Roger Schank’s Post

Your broader criticism of our education system is well placed. We certainly need to revamp it, make it more effective. Yet, the education system as is, with all its flaws and inefficiencies has been producing quality professionals that continue to solve many of our technical problems/challenges. You wrote: “... We need to stop pretending that any of this matters.” But they do matter. Math and physics are the cornerstones of many engineering disciplines. And memorization, although not sufficient by itself, could be the starting point for developing a deeper understanding of the topic being studied. How does one gain the necessary experience of designing safe buildings and bridges without formal education? Without k-12 experience (e.g., without knowing how to solve quadratic equations) students will have a tough time handling more advanced (engineering) topics that they would need for designing and building our bridges and other types of useful engineered systems.

I've never liked the argument against general education. It's not important that you memorize phylla, but it is important that you learn basic biology so you can be an informed citizen. You may not need to use the quadratic formula or F = MA in your adult life but it's important you know that engineers and other scientists use these formulas. It's not important to remember all the stoichiometry rules, but learning about them gives you confidence that chemists do their jobs right. Learning about historic events allows us to recognize when similar events are happening in contemporary times. Primary education should be aimed at providing the average citizen enough of a base to understand, generally, the world around them. When they choose a profession, they will of course learn the specifics of that profession in great detail. Finally, a large component of public education is to socialize yourself with others and learn important social dynamics. Don't like group projects? Of course not, few people do. But most of your working life is made up of various group projects, so it's better to prepare young people for that reality.

It’s so sad. We put our kids in “jails“ (school) because we ourselves didn’t learn anything useful at school or university. So we end up thinking as sheep and we panic at the idea of doing something different. We buy things we don’t need, we need a job to pay for our crazy life, we don’t care about the planet, and we need also to pay for someone to take care of our children too.  This is a great opportunity for changing everything. Because so many things are wrong. 

Who’s job is it to educate the kids? Parents are government?

Anyone who believes schools today are mostly about rote learning is about 50 years out of date. Or lives in the wrong country.

Would love your perspective on "Will there even be colleges?" Write more on this!

I’d say reading Shakespeare matters.

While there is much we can do to improve public and private education, the big issue here is context. We are in the middle of a pandemic and some of our government officials want physical schools reopened so parents can work. This is in blatant disregard for the lives of children, teachers and families. Children will survive missing out on in person socializing and classes. They and their families may not survive the pandemic. This global catastrophe will cause us to think differently about education and our priorities. I’d like to see a focus on creating a safe, engaging learning environment for all our children now.

Hmm, I think my son's school teaches far more than just academic subjects. We've been told by secondary school teacher friends that his school is very different from other mainstream primary schools, so perhaps we're lucky. My wife and I can only teach him so much, and I do feel my son is missing out by not being at school.