There used to be a story that went like this:
- You go to school,
- you go to college,
- you get a job,
- and you remain at that job for the next 30 years and then retire.
It was a linear story, it moved in one direction.
That story no longer exists.
Life is not linear.
It is organic and unpredictable.
Now more than ever.
Here are facts that drive this point home:
- It is estimated that today’s students will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38.
- 1 out of 4 workers today is working for a company they have been employed by for less than one year.
- According to Richard Riley, secretary of Education under Clinton, the top 10 “in demand jobs” did not exist 5 years ago.
We need to be preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.
- When schools are still working under the assumption that there is a direct linear relationship between general education and subsequent employment, they prioritizes subjects that are presently most relevant to the economy – science and technology. But when we are also facing a world that is rapidly changing and presenting challenges never known before, we need creative minds, innovators, and divergent thinkers.
- Business leaders today complain that education isn’t producing the thoughtful, creative, self-confident people they urgently need; people who are literate, numerate, who can analyze information and ideas, who can generate new ideas of their own and help to implement them, who can communicate clearly and work well with other people.
If you looked at education policy for the American student during the first decade of the twenty-first century it would look like this:
A young person being prepared for the world of work was measured regularly, was trained to demonstrate mastery on a particular kind of test for a particular kind of knowledge. What it means to be educated is bigger than that. More nuanced. Deeper.
There are two worlds.
- The world that exists without you. It was here before you were born and will be here after you die.
- And the world that came into being the moment you were born. Your world of thought, imagination, and feeling. Your private consciousness.
Both worlds are deeply important to learn about and one role of education is to create a bridge between them.
- To provide the tools and skills for students to build relationships between their world and the world at large.
- To help them realize that the more they learn about each one of them, the deeper the relationship becomes.
- The arts and humanities help build this bridge. Without it, something suffers in us.
Carl Jung said that in his 30 years of practice he did not meet a single patient whose malaise could not be traced back to a disconnect between the inner world and the outer one. A broken relationship between what is happening inside of us and the world around us.
Here at the New School Montessori, we understand the importance of a balanced education.
We have a staff who wants your child to:
- excel in all subject areas…
- math and science,
- the arts and humanities,
- we also want them to eat well,
- to play creatively,
- to exercise,
- to treat each other with kindness,
- to respect the earth,
- and to discover and appreciate what it means to be uniquely themselves.
Study after study has confirmed that the ages of 3 through 12 are the most important years of a child’s education. These years help form them for the rest of their lives.
Through our enriching programs and our relationship with creative organizations in the community, we are building bridges and helping our students be prepared for an exciting and ever-changing future.
See interviews from Shakespeare Club’s director and actors and see clips from their 2013 Romeo and Juliet production.