Is America Ready for a 22nd Century Curriculum?

It's amazing how long America has held on to a 19th Century Curriculum model. The public was promised a new age of education when President Bill Clinton was in office and then when President George W. Bush took over, we were again promised a brighter future, but the truth is that there has been zero innovation when it comes to America's schools in the last Century.

It's easier to explain and outline the 22nd Century Curriculum by first highlighting what a 19th Century Curriculum looks like.

America's schools currently use this model and it's quite simple. There are six components and they are as follows: 1) Content 2) Memorization Skills 3) Isolation 4) Application 5) Defensiveness and 6) "I Need to Know" Attitude.

Members of the educator community know these six components quite well, in fact, they have stifled students, teachers and school districts extremely well for the last 20 years. They are the key reasons why the United States has fallen dramatically behind every other developed nation in terms of educating its citizens.

But here's the good news. None of those developed nations are utilizing a 22nd Century curriculum vision or strategy. What that means is if the United States can dump the old strategy and adopt an innovative future-proof vision, America can vault itself back on top over the next decade.

This is a game-changer of epic proportions, but it will take guts and courage to get rid of the 19th Century model we have grown to be comfortable with. But just like Linus from the Peanuts, who should let go of his security blanket, America has to let go of the very old, outdated and obsolete 19th Century model.

Here's what the 22nd Century Curriculum looks like: 1) Concepts 2) Decision-Making 3) Collaboration 4) Creating 5) Inspiring 6) "I Can Learn" Attitude

It's not enough to list six key concepts and not provide real world examples, so let's stack the 19th Century model up against the 22nd Century model and see who wins?

Let's use the American Revolution as the best topic example for highlighting how the current 19th Century model is holding our students, teachers and schools back from being a leader in the world in education.

Every student in America is expected to study the American Revolution. It is the single most pivotal moment in our nation's history, but more importantly it is the single biggest moment in the history of nations and government in the history of the world. But how many people in America understand the values of the Revolution and how it pertains to today?

Everyone reading this article has learned the American Revolution in a 19th Century curriculum model, so what will be written here should be very familiar and may even spark memories of your own classrooms around the nation.

Here's what districts and teachers do currently with the Topic of the American Revolution in school:

First, teachers focus 100% on the content of the American Revolution. Every curriculum map, textbook and school expects teachers to cover the chronological dates and introduce the historical figures of the Revolution. In addition, students are exposed to key moments such as the Boston Tea Party for example, as a list of facts that occured. In some cases, students may be told there was a cause and effect relationship between one event and another. Regardless, the goal is for students to walk away with this "essential" content knowledge that the British surrendered and the colonies won their independence from the Royal Crown.

If we strip away all the fluff and "smoke and mirrors" of the 19th Century model, we can see that the curriculum is designed for memorization. That means that only students that have the intellectual capacity to memorize large amounts of information in their brains can and will succeed in school. If you have ever thought the majority of what you learned in school, you never use in real life - you would be correct.

Basing an entire curriculum strategy behind pure memorization, schools have abandoned its responsibility to teach students how to think, adapt and explore new topics once they leave school. Not only that but under this old 19th Century model, we have falsely labeled students who excel in a memorize-only world as "smart" or "good students" when we know that most "book smart" kids are completely out-matched in real life by "street smart" kids.

With the misuse of standardized test scores, we have doubled-down on the 19th Century model because we have misread the student scores and data to mean only "one" thing. I am not only here to present a 22nd Century model, I'm also here to alert you to what the student test scores prove without any reasonable doubt.

Year after year, student test scores have been going down on a steady trajectory and pundits claim they know why? But they are making up false correlations. The only reason that student test scores keep going down is because in a 19th Century model, memorizing a lot of information is the only way to achieve a high score. The test does not accurately assess learning, it only accurately assesses student's ability to remember.

When student memory is a key focus, the classroom isolates students from each other. Students are in daily competition with each other. We have been led to believe that competition in class is a healthy thing for democracy, but this is also a false narrative.

Competition in business is good, competition between students is bad. All the 19th Century model does is create a negative classroom space. The teacher is not a guide to learning, but a referee to the contention, resentment and animosity students feel for their classmates. Pitting student against student increases the chances for bullying and negativity, all of which have increased since we became a nation of test scores in the early 2000s.

The negativity isn't even the worse side effect of the old, obsolete 19th Century model. What's more deleterious to the fabric of all schools in America are the gaps that have been created based on gender, race, and socio-economic backgrounds. The 19th Century model not only promotes division and bias, but rewards it by labeling students who can memorize everything as "smart" and "good students."

