Opportunity for Positive Change in Education
Change is hard in any industry. What motivates change in business is usually the need to adapt to new markets and technologies to keep up with the demands of consumers. Some companies, Apple comes to mind, try to be constantly on the cutting edge of change, introducing new ideas before the competition and creating new sources of revenue. No one knew they needed an iPad until Apple invented it, and now everyone thinks they need one. However cool and interesting the innovations seem, change in the business world is really done to either hold on to the market share you have or create new ones to achieve one goal: make money.
Education is a different kind of business. What motivates change in education? There are conflicting sources to answer this question. If we go back to Ancient Greece, Aristotle talked about what it meant to live the “good life” as a human being. To him, the good life meant living the life of a fully developed intellect. Humans were made to think and understand as fully as possible the transcendental realities of truth, beauty, and goodness. To him the goal of learning is to develop your mind so that you can be logical, rational, and thoughtful. To be fully human is to experience this life of the mind.
On the opposite side of the spectrum is an industrial view of education that sees schooling as an opportunity to train for the workplace. In this view, children go to school to learn the skills and information they need to be productive and positive members of society. In this view, education is a means to achieve economic prosperity for the individual and for the community.
What I see when I look at the world today is a world that needs a lot more of Aristotle’s view. God created human beings for so much more than we are demonstrating right now. One need only look at the U.S. presidential election to see the complete failure of the education system to develop thoughtful, rational voters with an eye for truth, goodness, and beauty. At the same time, the system hasn’t created much in the way of hard working, resourceful, talented workers either.
If you listen to the BC government’s news releases about the new curriculum, it’s all about getting kids ready for the workforce. They talk about “the jobs of tomorrow” and “the changing workplace”. Hearing these words, one would expect that this was an industrial view of education, but really the changes to the curriculum are rooted more in Aristotle’s view than they sound. The new focus on thinking, communicating, and responsibility has the potential to develop the life of the mind. The new curriculum represents an opportunity unlike any I’ve seen in my 20 years in education.
As I said at the beginning, change is hard in any industry. This may be most true in education. Since we do not and adapt to pursue profits, we need to unite behind a common cause for change. The new curriculum represents an opportunity to unite behind the pursuit of the life of the mind and developing students’ intellect. As Catholic schools we can use this new curriculum to refocus on truth, beauty, and goodness. It will not be a smooth and easy road, as we are all used to things being the way they are. It will require thoughtfulness, patience, and goodwill from all stakeholders but it will be so worth it!
Thanks for reading!