Running head: REINVENTING HOW WE TEACH OUR KIDS

Destiny Blackwell

Reinventing How We Teach Our Kids

ENG 1313-06, Writing in a Digital World

24 March 2017

Reinventing How We Teach Our Kids

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Many people disagree with the way children are being taught today. Children do not get

taught the same way as their parents or grandparents did. Many people feel that the new way of

teaching is affecting children in a negative way and want to reinvent the way children are being

taught.

In the article Here's how we can reinvent the classroom for the digital age, it is stated

that about 50 years ago teachers used to stand in front of a class of 40-50 students and teach them

in front of a chalk board to make sure the material was learned. Teachers would ask frequent

questions and assign tons of homework, but now things have changed. Today no black boards or

chalk are used. Instead, the black board has become a white board and the chalk has become dry

erase markers. Some schools provide technology for their students to encourage collaboration

but are the methods the same as learning from the teacher? The article explains that a complete

transformation in teaching is occurring. Computers are now taking the role of the teachers and

students are now taking responsibility for their own learning. The article further explains that

giving students some control of their learning is the key to engagement (Heres How, 2015).

Students typically do well in classrooms where they are treated with trust and respect, especially

children. Everyone wants to feel important and empowered in a classroom. Some students take

longer to learn material than others so they need the opportunity to redo assignments until they

have fully learned the material.

An article by Partners (n.d.) titled, Reinventing how we teach our kids, talks about five

different guideline principles for future education. The five different guiding principles for future

education are: passion, curiosity, imagination, critical thinking, and grit. According to the author,

The most valuable resource for humanity is the persistent and passionate human mind, so

creating a future of passionate kids is so very important (Partners, n.d). Having a passion is very
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important because knowing you have a purpose and being determined to succeed at a young age

will make them strive to do and be the best they can be growing into adults. Children need to

have a passion [that] makes them jump out of the bed every morning. Curiosity is something

innate in kids, yet something lost by most adults during the course of their life. Why? (Partners,

n.d.). Raising a child who is constantly asking questions is very important in their learning. A

child that constantly asks questions is important because the more children ask the better they

will understand the material they are learning. Next, imagination; all children need to obtain

some sort of imagination on the world and their future. Partners (n.d.) believed that kids happen

to be some of the most imaginative humans around . . . its critical that they know how important

and liberating imagination can be. The authors article also believed that critical thinking in

children is a huge impact on the future education. According to the article, this principle is

perhaps the most difficult to teach kids, (Partners, n.d.). Critical thinking is important in a child

for the future of education because developing critical thinking skills at a young age will stay

with a child and will be very useful to always think outside of what is obvious. In the article,

Grit is defined as passion and perseverance in pursuit of long-term goals, and has recently

been widely acknowledged as one of the most important predictors of and contributors to

success (Partners, n.d.). The author of this article strongly feels that those five principles will

truly make an impact on todays children in elementary school.

In an article titled, Reinventing How We Teach Our Kids, Peter Diamandis (2017)

discusses 5 different issues in elementary schools. The five different issues Diamandis states are

grading, sage on the stage, relevance, imagination, and boring. In the traditional education

system, students start at an A, and every time the child gets something wrong, the score gets

lower and lower (Diamandis, 2017). At best it is demotivating, and at worst it has nothing to do
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with the world you occupy as an adult (Diamandis, 2017). Sage on stage is when the teacher is at

the front of the class lecturing to students while they are paying no attention and are totally

behind and lost. The issue is that the children are not getting anything from the lecture and are

not learning anything from the teachers. Another issue in the article is relevance. The main

question is, are what children are learning actually useful later in life? The author feels that many

things that are being taught have no relevance to the real world. The things children are learning

will not be useful as adults. The next issue the author talked about is imagination. According to

the author, programs [are] structured with rote memorization that it squashes the originality

from most children (Diamandis, 2017). Originality is very important in education because

always having to memorize things takes out the fun and importance of learning. The last issue

the author talked about was the topic boring. Children go to school and are bored and that

hinders them from learning and gasping the material they need to know. Diamandis (2017)

believed that if learning in school is a chore, boring or emotionless, then the most important

driver of human learning, passion, is disengaged. An average of 7,200 students drop out of high

school each day, totaling 1.3 million each year. Those drop out results mean only 69% of

students who start high school finish four years later. And over 50% of these high school

dropouts name boredom as the No. 1 reason they left (Diamandis, 2017). Keeping students

engaged plays a huge role in decreasing the drop out rate. Students get bored and disengaged so

easily and it is the teachers job to keep them focused and engaged in what is being taught.

In conclusion, all the articles talk about strategies to reinvent the way teaching is being

done today. There are many different things that need to be done to help the future of children

and education. If the world wants better for our next generation, a change in education and the

way children are being taught needs to occur to stop this issue from going any further.
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References
Here's how we can reinvent the classroom for the digital age. (2015, April 16). Unreasonable.

Retrieved from https://unreasonable.is/reinvent-the-classroom-for-the-digital-age/

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Partners, K. (n.d.). Reinventing how we teach our kids. Reinventing How We Teach Our Kids.

Retrieved from http://www.kmtrust.com/reinventing-how-we-teach-our-kids/

Diamandis, P. (2017, March 9). Reinventing how we teach our kids. Tech Blog. Retrieved from

http://www.diamandis.com/blog/reinventing-how-we-teach-our-kids