At the U.S. Department of Education blog, readers are invited to answer this question: What is the biggest challenge facing education today?

I wrote the following, and I hope you will share your thoughts as well:

I believe the biggest challenge in education today is that our current purpose for schooling is inadequate. We are not yet teaching for the future our children are inheriting. We have largely defined the goals of schooling as verbal, mathematical and scientific literacy in order to graduate students who are employable and able to compete in the global economy. But given the global challenges we face, such as climate change, war, poverty, escalating worldwide slavery, habitat destruction and extinction of species, energy, access to clean water, overpopulation, genocide, institutionalized and massive animal cruelty, genocide, and so on, it’s imperative that we educate a generation that has the knowledge, tools, and motivation to be problem-solvers and system-changers in order to create a sustainable, peaceful, and humane world for all. If we were to succeed at achieving our current educational goals, we would simply produce a generation that perpetuates many destructive, inhumane, and unsustainable systems. The “basics” must be seen as foundational tools for achieving healthy societies. They are critical, but not enough. But if we expand our goals for schooling, making our children’s education truly relevant to their future, their personal investment and interest in their schooling would grow in proportion to the meaning and importance we would offer them through their studies.

Zoe Weil
Author of The Power and Promise of Humane Education and Most Good, Least Harm

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Filed under: changemakers, education, humane education, systemic change Tagged: | changemakers, critical thinking, education, educational reform, global challenges, humane education, literacy, problem solving, schooling, systemic change