“Education In America: The Next 25 Years”
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In “Education in America: The Next 25 Years” by Irving H Buchen, he predicts changes that will take place in the next 25 years. He believes that new techniques will solve budget problems facing schools, and also believes these new techniques will be more effective then the more expensive methods used today. Buchen says that changes will be made by choice and “fueled by changing roles for teachers, administrators, students and the entire communities.” (Buchen 299)
Buchen states if we could look into the future 25 years we would see “four factors driving educational change: decentralization and educational options; performance evaluation and success measurement; changes in leadership and leadership roles and reconfigurations in learning spaces, places, and times.”(Buchen 299) He discusses the many school choices available and how they differ from each other and why parents choose the type of schools they do for their children. The author continues the essay by discussing how educational success is measured, the principals changing roles, parents new roles, real life skills that are being brought into the schools, new learning spaces, and technology introduced into the schools. Finally, he discusses schools where they allow students to have a more active role in the classroom.
I think that Buchens essay had some really good points. There are going to be a lot of revisions in the future, and change is pretty much unavoidable due to the altering lifestyles that are occurring on a daily basis. To make school available to all that attend schools need to incorporate flexibility into their classrooms to make teaching our children a success. For example, the families with two working parents have a difficult time getting the students to and from school due to their work schedules. This could be addressed with schools holding different hours. Another example would be the students who learn at a different level than others. This could be addressed by students that tend to have a harder time grasping things can be paired with a student that is excelling in the subject.
The author has brought up a lot of interesting facts in his essay in regards to new technology that is available. Rural classrooms can merge with classrooms across the world via the Internet. This fact alone can better the education of students in the rural communities who might not have enough teachers to teach the students. Technology also can diminish the class size to one student by having students take online classes. You can take a laptop almost anywhere and do class work.
I also like the paragraph about businesses getting involved in the schools. Creating a game that will educate students about the reality of the true expense of a vehicle is an invaluable lesson in the purchase of the car plus the bonus of improving “reading, math and planning skills” (Buchen 303). This idea will give students a real life vision of what life is like when out of school. This concept in my opinion is extremely creative and something that will encourage students to learn in a fun way. The board game was a great idea.
He is so right about competition forcing schools to do a better job in educating our children or they