curriculum is fundamentally different. It requires all teachers to work together and be on the same page. That cannot happen inside an outdated 19th Century school.
In summary, the 21st Century curriculum requires teachers to talk to each other and collaborate. A 21st Century curriculum changes focus from WHAT to HOW and it channels student energy toward the five 21st Century skills of leadership, team building, problem solving, sales and communications.
By the time a student graduates from high school, they are fully ready to tackle the 21st Century.
The Benefits of a 21st Century Curriculum
How does a 21st Century curriculum make a difference in a students life? The answer more kids would graduate high school, more kids would finish college and more kids would get better jobs.
Let’s compare a 19th Century high school graduate to a 21st Century graduate and see the massive difference. A 21st Century high school graduate knows how to be a leader, build a team, solve problems, communicate effectively, and sell ideas and products.
What can a 19th century high school graduate do? We already know high school graduates are not leaders, we know they have difficulty solving problems, we know they have difficulty working on a team. We also know 19th Century high school graduates are deficient in communication skills and interacting with others face to face. But the data shows today’s graduates do not know how to make money, invest money or build wealth.
I don’t want this article to be all about the negatives though. So let’s look at what today’s high school graduates do know. They know Algebra and Geometry. They have basic knowledge of Chemistry, Physics and Biology. They have successfully read a couple plays from William Shakespeare and have read about the American Revolution.
Do you see the difference now? In the 21st Century, WHAT we teach students is no longer important in our society. Should students know about the American Revolution, of course, but we should be teaching them this information in Elementary school.
Elementary schools need to be focused on WHAT, and middle and high schools need to shift focus to HOW. If we want to prepare students for adulthood, for the world of business and money, they need to be armed with a repertoire of 21st Century skills. What’s the excuse not to teach them these necessary survival skills?
Currently, the 19th Century student’s brain is being filled with content knowledge they will never need in real life. To the critics who say, “what about test scores?” I argue, test scores only measure WHAT. And since the content you are testing student knowledge on is no longer important in the 21st Century, then the test is no longer as important as you thought it was.
To the critics who say, “but what about being prepared to go to college?” I argue, the 19th Century school system isn’t preparing kids for college right now. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) only roughly 60% of students who enroll in collegiate programs complete a degree.
That means 4 out of 10 students who start college, never finish.
At this point, there are no advantages to maintaining a 19th Century curriculum or mindset. It served its purpose. It prepared millions of people for the 19th and 20th Centuries, but it’s time to retire it for good.
In the 21st Century, we need a new type of learning model. My hope is that I have not provided the WHAT of 21st Century curriculum, but HOW you implement it.
It might be easier to see all the benefits if you could relate to a student who benefited from a 21st Century curriculum. How did it impact their life above and beyond a typical 19th Century school.
That’s why I want to share a student story with you.
One of my former students started my program after leaving a typical 19th Century school. As you know, he was taking single-core subject classes and learning the WHAT not HOW of those subjects.
This particular student started my program in the 9th grade, which meant he only had four years to learn 21st Century skills. At first, he had a lot of difficulty adjusting to the new system. It wasn’t that the work was too hard, but he was so used to single-core that it was familiar to him.
As human beings that’s what we like — the familiar, even if its at the expense of what is best for us. But after a few weeks, he began to make connections in class to the real world around him. And once he saw the power of learning HOW instead of learning WHAT, he committed 100 percent to his own learning.
One of the hidden costs of a 19th Century school system is that it perpetuates stereotypes, racism and the old way of doing things. In a 19th Century school system, we have an Achievement Gap, a gender gap and an income inequality gap. It pains me to have to identify my student’s background because it shouldn’t matter. Every student deserves a high quality 21st Century education. It doesn’t matter their race, ethnic background, gender, or socioeconomic status.
But according to the 19th Century school it does. Thus, this student was African-American, he was from a low socioeconomic neighborhood and his own family did not have a lot of money.
Because his family did not have a lot of money, he recognized going to college would be economically out of reach for him. Thus his post-graduation goals were to learn a trade.
For four years, this student learned about leadership, team building, problem solving, sales and communications skills. After graduation, he earned an auto-mechanic certificate and began working in an auto repair garage. But he had a 21st Century education working in the back of his mind, always thinking about how he could apply those skills to better his life.
It only took a couple years, before he decided to solve a problem in his local community. What he noticed was that teachers have a difficult time bringing their cars in for oil changes. It’s a common problem for educators because we start our day earlier than most and end our day during rush hour traffic. Unless someone is going to give us a ride to and from the auto shop, most teachers go months without changing their car’s oil.
This student saw an opportunity. So he decided to build a team of certified auto-mechanics to meet the need of his new customers , but that led him to the next problem. How could he do oil changes on school grounds? So he decided to give presentations in front of school boards to communicate the benefits to their staff.
I was lucky enough to see the slide deck before the first school board’s presentation because the student came back to visit me for final advice and to double check his work. After I clicked through the deck, I had only one thought — this is a no-brainer for school boards.
And that’s exactly what they thought. They granted him permission to go on school grounds and help the teachers maintain their cars. Which, turned the student from presenter into sales machine, as he tried to open relationships and accounts with all the teachers in the districts he spoke with.
