Most Controversial Issues

Posted on | May 14, 2009 | 28 Comments

Someone who is no longer teaching, asked me the other day, “What are the chief current issues in education? What are the most controversial and nagging questions that we face?

I gave her a couple, but my perspective is unique. What do you think — in as few words as possible — are the greatest questions facing education in this digital age?

Comments

28 Responses to “Most Controversial Issues”

wmchamberlain
May 14th, 2009 @ 5:43 pm

How does our education system, which is notoriously slow to adopt new ideas, keep up with technology that changes daily?

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Anne V
May 14th, 2009 @ 5:44 pm

To test or not to test… and why?

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ashley
May 14th, 2009 @ 5:53 pm

How do we prepare children for a collaborative world in a multiple choice education system?

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Peter Caggia
May 14th, 2009 @ 6:08 pm

What will we do when the “consumers” of public education (businesses, universities) decide that they can do without us?

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Buzziebeeteacher
May 14th, 2009 @ 6:20 pm

Today’s biggest problem in education is resistance, not on the part of the students (they are moving into this new age quite nicely), but with our teachers who are scared out of their minds to lose control of the classroom. What they don’t realize is that they never had control, just the perception of it.

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RJP
May 14th, 2009 @ 6:23 pm

How do we engage students in curricula that appears useless to them? Many already write for real audiences and work in areas that are untouched by schools.

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Luke
May 14th, 2009 @ 6:25 pm

How can we prepare students for the world of tomorrow when the tools of today aren’t even available?

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Shelley
May 14th, 2009 @ 6:28 pm

Current issues: networked learning, open learning, individualized learning

Controversial: How irrelevant have schools already become?

Nagging: Where is the lever? (More and more of us recognize the need for enormous change, but how will we get there?)

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Kristin
May 14th, 2009 @ 6:51 pm

So much to do … so little time.

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Buthaina Al-Othman
May 14th, 2009 @ 7:01 pm

How to make undergrads, who are rejecting learning and have been well trained not to think or ask questions, understand and realize the importance of learning?

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Mary Jude
May 14th, 2009 @ 7:10 pm

How do we prepare our students for a future we can scarcely imagine?

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Andrew
May 14th, 2009 @ 9:03 pm

There is a crisis of relevance in many schools/systems today.

How are we preparing students for a globalized future?

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Michelle
May 14th, 2009 @ 9:21 pm

Regurgitate or digest?

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Nathan
May 15th, 2009 @ 12:46 am

Leadership.

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Robyn Alexander
May 15th, 2009 @ 4:12 am

How will we ever reach students when we refuse to change ourselves? In the past we have always been able to keep up a little with emerging trends even though we did not embrace them, but now the gap is getting even wider and the students are moving on. School stays the same. We keep wondering what we are doing wrong but never look at changing anything.

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T.J. Hart
May 15th, 2009 @ 4:58 am

How to revitalize schools, making teachers the key, but moving from a functionalist environment to a post modern environment. Pretty much all the questions 1 through 13 so far.

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Kay Maynard
May 15th, 2009 @ 9:09 am

How do we change attitudes about extreme blocking of Internet sites, cell phones and other similar technologies that could revolutionize the way we work and learn?

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Kirsten Holland
May 15th, 2009 @ 9:10 am

Catering for the ever growing Gifted and Talented population in our schools. Thank goodnss for Web 2.0 as a start.

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KarenJan
May 15th, 2009 @ 10:28 am

How long will it take before we redefine the role of the teacher? And what will that redefinition look like?

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Carl Anderson
May 15th, 2009 @ 10:38 am

Issues: Disruptive Innovation (individualized instruction, personal learning plans), School Choice (charter schools, online courses, homeschooling, private schools, unschooling, etc.), Dropout Rates, Loosing our Gifted and Talented students to unchallenging pedagogy aimed at the middle.

Questions: How can we make changes that address these issues? Are school systems too burdened with tradition to address these challenging issues?

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J. Edwards reply on June 1st, 2009:
“Disruptive” it surely needs to be.

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Jenny
May 15th, 2009 @ 7:17 pm

Helping teachers recognize the need to adapt their methods, and to support them while they change. Many teachers teach the way they always have, yet their current students have different needs than students from the past. Teachers need to step back and put the needs of the students before any insecurities of their own.

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Matt
May 15th, 2009 @ 11:25 pm

Combining the “standards-based, assessment for learning, differentiated instruction” movement with the need for more “21st century authentic learning” while simultaneously realizing the need to be “held accountable” by federal, state and local officials.

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Garrett
May 17th, 2009 @ 1:42 am

Access!!!

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Stephen
May 20th, 2009 @ 12:26 am

There is a large debate over school vouchers; should these vouchers be allowed to fund private schools, if so which ones – religious or non-religious? There are many solid points to the argument that support the funding of school vouchers, as well as, views that support the idea that school vouchers should not be able to fund any type of private school.

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Laura
June 3rd, 2009 @ 1:19 pm

How do we provide technology and resources to our students during this time of significant budget cuts and financial concerns?

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David Warlick reply on June 3rd, 2009:
Laura,

It’s a good questions. But I keep wonder if we might find, with inexpensive netbooks and some rather interesting open content projects going one, that we can actually do digital education more cheaply than print (15th century technology).

– dave –

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Liz
June 4th, 2009 @ 7:16 am

…using a 19th century classroom model in the 21st century.

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