A headshaker

Once in a while I get a good reminder of the way things used to be and the way some people still want things to be.  I was asked to review a "curriculum" (in reality, it was merely a syllabus) for a particular course.  After review, I told the two people in charge of administering it that it was good if the goal was to have a classic education.  I didn't mean it as a compliment.

The two administrators, however, were quite satisfied with that assessment.  They wanted to continue with their plan of implementing this syllabus.  I left shaking my head, thinking to myself that some children were about to be prepared for living well in the 19th and 20th centuries.  That's not just a headshaker, though.  It's a grand disservice that borders on grand deception.  Imagine their surprise when they get to the real world in about 2 to 3 years and the world doesn't require writing skills, but computer and mobile app skills.  Their ability to read and write has been absorbed into the bigger world of presentation, speaking, and graphic preparation of ideas.  Their knowledge of literature has been trivialized compared to knowledge of manipulating the world of numbers, algorithms, video splicing, and cropping for immediate upload.

Any programmatic approach to curriculum that ignores the capability of the computer and the enhancements the digital world expects to see in the next 10 years is an approach that needs to be shelved immediately, if not sooner.  In the U.S., time is money; productivity is not measured in literary elements but in dollars and cents; time is always of the essence; and vision is measured by the saying, "If you snooze, you lose."  None of these are reflected in the art of reading for reading's sake. Reading for problem solution... yes, and experimentation, experience, presentation, video logs, and video presentation yield those productive, long-lasting results.

While it's a shame for the students who will be subjected to this syllabus, I don't worry.  Natural Selection has a way of taking care of that part of the species who are weak and have no built-in plan for adaption.  These students share a common destiny with saber-toothed tigers, mastadons, giant sloths, and wooly mammoths.  The Ice Age was good while it lasted, but then, glaciers melted and global warming allowed a human race to progress quantum leaps from where it was.