How was he able to do all of this? Could he have accomplished these same goals with a 19th Century diploma? We will never know, but I will tell you that my former student would not have been able to achieve this level of success as quickly as he did, if he didn’t learn the five 21st Century skills in high school.
For context, this student became a minority-business owner and an entrepreneur at the age of 23. How many high school students are achieving those goals? How many recent college graduates are putting all the pieces together and starting a successful business?
It’s important to highlight, this student had no start-up capital, he had no mentors, he had no insider-knowledge or help. Everything he achieved, he did on his own with only the 21st Century skills he had learned in school.
In comparison, a 19th Century high school graduate knows how to read, write, do math calculations, and has a basic understanding of history and science.
These are the same courses that I took and passed in high school. These are the same courses students in 1950 took and passed in high school. Nothing has changed, except the world around our school system. These courses were extremely valuable in 1960, but they are no longer relevant in a 21st Century world.
Shifting from a 19th Century school to a 21st Century learning environment only upsets fans of nostalgia because that is the ONLY reason to hold on to these old and outdated learning mindsets.
My student saw an opportunity of a lifetime because he was taught to see the world differently than all of his friends who went to a 19th Century high school. That’s the difference maker. It’s just learning the right skills.
Having the right skills means the color of his skin didn’t matter anymore. Having the right skills means the neighborhood he grew up in didn’t matter anymore. And having the right skills means his gender didn’t matter anymore.
All that mattered was having the right education. Learning 21st Century skills instead of 19th Century skills.
We need to see the 19th Century high school for what it is. It’s a part of our history and legacy. American 19th Century schools changed the world. But it’s time to leave the past behind. It’s time to move forward and provide today’s students with a robust education that prepares them for this century, not the one that expired 100 years ago.
How Do We Fix Our School Curriculum
A decade ago, I began implementing a 21st Century curriculum in my school program and I did not realize how much impact it would have on the lives of my students. But when it became perfectly clear how advantageous it was for them, I began sharing it with other school leaders in the NY and NJ area.
Quickly word of mouth spread, as you would imagine. I founded an education think tank, Education Development Institute in 2013 and since then I have helped close to 5000 educators with 21st Century relevant tips and techniques to use in the classroom.
But the pandemic has provided all of us a unique opportunity. The school shutdowns have pulled the curtain back on the Wizard of Oz. Parents are no longer fooled by an inadequate educational system, but before this 4-part series, most parents couldn’t articulate why schools are so bad.
Now it’s clear. Schools are bad because they were designed in the 19th Century. Schools are bad because they use a 19th Century curriculum and learning model. Schools are bad because the system has expired.
Therefore if we want to change the system and fix our schools these are the four things I think everyone should do:
- Start the conversation about moving away from teaching “WHAT” and start discussing how classrooms and teachers can focus more on “HOW” things work
- Analyze your own school district and classrooms and determine if you are a 19th Century learning environment or a 21st Century learning environment.
- Identify all the problems a 19th Century curriculum has caused in your school and your community.
- Make a Decision: Ignore the list of problems created by a 19th century curriculum or upgrade to a 21st Century learning environment
Teacher Headquarters
The other thing parents and teachers can do is share this website with friends and family. It only took me several months, (I say sarcastically LOL) but I finally finished the Teacher Headquarters page on my website, which you can access for FREE at:
It’s easy to get to. If you follow this link, it will take you to the home page. There is a field, where I want you to enter your email and then hit the submit button. Once you submit your email you be immediately taken to the Teacher H.Q. page.
The goal is to update the H.Q. page every month. Right now all teachers have access to the Classroom Self-Assessment Quiz, which is a 10-question quiz that takes 60-seconds to answer, but the feedback you get will be priceless.
The quiz helps teachers answer the question, “Is my classroom safe for learning?”
I created the Teacher H.Q. because over the last 12 months teachers and educators have been asking me, how can we connect with you? How can we connect with other educators? So this is my solution to that problem. Eventually, there will be even more connectivity. We will host virtual seminars, symposiums and panel discussions for educators to share best practices and also to share student success stories.
My hope is that teachers feel supported. Teachers will have access to self-reflection quizzes because teachers know what they are doing. Sometimes, teachers need a way to self-check their own skills or practices. I want the Teacher H.Q. to become a teacher’s best friend.
If you know a teacher, love a teacher or support a teacher, please share this website with them. It will change a lot for them. Hopefully it will alleviate the tremendous stress and pressure they are feeling right now.
What About Parents?
I have not forgotten about parents.
The worst aspect of the 19th century school is how the system treats parents. According to the 19th Century model, parents are the ENEMY of the school. Parents need to be kept out of the school, out of the decision making process and out of sight.
Teachers don’t feel that way. Most administrators don’t feel this way either, but educators are trapped inside a system that is trying to bury everyone in the past. It’s hard right now for parents to see that teachers are being beaten down by an expired and outdated system, but that’s what is happening.
Here’s what I am doing for parents. First, the more you share this 4-part series with anyone you know and people who care about America and our future, the better for all of us. The reason that sharing this 4-part series is important is because the more eyeballs on this information, the faster I can push every school district to upgrade to a 21st Century learning environment.
