We have had a massive change in technology across the world and in the US. The old system of education fo being in a classroom and being taught by a single person is doomed. Right now we could be remaking that system given that system promotes the spread of illness. This idea is bad news for certain people who have a vested monetary and societal interest in the physical school system remaining the way it is. 1. Our education system in the US is the way we develop our racist lines across society. We know there is a division of economic class and skin color that has been laid over our nation that keeps large numbers of certain children in a lack of education compared to the other group. Even when a student can cross the line we know that racism will keep them back when they come in contact with administration and teachers. This has been established from the beginning in the US and continues until this day. 2. There is a large amount of the resources put into education in the US that is sucked up by huge administration salaries for people who never get in contact with the children at all. There are superintendent and high paid administrative staff who are redundant across areas that do not need such high paid individuals. There are psychologists and high salaried Guidance counselors who's purpose is to identify and pidgeonhole students. Then there is the problem of long term tenured teachers who are overpaid and not familiar with newer technology and are not keeping up with children's needs because they do not have to anymore. 3. You also have the inclusion of the pro sports pipeline into our children's development where games are becoming a reason to pass children, and scouting takes precedent over education. This is not to mention military and religious indoctrination into the system. We are at a great time to change the system while the system is closed down. 1. We could be putting multiple different methods of teaching out there for kids. No longer do we need a Math teacher teaching things one way for all the students. The students could have multiple lessons and methods available to them through online learning. In the case of things like math this might do great things for children who learn better in different ways. For those who still have trouble we could incorporate a "teacher" who is assisting more with one on one learning as a child needs. This would allow us to focus the attention in a child specific way. 2. In science you can offer up a lot more dynamic education by bringing video lab experiments to the kids, while having a classroom lab area which is guided by a science teacher for the students to do more practical things. We were already doing some of that with in class films, but now we can have things like a "mythbusters" episode to show children across multiple different areas with local teachers who can focus the individeual lessons. 3. Languages would become less of a barrier as all of the online learning tools could be subbed or dubbed into student's native languages, and families might be able to find local teachers who can translate and teach in the student's native tongue. There is also the reality that you would have children being taught more common and official versions of a language. For instance you would have the twangy speaking southerners, northerners, and black slang all hearing and being familiarized with a common version of the language. This would allow them to be familiar with the common language used across the educational system and also with any cultural differences they want to maintain locally. This is the chance in the US, and my idea is that all of this retail space that has been freed up could easily be converted into local day care/schooling where there is network access, bathroom facilities, food, and individualized supervision and support for students.
We should, but we won't. Same as it ever was. Humanity at its best only reacts when a crisis has broken out; now we have a group of people actively trying to exacerbate the situation through inaction and deliberate sabotage.
The current system, in brief, is designed essentially to churn out factory workers. Kids are "taught to the test," which is a poor basis for education indeed. I'd shift the whole thing to a goals-based modular approach. Your kid starts at age 3 or so with preschool, which is just to get them used to being in a "class" or social group. Maybe toss in learning letters and numbers. School would no longer be based around grades K-12, but rather modules of about ten weeks, each one with specific goals to meet. End of module 1, kid knows letters, numbers, colors, basic stuff like that. End of module 2, simple addition and subtraction, easy words, and so forth. If a given kid didn't meet the goal for the module, then they repeat the module until they do. There'd be about a two-week break between modules BUT there would be "classes" all the time, not like now where everyone starts at the same time and takes a summer break at the same time. Which, btw, would allow teachers to have year-round employment. Overall there'd be heavy emphasis on critical thinking, logic, history, math, computers, and science. Gym class would be focused on personal fitness, not team sports. There would also be life skill stuff, like how banking works, what used to be called "home economics," and like that. The broad goal would be to have a person who, by age 18 or so, has been taught how to think rationally and critically while having a solid understanding of basic science and mathematics, ethics, and the unadorned history of their own country and the larger world. College, in turn, would be where a person could specialize or pursue their personal interests in art, that sort of thing. Publically funded like K-12 is now (mostly) but with no teachers' unions or federal Department of Education. In other words, get the wasteful bureacracy out of the way. As many of those public dollars as possible should be expended in the classroom, not in the admin office.
