Where is education and training going? My last few blog posts have been linked and I can assure you it wasn’t planned. It is just something I have been thinking about a lot lately. My post on the second was about more educational future reports that indicate that essentially nothing will change and my post on the third was about passion and teaching. So the point? Do yourself a big favour and read this manifesto by Seth Godin (free) on what should be the future of education. This has been out now for a few months and I finally had the chance to read it and it is what good educators should be saying about our current education systems. They are letting us down and they no longer serve a useful purpose. Strong words, yes, but I agree with them. This isn’t new. If I reflect back on my schooling (seriously) I realise that the important things that I learnt that I use today and I have used to shape my future I learnt myself. I vividly remember prior to secondary school being an active learner, reading books on things that interested me and figuring things out by experiments etc. I bought a apple 2e computer and taught myself programming. I liked to write and hence started a street newspaper with reporters, one typewriter and the library photocopier. My school couldn’t teach me these things. Where did I end up, I write training programs for people and I use computers to help people learn. By the time I got to secondary school I knew how to play the game and how to pass exams and I was good at it but I didn’t learn much that I enjoyed or wanted to learn or would ever use. By the time the big exams came around I was disillusioned and I took the first job that bwas easy and offered the most money. I had been trainer for this job and I could done it for the rest of my life. I had absolutely no interest in that job. It took me nearly four years to figure out that I hated that job, that I was bored stupid and that I needed to do what I wanted to do.
There are changes ahead. TAFE NSW is about to change forever. Sadly you will read in the news a whole lot of rubbish from both sides that has nothing to do with what should be discussed. The Government is going to change TAFE but not for educational reasons but to save money in the budget. That’s all. The teacher’s union will argue that it is about lowering the educational standards but that is crap, it is about jobs to them and the protection of antiquated employment conditions. Both sides should be talking about better educational systems.
TAFE NSW has been deluding itself for years that it was making the tough changes to stay modern and in touch with the changing business world. They have been going backward and desperately clinging onto old educational methodologies that are no longer working. They are inefficient, top heavy and unfortunately contain way to many comfortable people who do not want to change. There are also some fantastic, passionate educators in TAFE who have learnt to stay low to survive. They need to speak up.
In the months ahead, particularly if you have young children you should be cutting through the rhetoric and voicing your opinion about what we need from a modern educational system. It is your right and it is the right of the future of Australia (young people) that they get a system that can prepare them for the future.
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