Content with content

In the day and age of Wikipedia and Google and self correcting editing software what would or should future schools look like? In an earlier blog I had expounded on the question of what makes for a good school or more importantly a valuable schooling experience. I would think the latter needs to be answered from point of view of the student as well as the teacher. In an ever evolving world where iPad is king and exams are open book with unlimited content, we have already seen the shift from rote based learning style to creative thinking. Whether this paradigm should extend to its logical conclusion of total elimination of prescribed curriculum based learning there by leaving the how much of what and when of subject matter to learn in hands of every student/ parent can or should be the subject of healthy debate. Just like my other radical idea of legalizing drugs of all kind we should seriously consider the pros and cons of having our governments spend exorbitant sums to provide sub par education. I know there are exceptions to this broad brush stroke I seem to paint but I seriously believe that idea of public investment in education is passé. Home Schooling is not a new concept but if we can take that and improve on it to allow for building block skills development (like reading a language and adding numbers) through public - private partnerships we can improve time to market for kids growing up in the future and make them more productive. Teachers could be rewarded through the scores achieved and measured as employability in the then current market as opposed to random GPA and other metrics. Entrepreneurial development to launch new startups could also then be part of the early cirriculum and be tied to the reward equation for teachers involved in the process. Think of it as Teachers becoming the VCs of the future. That is content I can be content with!