In our well-intended insistence to bring everyone up to “proficiency” via academic “standards,” there is also an automatic reductionism that occurs, whereby all of the known universe is distilled into a script of need to know. While the logic seems sounds–how can we know we’re educating students if we don’t know where the learning should begin or end?–there are long-term consequences, starting with the concept of bolstering weaknesses instead of building on strengths.
Of course, Ken Robinson can make the point lights years more eloquently than I can, so let’s just watch the video together, shall we?
