An Idea Whose Time Has Come: Crowdsourcing as an Educational Method

Crowdsourcing, the opening up of a problem to the public, or the "crowd," has been slowly becoming a part of our culture.  It began with the Oxford English Dictionary, where the publishers asked the public to bring them words that were in the common language to be published in the dictionary.  It has proliferated with the Internet and the World Wide Web.  The global nature of the Web has allowed us to collaborate with others across the globe, creating a true global economy and global society.  No longer are nations individual entities looking out for their own interests - they are truly united in a world wide collective, sharing information and resources with others, regardless of their political, national or ethnic affiliation.  However, some corners of humanity are deathly afraid of this globalization.  In China and North Korea, the people in the nation have no ability to see outside their national borders since the ruling party fears losing their power if they give the masses a glimpse of freedom.  Some nations in the Middle East fear allowing their youngsters any release from the strict rules of their fundamentalist religions, claiming that if they do, the "Evil West" will corrupt them and pull them away from the truth.  However, overall, we are, as a global society, moving towards a true world society.  Websites like Wikipedia are trying to build a global database of knowledge where ANYONE can contribute.  Amazon.com and eBay are creating a worldwide marketplace where you can buy items from almost anyone in the world.  But, yet, education remains stuck in the past. 

The rules about how and where our kids are educated are dictated by a select few individuals.  These individuals (the politicians and the teachers' unions) have their own agendas, which are not always aligned with the parents' goals for their kids and their futures.  For example, think about the recent debate about Senate Bill 24.  Governor Malloy insisted that it was right for the state and the future of our economy and educational system.  However, it threw a little bit of money at a lot of issues, attacked teachers and their way of life, and drew the ire of the teachers' unions.  Then, after back room negotiations between the unions and the legislators on the Education Committee, they watered down the bill to protect the teachers' guarantee to tenure (and, therefore, the unions' income - dues), and also protect the politicians chance at reelection - the donations from the unions to their campaign funds.  Yet, the system STILL worked the way it had in the past, and there was little extra support from the state to the districts to make education better.  Districts, in order to fund the extra requirements, now need to put more money into their schools to support what the state won't.  The new law also allowed private charter schools to get state funding with little oversight from the state, and more control over failing schools by the State Department of Education - which, in most cases, includes handing over control of these districts to privately controlled companies.  This allows these companies to increase their profits at the expense of the CT taxpayers and increase the likelihood that the politicians get campaign funds from these companies (due to our campaign finance laws that allow companies, who are "persons," to make "invisible" donations to campaigns...).

Why should we, as parents, allow the futures of our children be dictated by the politicians, unions and corporations?  Because, we have no other options.  We can send our kids to public school, run by these corrupt groups who care very little about our kids and using real education research but a lot about money, or we can send them to private schools for exorbitant amounts of money where they can get a real education.  What is it about the private schools that kids graduating from them are so much more successful in life?  How can we get this success in education into the public schools so it is available for ALL kids, not just those whose families can afford the tuition at private schools?

One thing that I have noticed teaching at schools is that the public schools have less concern about including the parents and families in the education of the children.  Private schools, on the other hand, are extremely concerned about this.  The family is, of course, paying for the child to get a top notch education.  In the private schools I have worked at, the more parent and family input the school allowed, the more successful the kids were.  This is because, no matter how good the teachers are at the school, the more people who are involved in the child's education, the more the child learns about the world.  For example, one of the schools I worked at was a day school.  I was in charge of the Middle School Chess Team and, during one tournament, the parents opened their homes to the team in the time between rounds.  It allowed the kids to learn and practice, and they learned about charity and built character as well as learned social skills.  This is something that I could not have taught them.  Being part of a chess team and attending this tournament was something that they would NOT have done at a public school, either, due to the time it would have taken away from the state's APPROVED curriculum.

At the other private school I worked at, the parents were limited in what role they could play in their child's education.  It was a boarding school, so parents had little contact with their child.  Also, the administration defined the program and felt that the power of the school was in that program.  Kids at THIS school had less growth that at the other school I worked at, although there was some growth since the curriculum was not set in stone, and there were places it could change.  However, the limited number of people who had input into the education of the children limited their success in the school.

Educational reform is a big topic today, but, as Sir Ken Robinson says, it needs to be TRANSFORMED, not REFORMED!  We need to start removing the restrictions on education from the politicians, unions and corporations with their profit focused mentalities, and put the system back into the hands of those who it affects most - the families of the children in it.  When the parents and kids have control of the educational system again, THAT is when it will be TRANSFORMED into something effective.