In the long run that’s what parents need. A 21st Century school will prepare your kids for the 21st Century, hands down. Once you trust your child’s education is moving in the right direction, you won’t need to hover over the school so much. You also won’t need to hold people accountable anymore.
That’s right. The only reason anyone wants to hold schools accountable is because it’s clear as day the system can’t educate students. But the problem with the way we dole out accountability is we end up punishing the allies and not the enemies.
Teachers are your allies. Without teachers, your child will receive no education at all. And here’s another reason why I want you to share this 4-part series. The System has actually argued that “some” education is better than “no” education.
That’s a load of malarkey.
The truth is every student needs a 21st Century ready education and there are no excuses that will fly short of giving them that level of learning. So the next time a school board member tries to rationalize why they can’t do anything or their hands are tied, share this 4-part series with them.
This series shuts critics up cold. It’s hard to argue against helping kids. It’s hard to argue what I’m outlining is a bad idea, when everything I’ve proposed is backed up by the best educational research in our country.
Here’s the link again for my website if you want to share this with your local PTO/PTA and with teachers in your local school:
I don’t know how many of you remember when MTV was not carried in most cable packages. But in the early days of MTV, the channel told kids to get their parents to call the cable company and say “I want my MTV.”
Right now we are faced with the same situation with our school system. If you want a better school, if you want higher quality education and if you want your high school diploma to mean something, then you must demand to your Superintendent and School Board, “I want a 21st Century school!”
But don’t wait for them to figure out what you are talking about. Instead send them the link to this 4-part series and get every teacher in your local district signed up for the Teacher H.Q. page.
Positive change only happens when good people are heard. You cannot sit back and wait for change to happen anymore. This is something you can do right now.
I will take care of the rest.
Summary
I hope you enjoyed this 4-part series. It took me a lot longer to write than I anticipated, but I wanted to make this series was impactful for you. It was important that you could see the difference between an old 19th century school and a new, modern 21st Century school.
I think you can clearly see that difference now.
It’s easy to get frustrated with how things are right now. There is a lot of hopelessness. There is a lot of acceptance of the way things are, just because things never change. But I believe the school system has been stuck for 100 years because the amount of effort it takes to change a dying school model is monumental.
And teachers can’t do everything, nor should they. It’s unfair the burden we have placed on their shoulders. In a 21st Century school model, you will be impressed with how incredible those same teachers look, despite how you might feel about them now. That’s why I wrote this series, so you could see the system destroys teachers.
I don’t expect you to go back and re-read all four parts, so in order to save time, I want to provide a summary overview of what I’ve covered in this series.
The first part and most important aspect is to understand all of our schools are stuck inside a system that prevents change from happening. This system was designed in the 19th Century and has been unchanged or modified in the last 100 years.
In part two, I wanted you to come away with the knowledge that the teachers that work inside our schools happen to be the smartest teachers in the world. The reason they can’t help students learn is not because they don’t know what they are doing, but because the system forces them to teach WHAT, not HOW.
Teachers are not allowed to make decisions. In fact, the 19th century school model prefers teachers to be seen not heard.
In part three, I wanted you to see how school leaders operate. Administrators are not the root cause of the problems our schools face, they are also trapped inside the 19th century model. Unfortunately, school leaders are also forced to act and behave in very strange ways, when what they need to focus their energies on are two things: helping teachers improve their skills and the 21st Century curriculum.
According to the research from Dr. Robert Marzano this needs to be our priority if we want better student outcomes.
And lastly, I discussed the advantages of a 21st Century curriculum in this final part of the 4-part series. You read about my former student who overcame the odds to become a successful entrepreneur at the age of 23 with no start-up capital, no college degree and no role models. He was armed with a 21st Century ready high school diploma.
If you are a teacher, a school administrator or a parent and you desperately want to improve your school, I hope you will share this 4-part series with as many people as you can.
Anyone that reads these articles will be infinitely more informed then most of the public and that includes all of our elected officials. This isn’t a contest, who knows more, which is why after you read these articles, I want you to do the American thing and share it with your neighbor.
We need to start working together to solve national problems. We need to extend our hands to say, I got your back. For the last 20 years, I worked night and day to provide the best possible education for my students and to help nearly 5000 educators. I didn’t do it for the money. Clearly, I didn’t do it for the fame (since most of you don’t know who I am). I did it because it was the right thing to do.
As the great educational researcher Carl Glickman once wrote, teachers love what they do because its a “cause beyond oneself.”
That idea, we do for others, is the backbone of America. No matter what time in our nation’s history, when it really mattered, Americans always put differences aside and helped our neighbors.
We came together after 9/11. We came together after Katrina. We came together for the Million Mom March and we came together for BLM in the Summer of 2020.
For our kids, for our nation’s future. We need to come together again.
If you liked this series, please consider giving me positive feedback by liking or “clapping” for this series. If you want more information about me or want to talk to me, I have provided links in my profile bio.
And lastly, if there is any topic you wish I would cover in an upcoming article, please post your comments and suggestions in the comment section.
