[staff] YouTube is their Soapbox.
Today as educators we are challenged to think ahead of education.
Today we witness our youth becoming a part of the democratic process through YouTube and not the picket line.
They are empowered to have their voices heard sooner and to more people than ever before.
They gain knowledge, the way they should, in repositories that are no longer vacuums but constantly evolving, in places like Wikipedia and comment threads.
They learn early that they are a part of change, contributors as much as seekers of knowledge, of processes.
They learn that they are experiencing something unique in their country’s (and their world’s) historical trajectory. They learn that the system that they are a part of depends on them as much, if not more than the system they have been taught to depend on.
And so they network. They speak publicly. They think critically. They advocate.
And all of this is done beyond, above, even against the confines of the classroom teaching that dominates their education.
So as educators, our roles now must not be about preparing our young people for the real world. They are already a part of it.
Our role must be to facilitate and ensure that the opportunities to thrive are in place for them. To imagine the new ways that our youth can and do thrive in the changing and challenging society that they are connected by.
Comments
As Connie Yowell of MacArthur says, "Our current education system is preparing our children for jobs in the 1950s."
Posted by: rikomatic | March 12, 2008 9:58 AM