Stop Talking in the Back of the Room

We need to have safe classrooms for students and teachers. No argument. I’m not the expert in what “safe” is.

But I do know, and I am an expert, that remote and distance learning are very weak alternatives for any kind of curriculum-based work. Single workshops, seminars, meetings, and so forth work quite well within a tight, fixed time frame with people who know how to lead and facilitate such meetings. But people in business—or entrepreneurs—who enroll in months-long courses for the sake of “completion” or a “certificate” have a very high drop-out rate. Students at primary and secondary level are no different. There are too many distractions, not enough interaction, and too many teachers who have simply never been adequately trained for this kind of learning environment. There may be attendance, but there isn’t a lot of learning.

Keep everyone safe. But get them all back into the classrooms.

And when we do, let’s start thinking about treating students at all levels based on their learning abilities and talent, and not “warehousing” them in classes according to chronology and a system that is hundreds of years old and largely irrelevant today.