Middle School Reform – Is ‘Bootcamp’ in the Cards?

Wednesday, September 2nd 2009 by Kaya HardincloseAuthor: Kaya Hardin Name: Kaya Hardin
Email: kaya@isteconnects.org
Site: http://www.iste.org/
About: I am the online community manager for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and ISTE’s conference, the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC). Tweet me @isteconnects if you have any questions.See Authors Posts (19)

“As a longtime education reporter I have visited many middle and junior high schools–and I often wonder if we are subjecting the kids trapped inside to cruel and unusual punishment.” With this statement, Valerie Strauss begins a thought provoking argument for the ideas in Matthew Crawford’s book, Shop Class as Soulcraft.

As educators, what do you think? Are children, ages 11 to 14, wasting their time, perhaps even stunting their development, in our middle school system? Would their skills be better served with hands-on learning methods such as shop class or home economics? Are children being given the necessary skills for adulthood – or are they being trained for just another “boring” desk job?

Read Strauss’s post here, and let us know what you think!

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