What Do You Mean, Saber Toothed?

I have been talking about the book the Saber Toothed Curriculum as if everyone has read it.

Turns out, only a few of you have.

It is a satire (and a very short 139 page book written in 1939!? ) that basically defines the rough spots in the theory of education: how America has been doing it, at times, wrongly. And as this other blogger commented, even in England and Australia!?

tarpits.org  photo taken from The La Brea Tar Pits and Museum  (los angeles) website.


James in Australia recommends it. (See also https://jameskennedymonash.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/book-the-saber-tooth-curriculum/   )

In it, a drunken fictional professor rails at a bar about the Stone Age as a puzzling joke in relation to all our theories and new philosophies about what is best for kids, as aged adults see it in Education.

>>>TO QUOTE JAMES....
The main messages in this book’s seven stories are:

1. The scientific method has made absurd yet un-disprovable theories become accepted in education; (See this example.)
2. Schools teach an outdated set of skills to students;
3. School reform meets resistance from all angles;
4. Universities dictate school curricula with lofty, academic content and over-complicate education with ‘credits’, ‘units’ and rules on ‘prerequisites’;
5. Unions control education for the short-term benefit of society;
6. When young people learn outdated skills, they can’t find meaningful work;
7. All of this is extremely difficult to change.

I agree with most of these points. After graduation from Cambridge during the economic crisis with no job, no practical skills and no employers even remotely interested in hiring biology graduates, I felt I’d been cheated into some massive con. Unlike history or art, biology isn’t particularly interesting to other people, either. I would love to see curricula become more relevant to society than they are today—we’d have a more interesting, more employable crop of graduates in years to come.>>>


In the book, the educator goes back in time to talk about the pioneer educator named New-Fist who was a Cave Leader that wanted a better life for his family, his children, by teaching them fish grabbing with bare hands, clubbing the wholly mammoth, and frightening the saber toothed tiger away with fire are the objectives. As time changed, the ice age, they had to learn to build nets, dig holes and draw up snares for the new challenges of muddy water, smarter fish, and new prey.

Forbes magazine (2015) reiterates what many educators and concerned parents are wishing for, bringing back vocational education.  A look back to the 1900's reveals cities like Chicago did build huge high schools for boys only to learn trades. My uncle attended Lane Tech in Chicago.

>>>>Chicago(school system).... original concept was revolutionary. The school system figured out the world of the 1940s and beyond would need more machinists, auto mechanics, electricians, architectural draftsmen, food service experts, sheet metal workers, complex printing machine operators–and more–so they built a school to fill the need. The school was built for 6,000 students, all male, originally, who would graduate with certificates proving they were work-ready.

The school still produced job-ready graduates when (the author - Lee Bey) attended there, even if vocational education was increasingly seen–wrongly–as a second-tier educational track. In the decades that followed, the school shrank in prestige, class size and offerings.  (SEE ALSO https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-blogs/school-of-architecture-a-look-at-sprawling-chicago-vocational/7c114eda-daad-4911-abe2-2f304d1c5fc6  ) >>>>>>

 Research shows these gigantic campuses are now college prep schools.  At best they show computers and 3-D printing.

 

Forbes explains that around the 1950's, people in power decided to track kids A. college bound and B. shop kids. ( SEE ALSO https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholaswyman/2015/09/01/why-we-desperately-need-to-bring-back-vocational-training-in-schools/#28700ec187ad  )

The not-so-smart kids got the vocational route, and by the time I hit school, 1968-1981 Shop Class was a year long 7th grade class given to us as a trial (or  one could chose Home Economics which surprise, I did not choose!). By the time I began to teach English and Journalism (1989) at public schools, the shops were run down and a laughing stock or second tier to the 'rest' of us. Now, in the new millennium, The charter schools I have been blessed to work and or get to know from the inside out because my teen tried them out, most aimed at educating the whole child. Computers and the media are the primary addition, to the "three R's...reading, writing, and arithmetic ". If you were looking at Albuquerque from say, Ohio, you would not realize our media -based vocational arts are great because NM is the next Hollywood, with many films and shows being produced here! I overheard an older teacher remark that a local high school was re done with law libraries when it should have had an auto shop installed. (kids in that neighborhood would profit at learning both skills, but most do not end up or choose to work in white collar work).



I would not have been a proponent of Vocational if not for the economic fall of 2009. While I was unemployed, after having been employed as an Educator at a professional level for quite awhile, I listened to the sad stories of many individuals who also were highly educated and nevertheless, pounding the pavement looking for fast food jobs etc. !  Even three years ago, Forbes in the same article reports more than half of highly educated people are not working earning that huge amount teachers instruct them as students....saying....college graduates EARN such and such. Don't give up!?  Instead: " For example, over 53% of recent college graduates are unemployed or under-employed."  *FORBES

I dream of society being happy, people working jobs and pursuing careers they know they will like and enjoy.  There will be some who are working towards let's say, an RN who now are doing a medical job that is not what they dreamed of. I believe it or not know people who enjoy working for the Waste Management company, loving the cool trucks and the feeling of accomplishment picking up trash!  (This is for those who worry that "those jobs" will be left undone if everyone works at a "fun" job.)  I see a day when most kids will be homeschooled and trained in what they want. I sort of fear but also ponder what if  society did not support public education with tax dollars; we would be forced to teach our own kids, or pay money to send them to this school or that one?!

What will our future hold?

Diane L. Styma