In many ways, the start of school is the same as it has always been; students enter freshly painted hallways eager to find out what awaits them in the days, weeks and months ahead. From the earliest public schools, to the schools of today, little has changed about the first day of school. On the other hand, what happens in the next 179 days is dramatically different than what previous generations have experienced. It has been said that the 20th century was the “information age,” and that more knowledge was gained in the past 100 years than in the history of mankind; this expanding knowledge has gained in momentum to the point where our knowledge base is increasing geometrically, doubling every 5 years. That means the world of today’s kindergartners, the class of 2020, will have 400% more information than we have today. In the past, education was about learning information; today and in the future, education will be about what one does with the information they learn. We no longer live in the age of information, but rather we live in the age of ideas- where information is linked together to create new concepts. It is impossible for the students of today to learn all there is to know because knowledge is being acquired at such a high rate. Instead, we must teach our students how to think – so that the information they deal with in their careers and their lives can be processed. In order to prepare our children, we must ensure that our teaching methods allow students to engage their minds in meaningful, complex ways, and that learning occurs not when a fact is learned but rather when a mind is engaged.
Over the coming weeks, I will share with you examples of how our school system is applying “Version 2.0” concepts throughout our schools in order to increase student understanding and engagement.
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