Standardized Education

I think it's time, that we re-look at how we approach social studies, and view the role of educaton in creating and sustaining a healthy and progressive democracy. Social Studies as a subject is probably one of the broadest. It includes politics, history, economics, sociology, pyschology, philosophy among countless others. As a consequence, we lose the end in the means.

It's fair to say that the emphasis has been primarily on history, and the method and approach is largely clinical, static and disengaging. however important, history is only usefull for us when we can put it into a contemporary context, in an effort to understand the world around us, make informed decisions about it, and hopfully affect positive change to stear us away from the mistakes of our past.

That is the fundamental process of modern civilization. It is the key plotline in democracy. That is what the definition and practise of our civilization and democracy should be. Arguably it isn't. We've gotten lost in a world of private interest, which empowers wealthy corporations to influence public policy, and increasingly renders the average citizen as a powerless, apathetic consumer.

This is a broad generalization and the situation is substantial and complex. One of the key components of this trend is media, and mass media in particular.

Therefore I propose a new approach that separates a few key subjects out of social studies and expands on them. History should be a class that is separated out, along with the classical learning of political systems including ours.

The new curriculum should focus on citzenship, responsible consumerism, activism, and critical thinking and analysis, through research and media awareness. Ideally this would be a K-12 program with the early grades kids learning how we are all connected to the earth and our communities, and as such teaching respect and responsible citizenship through activites, like recycling and taking care of yourself and others for instance.

Essentially, this would be a dynamic and loose international program which would give following generations the tools they need to be active, positive, and informed citzens and consumers.

Eventually, I'd like to use plebisite.net as a major component in this new program.. Standardized not in content, but in process. A standardized curriculum only to the extent of the method of learning, and the number of communities pursuing it. That is, the goal should be to have the program in as many different provinces, states, and nations around the world.

.....

Obviously this is a work in progress. Penny for thoughts and/or criticism?

This post has been edited by jschroder on Nov 16 2004, 02:57 AM

I think the way economics is taught in post-secondary is a way bigger issue than how social-studies is taught in grade school.
If we can fix the economics problem first it would have a much greater impact on the world right now...

True but the only real way to solve the economics problem is by creating more responsible and media savy 'consumers'. That awareness and sensitivity must be taught early on.

Not necessarily becuause consumers still have to work within the current economic model but the people getting degrees in economics are the ones that can actually affect the way the system itself works...
Things like the Kyoto protocol aren't implemented in the states mainly because the economists are so heavily indoctrinated during school they actually believe that that kind of thinking is utterly wrong no matter what...and anybody who says otherwise will be shunned, and won't be able to get published and so on and so forth...

Can you fill me in a bit on the Kyoto Agreement?

I understand that there is an economic cost to pollution as a result. Who is that money paid to?

I believe that we should be pursuing alternative energy initiatives. Not sure that Kyoto supports that?

On the whole education thing .. it seems to me that we are being indoctrinated. We are indoctrinated. I'm not sure that the educational system is the way to change education. The system is self perpetuating. We need education outside of the system.

I guess I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist -- I'm not sure that we can change the system from within. The system seems to co-opt the revolution every time. For example, the whole punk rock thing that was a reaction to "corporate rock", became corporate rock in a lot of ways.

The Kyoto Protocol allows countries to buy the right to pollute the atmosphere.
What makes this good is that the amount one country can buy is capped so if one country is underneath the cap (because they aren't polluting much) they become a seller and sell some of their pollution rights to another country that is over the cap (such as the US). This effectively gives value to countries that pollute less...
And of course who won't get on board? The states.
And yeah this would indirectly support alternate energy solutions as they would cause no or at least less air pollution and would be of value to the country...
The issue of adbusters (#55 "no future") deals mostly with the issue of economics and finding new ways to define progress that differ from the flawed GDP model.
Some examples are ideas like figuring out and comparing the ecological footprint of various countries, the Genuine Progress Indicator, the Post Autistic Economics movement etc.
A very interesting read overall, it also outlines how econ students are still being indoctrinated with the "growth above all else" view of the world, coupled with the idea that technology can solve all problems that are a result of that growth.
Pretty scary that the world's economic systems are based on that assumption huh?

I think our K-12 education system is so behind the times in so many ways. I agree that it would be beneficial to separate out the topics in social studies because as it is none of them is covered adequately. Although post secondary economics does need to be improved, to effect real change a massive revolution in thinking is needed, and that has to start young. Although many Canadians do participate in post secondary learning there are lots who get diplomas and degrees that do not necessarily take economic...myself included.
Curriculum is decided provincially; apparently Saskatchewan at one time did have a separate economics course. The teachers have some input but ultimately the decision is made by some policy wonk. Provincial politicians pay attention to what they think the average Albertan cares most about. I have a feeling they get this info from the media. What ever issue gains media spotlight, especially around elections, is what catches the provincial politician’s eye, who then directs the policy wonk.
Modifications to the Education system need to be front and centre in the media to have a chance at catching on, and to get into the media there needs to be a lot of local support from teachers, parents and students, this is a long road. I did see that Edmonton school trustees are being elected right about now, this may be an opportunity.

Great first post! I agree the timing is perfect. Within the week I want to have at least in draft stage, proposals/white papers to submit to the various boards and unions and departments of education in edmonton and at the provincial level. I'll need help with them however so this weekend expect to see a listing of all the papers we need done, and then we can all collaboarte on drafting them out.

