Thoughts #2
More thoughts from my paper…..
Schools are burdened by a century old system of age based competency that was put in place during the Depression. One quarter of the American work force was out of work and became a political necessity to mandate schooling for all children until the age of eighteen. Before then American education was largely competency based. Students were required to attend school between the ages of 8-14 unless they demonstrated competency in the subjects that were taught.
Today we have little, if any, incentive for a student to excel and to move at their own pace. If a student is a junior they take chemistry. They simply cannot take physics until their senior year, no matter how fast and proficient they become. Student are sheperded from class to class. They must take chemistry for 180 days.
Contrast this with the skill based world of video games that students are so familiar with. Gamers start on level one and often progress through strategy, collaboration, and goal setting through dozens of levels. They simply can’t move on in the game until they demonstrate competence. They could achieve the top level in days, weeks, or months. Most games require collaboration in order to move on. If we can do this for World of Warcraft why can’t we do it in Chemistry? Would your students be excited if they had a “game” to play in chemistry and you told them first day “Finish the game and you can immediately get to play Physics, which I hear is really cool”. Currently we say “Play chemistry, but you can’t play physics until this day next year, it doesn’t matter how fast you understand the content, you simply can’t move on until then”.
