Will references the NYT article and I saw similar results as I was looking over research in preparation for our one-to-one project. Our high school students aren’t being challenged. From the article:
A large majority of high school students say their class work is not very difficult, and almost two-thirds say they would work harder if courses were more demanding or interesting, according to an online nationwide survey of teenagers conducted by the National Governors Association.
Consider that and then have a listen to this interview with Thomas Friedman, author of the red-hot book “The World Is Flat,” over at NPR’s Science Friday show. Is there any question that we need to be producing the brightest minds possible? And let’s not get sidetracked by lamenting the loss of manufacturing jobs to cheaper labor markets overseas. It’s a done deal. It’s over. Get used to it. Instead, let’s focus on the kind of work that isn’t easily outsourced—the creative, right-brained work that produces innovation. Let’s ask tough questions about what kind of curriculum is needed to produce citizens that can adapt rapidly, use technology effectively, communicate convincingly, cooperate seamlessly, solve problems creatively, and think unconventionally. Somehow I don’t think it looks much like the curriculum we have now.
This lecture that Thomas Friedman gave at MIT in May (http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/266/) is definitely worth watching as well. His observations that we have been sidetracked and distracted as a nation because of 9-11 and other factors is pretty scary. When are we going to stop preparing students for the 1950s and start preparing them for the 21st Century?!?! (To quote David Warlick)