Giessman suggests here a complete overhaul of public school traditional curriculum so that it is more relevant to today's students. Instead of focusing on typical school subjects, he suggests an interdisciplinary approach involving subjects such as "communication, problem-solving, professional skills...social entrepreneurship, invention, ethics, and cultural dialogue". You would still need to address the skills that traditional subjects like English and math address, but now teachers could be combined and put in teams to address a real world problem like "a comprehensive plan to reduce school energy costs". This, I imagine, could involve all aspects of traditional curriculum:
1) English - writing a proposal for the project
2) Math - determining cost; establishing ratios of profit; demonstrating effeciency of new program
3) Science - establishing how and why the new system works
4) Social Studies - examining historical approaches to the plan; investigating what others have done and interviewing participants
5) Arts - designing plans/brochures for project
Of course, this sounds great. It reminds me of PBLs I would do from time to time which are great for this kind of real world, collaborative learning. I would love to see it implemented, but, and Giessman makes this point as well, what do we do about standardized testing? It seems clear that a massive overhaul of our educational system would have to happen for us to even begin to think about this kind of approach in American public schools.
I completely agree that our students are ready for this, but is our government? Our teachers?
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