Schools are mostly a modern invention, but children have always learnt. Most children would learn to farm alongside their parents. A lucky few would be apprenticed to a trade or craft, going to live with a master who would teach them a skill while they practised it. The end point of this training was the masterwork, a creation that announced to the world that the apprentice could produce something of independent excellence and was therefore no longer an apprentice, but a master of his or her craft.
Schools broadened education; children now develop many skills and aptitudes. The prime evidence of mastery has also changed - from an actual piece of work that the community could see to a credential, a certificate of some kind. Employers ask modern applicants to present their degree certificates, they don’t want to look at the actual work behind them. They trust the judgements of the awarding authorities and are thereby saved a great deal of time and effort.
Education today is undoubtedly a lot better - it provides many more opportunities for many more people, and develops more rounded citizens. However, it allows us to confuse evidence and purpose. Credentials, often expressed at least partly as numbers, are evidence of what we have learnt: because they help us get to university and then start careers, they are also part of the purpose; but really we learn not for a piece of paper but for mastery.
At ISA, when we review curriculum we ask the question, ‘in this subject what do we want students to leave school able to do?’ Last year, we focused on languages. We decided that we wanted every ISA graduate to leave as ‘an independent user’ of a foreign language. Talents and interests vary, but every child should be able to use the language to interact in a wide variety of situations - not just booking a hotel and ordering a meal. When we introduced the computer course into Grade 6, we asked the same question - what should each child be able to do in this subject area when they leave: we wanted them all to have a programming language.
This approach doesn’t prevent good grades and impressive credentials - quite the reverse, it makes success there all the more likely. However, it is an important change of emphasis of what school is about.
Last week Middle and High School parents received progress reports for their children, next week Elementary parents get reports for their children next week. Teachers talk about aptitudes more than outcomes - ultimately, the journey to mastery is determined less by current attainment than by willingness and character.
After you receive the elementary school reports take time to celebrate achievements and use the spring break which follows to recharge batteries ready for a new bout of learning in April.
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