The Toxic Culture of Education





In the interview with the Times magazine in 2006, Bill Gates said, “In almost every area of human endeavour, the practice improves BUT that hasn't been the case for teaching"

Why? Why haven’t we fix our education system? Are we going to do the same thing that didn’t work? Why are we still hesitant to take a bold step? What happened to all the strategic plan and education reform? what happened to all those research?

Maybe we need to dismantle the whole structure of the system?

The gist of Joshua's Talk in the video above:
“In the mid-1800's, Horace Mann captured the potential impact of education on society. We have yet to realize the potential he saw, and in fact, we are missing the mark by a wider and wider margin. We have created a "Toxic Culture of Education" in our country that is damaging students, impacting our economy, and threatening our future. Since the passage of No Child Left Behind, we have embraced a culture of high-stakes testing and are perpetuating a false sense of failure in our schools. We have ignored research and data on effective policy making practices in order to serve the interest of private industries that have monetized our students. The impact is being felt in communities, on college campuses, and in our economy. The solution lies in a common sense approach to student development, curriculum choice, career exploration, and relevant data analysis. This talk will present a vision of an education system that allows us to embrace our full potential if we only had the courage to ask "Why Not"?

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