But before we try and compare the current state of the classroom to this new 22nd Century model, let's handle the buzz word of the last decade: "applying knowledge." We have been led to believe by education experts and pundits, that "application" of content proves higher-order and critical thinking skills and that these are essential for success in college and careers. Here again, it all sounds good, but has no direct relevance or data to back up this claim. In our current classrooms, students are not "applying" any knowledge in any real-world scenarios. So what does "application" even mean then?

The simple truth is that in today's world and more so in the 22nd Century all information and content is at our fingertips. Memorizing any content is a waste of valuable brain space. If we can only access about 10% of our minds, then why fill it with useless content, when if you need to know something, you can use the internet to find the information in 3.2 seconds.

The information age has changed the purpose of school, but America never updated its model to catch up with the times. That is why many students are tuning out of virtual classrooms and tuning out of school altogether. They are simply tired of the "busy work."

Parents and the public are being misinformed by the media who are conflating the 19th Century model with the quality of teachers and that is also simply not accurate. The facts are that teachers are forced to teach the 19th Century way because of district leaders and elected officials. If you want to update to a 22nd Century model, the best advice would be for elected officials to say to school leaders, "do whatever it takes to make schools better" -- we won't stand in the way and we won't pass anymore mandates.

By adopting a 22nd Century model, high school students will stop being forced to make power point presentations.

Hopefully, this article is illuminating for the public that teachers are not the problem. The real culprit is the old 19th Century flawed model. It's even tough to blame the media or elected officials for getting it wrong and not covering this story accurately. The fact is that the media and elected officials are out of their depth when it comes to issues related to 21st Century learning.

Here's where my 20 years of experience in the field of education holds any water. To expect a reporter who is assigned to cover education 20 minutes before conducting their first interview is an impossible task to get the story "right." The reporter simply tried to do the best they could and if they only interview college professors who have less of an idea of what occurs in a school classroom than a general member of the public, then there is no chance that story will ever be close to reality.

If the Pandemic shutdown did not expose the glaring inequalities and gaps of the 19th Century model, we might be stuck with it until America's ultimate demise as a super-power. But if everything happens for a reason, then this Pandemic shutdown gives us the time, energy and ammunition to reboot America's schools with a new operating system.

What would happen if we adopted a new 22nd Century Curriculum vision for education?

The first benefit would be to teachers whose role in the classroom would drastically shift from being referee to instructional coach. Less emphasis on memorizing dates, facts, incidents, formulas, gives the teacher more time to focus on the individual student's learning needs.

The second benefit is to the students who are no longer in competition with each other, but rather now on a collaborative team for learning. In a 22nd Century classroom, all the students are taught and encouraged to help other students in class learn the concepts. Why is this so important? Because in the 21st Century, working together is a highly valuable and marketable skill.

Imagine if students received 12 years of collaborative team training? Not only that, but the students who can memorize everything under the sun, are no longer seen as threats to the students who have difficulty memorizing information. In fact, in a collaborative classroom environment, students who normally struggle to earn high grades can now feel comfortable partnering with students who ordinarily earn "As" in class. The imaginary competitive lines and divisions have been erased.

By not hinging the success and failure of students on memorizing dates and facts, this eliminates a huge obstacle for many students in school. Based on current student data from standardized test scores, we know that the top 10% of students can memorize all the information and facts in the entire curriculum. But that means that the other 90% of students will fall short of that goal.

In fact, when "No Child Left Behind", (President Bush's federal education policy in 2002) was enacted and called for strong school accountability and ushered in the era of the standardized test score, the test revealed that an overwhelming majority of students could not memorize most of the information that was being tested.

Unfortunately educational experts and elected officials misread the data. And their misinterpretation was then broadcast by the media who did not understand what they were covering. It's sad to think that for the last 20 years, schools have been failing unnecessarily only because no one caught the error.

What student test scores have proven beyond any reasonable doubt is that the 19th Century model no longer works in the 21st Century and will certainly hurt America's long term chances of being a super-power in the 22nd Century. What the student test scores did not prove is that teachers and students are dumber in 2020. That is a complete fabrication, but promoted by people who have zero understanding of what happens inside a classroom.

My hope is that we focus only on getting rid of the old 19th Century model, we do not need to abandon teachers, principals or the standardized tests. The problem and culprit to the systemic problems in America's schools is a very old and obsolete 19th Century learning model. It's time in 2020 for it to go!

But if you still are not convinced, let me point out that if teachers use this new 22nd Century Curriculum in their classroom, they will cut learning time in half. That is correct, it takes half as much time to teach concepts with a collaborative model than it does to force individual students to memorize content. What that means is that there is enough time in the school year to cover everything students will need in life without extending the school day or the school year.

In layman's terms, if it takes two weeks to cover the American Revolution right now in class, it would only take one week in a new 22nd Century classroom. For educators, I can show them how in a district training, but for the general public, it's more important to understand the concept that learning time can be cut in half.

