5 TED Talks on Education Part 2

A few days ago I posted on the first TED talk on education. To read more about it click here.

The second TED Talk was by Geoffrey Canada on the difference between the education that rich people get vs the education that poor people get. He also talks about the "schooling business model" and how it's one of the business models that hasn't changed for years, even though year after year, it continues to display exceedingly poor results. Even though he's speaking about the schooling system in the USA, I think a lot of this can be applied in the global context as well.

Sports Dinner school event with my friend Sossy

The idea of failing business models of schools really appealed to me. At school I was one of the lucky kids: I loved to learn, I understood most concepts quite quickly and I came out the other side of the school business model rather successfully. At university things were slightly different - I battled with a lot of concepts and if it wasn't for my group of friends patiently sitting with me, explaining maths, physics and electronics concepts to me, I wouldn't have been able to pass in the amount of time that I did. I suddenly had a new understanding of why some of my high school and junior school classmates weren't all that fond of school and why learning seemed to be a burden to them. 

Some of the guys who kept me sane when stuff made no sense.
For this particular study occasion, we were all confused and lost.
(L-R: Frosty, Russell, Sam and Craig)

Dr. Canada speaks of the schooling system having a "one-size-fits-all" approach. If you're sharp enough to cotton on to the lesson quickly that's great, and if you don't get it, then that's too bad. Many schools continue to do the same thing, over and over again, even though it produces the same bad results. WHAT TYPE OF BUSINESS MODEL IS THAT?! If I had to go to my directors and tell them that I'm going to carry on doing my job the same way as usual, even though it's producing terrible results, I'm sure I would get fired on the spot!

Looking at schooling as a business model, I have to ask, how can we change the schooling system in order to better service our customers? What can we do to ensure that we encourage more kids to see learning not as a burden, but as a blessing?

In his talk, Dr. Canada mentions that there have been studies done that show that poor kids loose ground in the summer time. He mentions that test data for teachers only comes out at the end of the year, after the holidays. And who is really going to look at previous years data. Is there a way of ensuring that teachers get real time data on their kids, as they are getting taught, so that they can see where the trouble points are and try to address them? Better yet, what about giving the kids the same feedback and pointing out the sections where they may need to do a bit of extra work in order to pass that year?

I have no background in education, other than having gone through the schooling system myself. But, from what I can gather from these talks and my own experience, part of the responsibility of the failing business models of schools lies with the custodians of the schooling system. Dr. Canada mentions that at his school they have a network in place which acts like a parent figure to the kids, holding them accountable and pushing them to do better. I think we need more networks like this within our schools. However, it needs to be something that is driven by the old boys and girls of those schools, by the parents of students at the schools, by the community and not by the teachers. 

I was lucky enough to go to a school with a strong Old Girls network. Imagine if all schools had something similar, where past students of the schools mentored and inspired the present day students. Even better, imagine so called "good" schools partnering with the "not so good" schools, sharing resources and mentoring each other.

I don't have the answers to how we can better change our schooling business model, but it's sparked a thought process in me. As Dr. Canada mentions near the close of his talk - by changing and trying new things, its inevitable that some ideas and techniques will fail. But if we don't try something new, we'll never improve on our current model.

In my usual pose when studying and working - on my bed