John Thompson: Three Visions of Teaching in the 21st Century
Guest post by John Thompson
This is the second of two connected posts. Read the first here.
Richard Elmore and Elizabeth City have described three possible futures for public education. I see two of them as nightmares, but Elmore's and City's most hopeful scenario is one of schools that foster "controlled engagement," or the "frog gets a GPS." Under their model, "schools set the learning destinations and map out the best pathways to those destinations," and adults and students, together, create a broader learning environment.
Nancy Flanagan, a former Michigan Teacher of the Year and blogger, and Jal Mehta of the Harvard Futures of School Reform have also described likely paths for our schools. Flanagan and her teacher friends anticipated three scenarios:
1. "The Brilliant Temp model," where "teaching becomes a competitive short-term career for our best and
