Last week, our professor asked us to watch a video for homework. My thoughts were “awesome, all I have to do is watch a max 15 minute video and I’ll be done.” When I sat down to finally watch the video, I clicked on the link only to find out that this “video” was a full blown hour and a half long MOVIE. I was not happy, now I was going to have to schedule out a full hour and half in order to watch a movie, that I was certain I was not going to be that interested in.
After calming myself down, I decided to watch the movie and I am so happy I did. The movie was titled “Most Likely to Succeed” and showcased a school in San Diego who was taking a new approach to the education system. This school did not believe in using schedules, bells, specific class subjects. The school was based around teaching students the soft skills that are more applicable to the real-life work force and not focused on standardized testing, with the one objective of getting into college.
I found this way of educating students to have both pros and cons. Their subjects were based on an inquiry curriculum, while still giving guidelines that the students needed to follow. I found this to both be a positive and a negative as it allowed for students to take control of their own work and guide their own learning, but I also slightly forced students into a specific project that may not appeal to them. I also believe that there would be a large concern from parents about this type of schooling as it is less information based and does not involve any standardized testing. For many parents, their focus is strictly on getting their child into the best school to get them the best job, but this outlook needs to and is starting to change in our own educational system. Getting parents and administrators on board with this type of educational system would be very difficult and problematic.
While I do support an inquiry-based way of learning, I do believe that there are certain challenges that would make this type of schooling impossible for all classrooms and school systems. I do look forward to looking more into an inquiry-based way of learning throughout our course.