This post has been edited by jschroder on Nov 1 2004, 01:35 AM

Economics would definetely play a major role in this curriculum program in jr.high and highschool, as well as introductory economic topics in the early grades. I.e. The power we have with consumer choice. Knowing where products and other things come from and where they go after we are through with them etc...

thoughts jan?

This post has been edited by jschroder on Nov 1 2004, 01:37 AM

Hi all,

This is my first post, and from what I've read from just the past couple of posts is pretty exciting stuff. I believe that there are a lot of people out there who believe the same way and will do my best to spread this site around.

Ok, to move on topic. I agree that we definitely need a change of education in the works. By separating Social studies into its various components a lot of improvements could be made real. I'm now just going to play devils advocate and at least try and outline some of the hurdles we would have to face if real change is going to happen. I'll try and make this concise as I have studying to get done! Just so they're out there:

1. Rushing in and asking for a blatant split of the social studies program is not going to achieve anything. The fact is, a lot of schools, especially primary schools, are having issues meeting ends meet without trying to cover an additional one or two subjects.

2. The unfortuneate reality is a lot of people still believe in the 3 R's; readin', writin', and 'rithmetic. It will be very difficult, especially with this current provincial government, to get more funding for such programs.

3. As far as curriculum goes, quite often the historical actions of the time are understood by also understanding the political system and economic backdrop of the period. There are cases where these concepts act as learning reinforcements and the effect should be looked at dissolving the course.

It all sounds pessimisstic (sp?) but I wanted to get everything (this is by no means all arguments against...) down. This way we can look for holes any proposal we get going and hopefully overcome it. I myself am very interested in helping out with this project so please feel free to contact me.

DRGK

Welcome to the project DRGK!

I'd love to react to the points you've submitted, but sadly I'm a little tired now and I want to respond to your points more succinctly in the morning. Let me just say that I think it's incredibly vital that we do criticize these ideas. The more the better.

In terms of the giraffe project itself, I just had a meeting this weekend where we outlined some key points and directions we wanted to establish. I'm going to go to bed soon but hopfully the notes from that meeting will be up by lunchtime tomorrow.

They key part of getting this to be successful will be the strength of our organizational behaviour and the process that guides the development and implementation of this.

That's why it's crucial that we bring in more people like yourself who have a keen interest in making this work. Anyways I'm glad you've found our little project, and I sincerelyhope you can help us build it into a much larger one.

Cheers,
Jordan

PS:
Just think: open-source education.
PPS:
Where did you find out about this?

This post has been edited by jschroder on Nov 1 2004, 02:07 AM

DRGK-All I have to say is AMEN! I was thinking the same kinds of things in terms of hurdles, but had not figured out how to present them without seeming to shut down the idea.

Agreed. I think that the real issue is that more emphasis needs to be put on the things that Social Studies covers. This will ultimately come about when society starts to value social knowledge as much as science, math, and English therefore showing that value by providing the funding necessary.
We are swimming up stream if this is the case. We need to find out if maybe there has been a growth in the opinion that social knowledge is of greater importance to the education of today's elementary school students. If so then we could work out a plan to try and bring this opinion to the foreground, get the attention of educators, who would then hilight this as something to be considered by the government. Which brings me to youth next hurdle.

Related to this is that the school boards do not consider ideas proposed by just anyone. If we can establish community support for increased focus and funding for social studies then the respected members of the education community could be convinced to advocate to the board trustees, who do have some say in curriculum. I would hope that if it got that far the government would be able to find a way to address this need without cutting any other school programs (wishful thinking )

Now where to start?

Woah, woah, woah... slow down there pinkboots... Your crazy, commie, tree-hugging rhetoric should be taken back to Russia.

At least, that's what the average Albertan would say upon hearing this.

While I completely agree that there should be more effort to teach these values in schools (and "The Corporation" should be mandatory grade 11/12 viewing) I don't think you can base an entire curriculum off of it.... perhaps chance "CALM" around and actually make it useful and worthwhile.

I almost ended up being a High School social teacher - and quite frankly I really find the broad base that Social Studies gives to be quite positive. Perhaps a positive course of action would be to split up social in a similar way to how the sciences are split up in high school (bio/chem/phys).

Economics would definetely play a major role in this curriculum program in jr.high and highschool, as well as introductory economic topics in the early grades. I.e. The power we have with consumer choice. Knowing where products and other things come from and where they go after we are through with them etc...

thoughts jan?

Exactly, we have power through consumer choice, but it's not effective until we know the impact of the products we buy.
These days even if you want to buy responsibly it's next to impossible because you just don't have the information and it's very hard to get even if you look for it...and the average consumer isn't going to go out of their way.

This completey relates to a topic our speaker at school today was lecturing about. He was referring to how the US is one of the only countries (maybe the only?) in the world to provide nutritional information on their food labels. Now what's happening is a labelling system is being devoloped that assigns a point system to the environmental impact of various products.

Wouldn't that be great? For example you could look at 2 pairs of shoes...say Nike and Puma for instance, and simply buy the one that has a lower point total!

The point system is called TRACI (the Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other environmental Impact)

Here's the site:
TRACI

I agree that most products are so divorced from the process that created them when we get them it is almost impossible to make the best choice. ex: some people might chose 100% cotton over more synthetic blends, thinking it is more natural, but cotton happens to be a crop that has one of the highest uses of pesticide. TRACI looks like a great initiative.