Luckily, I heard a talk last Wednesday afternoon about this very topic. World renowned educational scholar Yong Zhao came to visit my school and give us some instruction on global education.
Basically, his message was that kids need to know how to be creative and harness an entrepreneurial spirit. He wasn't too concerned with the United States' poor performance on the PISA because we are a nation of innovators. He is more concerned with American schools resisting standardization and helping kids see themselves as real, valuable workers and creators. I'm reading his book, World Class Learners, and yeah, it's pretty good. Skimmable, but useful.
Yong Zhao as a presenter is a little edgy, and sometimes he turned us off with his employment of stereotypes and hyperbolic statements. Sometimes he made us laugh because he's quite funny. Here are some memorable quotes from the lecture:
"Lady Gaga would be useless in my village."
"Kim Kardashian is traditionally useless, except that she doesn't live in her parents' basement."
and
"The Common Core is horrible."
3 comments:
I think creativity is lacking because of standardized tests, but I think the common core attempts to harness a bit of creativity. Basically, I'm totally against dumb tests, but I can argue both sides of the common core.
As for Kim and Lady Gaga, I can do without both in my village.
I need to know more about this book. I now follow Yong Zhao on twitter.
Thanks for the key info.
Zhao made some statements about Common Core that I didn't think were accurate. He seemed to think that if you didn't master one standard, you couldn't proceed. But, I don't think CC is used as a gateway? Is it?
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