Recently I read an article about the rise of online proctors who watch students take test via a webcam. Their job is to make sure the students aren’t cheating. Are there many jobs where someone can’t work with someone else or look something up on the internet? I just don’t see much value in memorization. Naturally there are lots of jobs where we need someone to know how to do a task without having to look it up. Field medics and EMTs would be one such job. But how many of these jobs are there? Even a family doctor can and probably should use tools to double check what they think they may know.
I had a dream recently where I had to listen to a sentence and write it out in a class. First off let me say that I suck at hearing comprehension. I probably make an ass of myself all of the time because I have no idea what people are saying and I just agreed or responded in a nonsensical way. So this dream was quite disturbing. On top of my difficulty in hearing I also have terrible handwriting. But I am a kick ass typist. I can’t type quite as fast as I can think but it’s much easier for me to keep up with my thoughts on a keyboard than with pen or pencil and paper. This got me to thinking about the amount of time we are dedicating to handwriting. I’m sure it’s good for hand eye coordination but we should probably teach kids to type as early as third or fourth grade instead of letting them hunt and peck.
Home schooling is not for our family, which I am somewhat surprised about. We have considered homeschooling at times but our kids always seemed to like school so we never pursued it. I am happy to say we made the right decision. If nothing else the enforced quarantine has made it crystal clear that we won’t homeschool in the future.
Having said the above, I would like to see major changes in the way schools operate. I think the biggest one would be that physical fitness should be a major component of the day. I also like the way Monetessori classrooms are setup in that kids aren’t tethered to a desk looking up at a teacher all day.