Some Thoughts on What We Should Do and How We Should Do it

What our kids need now, not matter who they are, is HEAPS, not STEM. I'm not advocating for getting rid of those cherished disciplines, only de-emphasizing them based on what is our reality today.

They need History, to know we can weather a crisis, even a pandemic, and how it was done, and see what was done poorly, and what well.

They need English, because stories that take us out of now, but show us how to deal with now, are important. I think of the Chesterton quote about it, and it's paraphrased in the movie Coraline: "Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."

They need the arts because creating beauty is a form of joy, and this world right now, is short on joy. The focus on creating, rather than the product is essential, because everything reduced to what can it buy, means only those praised for the quality, and not the effort, will continue. They all need to continue.

Philosophy becomes paramount, because we live in a society that doesn't know what a society should be anymore, it's only frustrated and hurt by what it isn't. The human heart longs for a community that supports it, and is just and merciful and reasonable and understandable and fair. We do not have that right now, because everything feels unmanagable and unbearable and unfixable. We have to think about and assert what we value and why and also, be able to defend that on a logos, pathos and ethos level. Thinking about such things, helps us imagine the better we long for.

Social/Emotional Well being I saved for last, but it must permeate all. We've used a STEM model longer than we've had STEM. We grade things. We measure. We assess. The utilitarian method of grading goes from Pre-K up to Post Graduate, and favors the organized, the neat, the sophisticated and the clear. Right now, I think few of us fit that description, and we need to be forming people who can adjust, can laugh, can circumvent, can create, can imagine, can cope. None of these come from a method of exactitude, but from an attitude of experimentation and exploration and a fusion of creativity into every arena of academic exploration.

We live in a time that is very different than what we grew up in, yet we are trying to hold the exact same standards and rubrics and consequences as before. It isn't working --which is why some are pushing for going back to the buildings so the way it was can work better, but we also aren't being allowed to do things differently.

I don't have the answers, I only see that how we are proceeding, is a bigger problem than whether kids are turning things in or turning on their cameras. I'd love to see what my fellow educators think, about if they could reimagine school, attempting to address the needs and the issues and the crisis we have now, what would they emphasize and how and why?

---So I wrote and posted this piece in an Educators Forum, and man, did people not like the idea of somehow not holding onto STEM as the thing to hold onto --when what I'm looking at, is the reality that the kids are not okay.  They need means to cope with the not okayness of life --and those aren't found in STEM.   It doesn't mean we don't teach STEM, but it's folly to keep going as if nothing is happening when so much is.  However, people didn't like the proposal of change because right now, change is harder than it normally is, and changing what we emphasize would indicate we're not going back to how things were any time soon.   I think that is one of the underlying worries. 

I get that we need future scientists and researchers in case the current crop doesn't solve the problem.  I'm not trying to solve every problem. I just see a problem we're thinking will be fixed by a few videos on mindfulness and sleep, diet and exercise and I think, we will need to do more to help people endure this.