The Melbourne Declaration (http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/verve/_resources/national_declaration_on_the_educational_goals_for_young_australians.pdf) is a Neil Armstrong-esque, one small step in the right direction, and light years better than the US first attempt at a 21st Century curriculum. But the declaration is, on its own, wishful thinking. There exist more glaring
problems with the education system, its role in society, and in
society itself, than the National Curriculum and the Melbourne
Declaration have thus far addressed. I want to be a teacher (turning
down at least two other lucrative career paths) for three
reasons: first, because I will be a brilliant teacher, and the world
needs as many of those as they can get. Second, because I want to
inspire as many children and young people as I possibly can to think
critically, have confidence in themselves, and to know who they are.
Third, so I can help facilitate the changes to society and its
institutions (including education) that need to happen. In short, I
am what J Abner Peddiwell called in his timeless essay on
education “The Sabre Tooth Curriculum,” a 'radical.' And we live
in a radical time.
Whether you're a
realist like me or something else, the world is becoming more
globalised, diverse, and sociably and upwardly mobile. It's inescapable; like John Henry vs. the machine, you cannot stop progress. It remains to be seen whether these changes will deliver the
stated, and desirable, outcomes of producing 'healthy, productive and
rewarding futures' for Australian school leavers. There are some good
common-sense and relatively simple-to-implement points in the
declaration, such as the focus on becoming 'Asia literate'
(remembering that not so long ago our own Prime Minister Paul Keating
said that Asia is 'just a place you fly over to get to Europe')(p.4). The ideas of creating an environment free of discrimination,
and reducing effects of socio-economic disadvantage (p.7) are a
little harder to implement, mostly because these are in large part symptoms of
the current system anyway. In a sense, what the Declaration espouses
is using the disease that produced these symptoms to cure them. By
far the most positive aspect of the Declaration is the (albeit small)
recognition it draws to the diversity of individual intelligences,
and the necessity of 'a range of pathways to meet the diverse needs
and aspirations of all young Australians.' (p.8) This is still coming from
within the old framework though, which is why it's wishful
thinking. For now.
The problem with the
current changes to the education system is that they are
reformations, not transformations; the system was built to meet the
needs of the socio-cultural, technological and communications
revolution of industrialism in the 1800's (Rifkin 2009; Robinson
2006), and is predicated on the idea of a certain, very narrow, kind
of academic ability, and the demonstrated capacity for it (ibid). It
was designed to create obedient workers who, in the words of George
Carlin, are:
'Just smart
enough to run the machines and do all the paperwork, and just dumb
enough to passively accept the increasingly shittier jobs and pay
schemes. (The people who crafted it) aren't interested in creating a
nation of people smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and
figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw
them overboard...years ago...they just want obedient workers.'
Or we could take a look at H. L Mencken's
(1924) damning words:
“The
aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is
simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe
level, to breed and train a standardised citizenry, to put down
dissent and originality. That is the aim...whatever the pretensions
of politicians, pedagogues, and other such mountebanks...in the
United States and everywhere else.”
Like it or not, it
is the truth. Which is precisely what they're getting, more often
than not, and with all the changes the Melbourne Declaration rightly
identifies to be taking place in the world, I hope you can see why
reformation (as opposed to transformation) isn't going to cut the
mustard, and I am in this to change the system from the inside.
I have always had a
passion for history, storytelling, original and 'maverick' thinking,
and inspiring humankind. A friend once told me in all seriousness that I would make a very good cult leader. Perhaps I am destined to lead the cult of properly educating humanity.
I fervently agree with the sentiments of
great historians, historiographers, and historical figures such as
Jared Diamond, Edward Carr, Bill Bryson, Jeremy Rifkin, and Ronald
Wright, with the idea that facts and rote learning do not matter.
What matters is the search for the causal relationships between
social and chronological events, and to find them, so one can
understand them. To cast, as it were, a long look back in order to
cast a short look forward (Christian 2005). Even fewer teachers –
or people in general – seem to see why this kind of thinking is
important, or why empathy, and appreciating their students for who
they really are is the most important (Rifkin 2009). The reasons why
fall outside the scope of this particular discussion, but the
consequences of not doing it are very real, and probably deadly.
References
Carlin,
G., (2008), It's
Bad for Ya! (Stand-Up
Comedy Recording), HBO.
Christian,
D., (2005), Maps
of Time: An Introduction to Big History,
University of California Press.
Mencken,
H. L. (1924), in The
American Mercury.
Ministerial
Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, (2008),
Melbourne
Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians,
retrieved
<http://www.mceetya.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf
>
Rifkin,
J., (2009), The
Empathic Civilisation: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in
Crisis,
Tarcher-Penguin, London.
Robinson,
K., (2006), The
Element: How Finding your Passion Changes Everything.
