Friday, February 07, 2014

Our Education System is is Totally Outdated!

As we explained in the previous post, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math - subjects that no one will deny are necessary for success in the global economy. For that reason, these subjects also don't have to stand up to the kind of scrutiny arts and humanities do. However, art education advocates have pointed out that STEM education alone won't solve our economic problems going forward. That includes business executive Harvey White, co-founder of Qualcomm, the largest fabless chip supplier in the world. So it's great news that White has come out as a strong advocate for adding an A to STEM, working with Americans for the Arts, the Conference Board, and others to push this message. White pointed out that countries such as China, recognize the important role of creativity and critical thinking in the innovation process more than we do here in the US of A. This combination of technological know-how and critical thinking skills will help students with a STEAM education succeed in business in the future - locally and globally.
-- from Art Advocado by Alison Wade
-- visit STEAM website

Mr White wrote an extremely interesting article:
Our Education System is not so much "Broken" – as it is Totally Outdated! 

SOME EXTRACTS:
"As Ken Robinson illustrates, schools were, and still are structured like the factories they were developed to serve. They treat education like an assembly line – you move from one task (class) to the next – day in and day out. There is little collaboration or interchange between the work done in one department (course) versus the next. The product (students) are processed, as in a factory, in batches (by year of birth). The resultant product (graduates) are therefore all from the same mold. Due to this structure, which has not changed much in the last 100+ years – change is hard to come by." 
"Arts use the right side of the brain but have recently been stripped out of the public education system by multiple budget cuts leaving the US with mainly a "half a brain" system. Arts need to be returned to the national curricula where it was for the years leading up to our more prosperous years"
"The new economy requires that we continue to improve and encourage STEM education because mastering existing and new technologies is vital. It also requires that Arts be included in the curricula to capture the full potential of the whole-brain – i.e., a STEAM based one. It is using the combination of all these capabilities that drives creativity and innovation. The future economic cost of not having a whole brain education system that fosters creativity and innovation is immense."

>> READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

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