That’s why the school-centered paradigm is such a powerful one. It’s not a view we came to after years of careful consideration. Since we all grew up in a school-centered system, we believe that this is the way education is done. We all see things through a lens that was ground and polished by years of personal experience. “As we are beginning the formation of Cohort 2 in our Personalized Learning journey, I have been reflecting on the past year and wondering why Cohort 1 has had some of the struggles observed over the past months. Perhaps it is because the paradigm shift from school-centered to learner-centered is hard and most of us are still using the school-centered paradigm and talking across paradigms.” Peter is one of the most thoughtful educators I have met in my years of covering the education space, and his point is insightful. Recently, he sent us this note as he was thinking through his district’s transition to a student-centered and more personalized approach to learning. He is a long-time friend and contributor to the Learning Counsel. Peter Haapala is the superintendent of Warroad Public Schools ISD 690 in Warroad, MN. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to explore a new paradigm. And some of those will become teachers, keepers of the knowledge to impart on future generations. ![]() Of the 14 million who are proficient, many will enter college and get a further body of knowledge and a degree stating that they were there for four or five years or more. Breaking it down, out of 50 million school-aged children, 40 million will graduate the system and, after 12 long, structured years of training, 26 Million will not be proficient in math and language arts. Is our investment working? Of those 80 percent of children that graduate our well-honed system, 2/3 are not proficient in mathematics or reading and writing. Freely given at the cost of $750 Billion per year, paid by those of us that work and pay taxes. This paradigm, let’s call it school-centered learning, is freely given to students. And the other 20 percent? Well, four out of five ain’t bad. Four out of five are expected to successfully traverse this system and come out the other side educated and conditioned for success in the adult, or real world. Until the age of 18, children are wards of the state. And theirs.Īs an institution, school is somehow sacred. They are to follow a set path and receive a certain body of knowledge that designates them as “educated.” This body of knowledge is to be disseminated during structured time frames by educators, the keepers of the knowledge. In the education biz, we have viewed events and acted based on a very old and widely accepted definition of education. So what is a paradigm anyway? The short answer is a widely-held set of beliefs, a philosophical or theoretical framework from which to understand, interpret and act on data and events.
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