Brainless Sameness - A Brief Review
Despite the fact that I home school my two boys, I believe in public education. I think that public education is fundamental to the well-being of our country, and our lack of care and attention to many districts throughout the country is a disservice towards a thriving republic. Local taxes and national taxes should support children of all backgrounds, regardless of what the local community provides back in instant return on investment.
Brainless Sameness by Bob Sornson tackles the inefficiencies in much of American education. It is more of a survey book looking at what brought us to our current state where both children and teachers are failed in education. He also offers ideological shifts met with practical solutions to navigate the path toward better education. The broad solutions he encourages us are proven solutions which could translate into a healthier society.
Sticking to an antiquated adaption of Horace Mann's educational system lies at the root of our problem in educational systems across our states. Government mandates require teachers and administrations to largely stick to a mandated system of covering material, testing students, and scoring them based on this limited range of assessment.
Rather than looking toward the development of individual students through competency based learning, we turn to testing and scoring as ways of categorizing people. The failures within this system have long been apparent as schools fail with or without funding, and government programs to bring us into the twenty-first century have been pedagogically and morally bankrupt.
Sornson offers the model of competency and project based learning as our alternative. Rather than continuing to teach for the test, educators should be allowed to help students flourish. The Horace Mann based system created a scholastic class of ten to fifteen percent of the population. This might have made sense when it took a hundred people to do the work of one farmer or factory worker last year century. In a global and technological economy we must make strides forward in our educational approach. Sornson looks forward to a day when public, private, and home education all reach competency based standards which encourage thinkers who innovate.
The pragmatic ending to each chapter, and the focus of the book kept it from being dry reading. He was able to craft a practical volume for addressing our needs as a progressive society. Those who are interested in classical education and the liberal arts will not find this book abandoning those principles. Instead, it allows us to look at what our goals as we educate.
Good books ask us questions and pry more questions from our imagination. If you care about the future of education in your community or our country, I highly recommend reading this book for the ideas it may give you. American ingenuity and educational opportunity deserve more, and this book paints the possibility of a brighter future for all students.
Brainless Sameness by Bob Sornson tackles the inefficiencies in much of American education. It is more of a survey book looking at what brought us to our current state where both children and teachers are failed in education. He also offers ideological shifts met with practical solutions to navigate the path toward better education. The broad solutions he encourages us are proven solutions which could translate into a healthier society.
Sticking to an antiquated adaption of Horace Mann's educational system lies at the root of our problem in educational systems across our states. Government mandates require teachers and administrations to largely stick to a mandated system of covering material, testing students, and scoring them based on this limited range of assessment.
Rather than looking toward the development of individual students through competency based learning, we turn to testing and scoring as ways of categorizing people. The failures within this system have long been apparent as schools fail with or without funding, and government programs to bring us into the twenty-first century have been pedagogically and morally bankrupt.
Sornson offers the model of competency and project based learning as our alternative. Rather than continuing to teach for the test, educators should be allowed to help students flourish. The Horace Mann based system created a scholastic class of ten to fifteen percent of the population. This might have made sense when it took a hundred people to do the work of one farmer or factory worker last year century. In a global and technological economy we must make strides forward in our educational approach. Sornson looks forward to a day when public, private, and home education all reach competency based standards which encourage thinkers who innovate.
The pragmatic ending to each chapter, and the focus of the book kept it from being dry reading. He was able to craft a practical volume for addressing our needs as a progressive society. Those who are interested in classical education and the liberal arts will not find this book abandoning those principles. Instead, it allows us to look at what our goals as we educate.
Good books ask us questions and pry more questions from our imagination. If you care about the future of education in your community or our country, I highly recommend reading this book for the ideas it may give you. American ingenuity and educational opportunity deserve more, and this book paints the possibility of a brighter future for all students.
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