education now vs. 20 years ago

Twenty years ago, education was based on books and lectures, now, it’s iPads and websites. In the past, students would have to spend hours in libraries looking through books for a project or research. With the huge advantages of having the Internet at our fingertips, we can change those hours of surfing through books into 30 seconds. One major difference that has changed through the curriculum in schools is teaching students skills instead of content. Principal Mark Grishaber said, “If you walk into a high-functioning classroom, you will see kids in groups. The working world wants people that can work together. ” Students that have more skills will tend to be more successful in the real world than students that know when the Civil War started. In the past, students were sat down and told to memorize the factual information of subjects. Now that curriculum expanded and is making students work in a group to compare, contrast, and discuss those topics to increase their knowledge and work on their communication skills which will come in more helpful in their future rather than knowing facts. Grishaber said, “The main change is that instead of students sitting in a classroom and the teacher expounding knowledge upon kids, the world has changed to where we need more people working together so that’s why we are more into groups and giving a project to find different alternatives. ” The main reason for the curricular change is the changing world around us. With the many changes in society, the curriculum is adjusted to change with time. In the old days, students would get smacked with a ruler for misbehaving but as times change, teachers and students grow into a new curriculum and new requirements. Another major change within the past 20 years was how the student “soak up” the knowledge. Twenty years ago, the teacher would lecture for an hour which has now changed into interactive apps and informational websites for students to use. Senior Veronica Smialkowska (Div. 970) said, “I prefer using websites because it is always more fun than sitting at a desk for a whole period and listening to the teacher talk. ” Along with students, the teachers are also getting taught what to teach. Teachers are required to go to professional development meetings to learn how to adjust their classroom to fit into the frequently adjusted curriculum. A history teacher 20 years ago had a lot of material to teach seeing how much history there is out there. But within those 20 years, so much has happened that students need to be taught about. This is a challenge for those creating the history curriculum because they need to figure out which events are actually worth teaching about. With the many changes in the world around us, our curriculum is adjusted to fit the people we need to become to succeed one day.