There’s a classic puzzle that requires connecting a square of nine dots with four lines; the problem appears impossible until the solver realizes that she can extend the lines outside the box. Ted Kolderie does just that in his new book arguing for a bevy of bold yet sensible reforms that would upend today’s education model.
Some suggestions are not so revelatory, such as increasing student motivation and personalized learning. But as Kolderie continues, he makes his way to recommendations that would shake up everything from age-based student grouping to how we think about achievement and teacher leadership. To be sure, none of his ideas are meant for every district in every state. “‘America’ does not have schools…Massachusetts has schools, Texas has schools, California has schools,” Kolderie writes. Each state, he believes, should adopt and its own reforms to fit its unique needs.
Kolderie’s most compelling argument is that U.S. schools require too many years of attendance. Some young people are ready for responsibility sooner than our system allows. So by requiring everyone to stay in school until age eighteen, we’re preventing millions of people from reaching their full potential. “The restrictions built into the institution of adolescence have made young people arguably the most-discriminated-against class of people in our society,” Kolderie says, adding that these discriminations lead to disruptive behavior and unmotivated teens. As recently as the early twentieth century, nearly half of all sixteen-year-olds worked full-time, while the other half attended school. And even today, there are young people who do amazing things in spite of these misplaced restrictions: a thirteen-year-old who sailed around the world, a fifteen-year-old who developed an algorithm for diagnosing bladder cancer, and teen twins who started a computer software business. Kolderie also notes that reducing the number of years of mandatory schooling would save states billions of dollars—never a bad thing.
Above all, Kolderie wants to break free of the confines of the age-level, one-room traditional classroom that he insists cannot possibly juggle the needs of twenty-five students on its own. He acknowledges that such a shift could take a long time and would require changing how society perceives youth, how we allocate resources, and how we structure school days. Specifically, schools should start providing students with career training, internships, and apprenticeships. As Fordham has argued, a four-year degree isn’t the only path to professional success. There are faster, less-expensive ways to gainful employment. Let’s embrace those too.
SOURCE: Ted Kolderie, The Split Screen Strategy: How to Turn Education Into a Self-Improving System (Minnesota: Beaver’s Pond Press Inc., 2015).