When we adopt a new 22nd Century classroom, an interesting dynamic shift will occur that eliminates the competition between students based on race, gender, sex, ethnic or socio-economic background. The very heart and soul of the 19th Century classroom, today's classroom, is to ensure that students devalue one another. Each student is seen as direct competition against the other. That is the opposite approach of the 22nd Century classroom model, where students need each other.

Therefore the 22nd Century classroom will be the great equalizer.

The single biggest reason for the achievement gap is the 19th Century model. If we adopt a new 22nd Century model, the achievement gap will also be eliminated immediately. In the new model, the teacher can highlight student strengths. In today's current classroom, student weaknesses are exposed very quickly and there is nothing the teacher can do to save a student.

Collaborative learning in the 22nd Century classroom gives students a real simulation to real-world situations. Imagine for a second if the top academic 10% in the classroom is teaching the bottom academic 10% so that all students come to the same conclusions. The curriculum and teachers goal is to ensure that every student achieves 100% conceptual knowledge before assigning the individual project.

What would a classroom be able to accomplish and achieve if 100% of the students have full understanding? If every students understands, there is no achievement gap. It disappears without a trace.

There is no way around biased grading systems in a 19th Century classroom, here again, those biases would be eradicated by adopting a 22nd Century model. It would be highly suggested that teachers use a rubric-based grading policy, so that students know ahead of time the criteria for grades. It should be impossible for any student to fail a class in this model if everything is working correctly.

In the big picture, the 22nd Century curriculum and classroom opens students eyes to the whole world. It should inspire every student to think ahead toward their own future, and the pursuit of their American Dream. In a 22nd Century classroom, students will be united not divided.

With class by class unity in a school building, bullying should be eliminated as well. The old 19th Century curriculum forces students to be defensive every minute they spend in school. Defensiveness leads to negativity, which leads to hostility and anger. Adopting the new 22nd Century model eliminates the harsh undertones of bullying and intimidation in school.

If you're still not convinced that a new 22nd Century Curriculum and classroom would transform America's schools into the beacon of hope and change, then maybe this last point will seal the deal for you.

Right now, in every American School, public, charter and private, students are taught this attitude "I Need to Know." When the emphasis is on memory, students need to know more and more content. The driving motivation for students is "I Need to Know." Now more than ever, teachers across the nation are asking the same question, "How do I motivate my students to learn?"

And they are asking that question because many students do not turn their cameras on during virtual class, some do not even attend class and more students are not turning in any work. In a 19th Century model, the finger pointing begins. Parents blame teachers and the school and the teachers blame the parents. The reason that students are unmotivated is because at home, what's the value of content knowledge? With access to smart phones and the internet, any student can search for content to their heart's content.

The biggest difference between being in school and at home for kids is that in school, they were denied access to technology and use of their phones. At home, those restrictions are gone. Therefore in school, students were forced to do busy work. At home, they no longer have the patience to deal with irrelevant and useless assignments. Thus, the problem is not the students. It's clearly the curriculum.

What will happen in a modern 22nd Century classroom is a shift in student attitude. Instead of worrying about what they need to know, they will begin to think "I Can Learn" new information and concepts by working with my classmates.

Remember, the 22nd Century classroom is designed to be collaborative and every student has value and helps each other. Therefore every student is not thinking, how will I get out of work, but how can I contribute to the collective team. Students are encouraged to find their strengths and contribute in a way they feel most comfortable. The 22nd Century classroom amplifies student success and positivity along with it. Students see their classmates as allies and not enemies.

Thus the big question to be asked: "Is America ready for a 22nd Century Curriculum and classroom? or will it take another decade before change is brought to schools?"

If you were wondering, what are the barriers? I'm here to inform you that there are no physical barriers to implementing this 22nd Century classroom. The only obstacle is will power.

Will school leaders and teachers decide to go with a new approach to school and learning? Will they embrace a more positive model, even if it means they need to receive a lot of new professional development training to implement it?

So far, I have not received any ideological push-back. The biggest obstacle is admitting that the 19th Century model is the real culprit for the national educational debacle. The current Secretary of Education would not admit that the old model is the reason that all schools, public and charter fail to adequately educate students.

And so far there is no indication that the new Biden Administration or the potential new Secretary of Education is even aware that schools use an obsolete 19th Century model. That is partially the reason why I'm publishing this article now and not wait until 2021. It's very important that we, as a nation, get out in front of this problem before it blows up even more in our faces.

I hope this article was informative and I thank you for listening and letting me outline the problems for you. I do hope that this article starts the conversation about changing the way we look at student learning and the role of teachers in school.

I hope we can move forward with a 22nd Century model soon, for the sake of students, and teachers and for the future of America, we need a new learning model to put America back on top in the world.