February 26, 2015
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”
— Plutarch
I’ve been traveling the last several days to attend to some professional responsibilities. In the midst of moving through airports and boarding planes, I watched a movie that helped take my mind off the fact that my 6’4″ frame was squished in a seat better suited for a third grader. In any case, the movie, an action/thriller called “Lucy”, was no Oscar contender, but it did help pass the time. The movie was built around the premise that humans use only 10% of our brain. While the plot was convoluted and silly in its depiction of the other 90%, I was left thinking about how effective today’s schools are in actualizing the full potential of the human mind -as well as a recent faculty discussion on rigor.
Many people define education as content and academic rigor. But simply filling our brains with information is not enough. The “drill and kill” and “command and control” method of education will not generate the kinds of leaders necessary for today’s world. Academic rigor is more than just content, difficult tests, busy work, or piling on more homework. Standardized education, high-stakes testing and a narrow curriculum short-change our children. According to Harvard Professor Richard Elmore, 80-85% of work that students do in classes today is focused on factual recall and low level procedural thinking.
Academic content and rigor are important but there are a number of other skills and competencies that are crucial today. According to author Tony Wagner, Co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, there are seven to be exact:
- Critical thinking and problem solving
- Collaboration and leadership
- Agility and adaptability
- Initiative and entrepreneurialism
- Effective oral and written communication
- Accessing and analyzing information
- Curiosity and imagination
It is my experience that a combination of several of these elements are in play in MPA classrooms each day. In our quest to meet our mission and serve the needs of today’s students, teachers at MPA strive to create learning experiences that promote active learning, meaningful content, higher order thinking and appropriate expectations.
