The Future of Education-One Teacher’s Prediction (February 15, 2009)
Summary: Mark Pullen, an elementary school teacher from Grand Rapids, Michigan, shares his prediction for the future of education if things remain as they are. Class sizes will rise, parents will have to pay to see their students in the arts or physical education, children will all be learning via the internet, and there will be one teacher per grade level.
Topic: Should the government reform the No Child Left Behind Act?
Category: Citizen Stakeholder
What is it? A blog entry.
Publication Information: February 15, 2009
Author: Mark Pullen
Location: The blog entry can be found here at mrpullen.wordpress.com
Accessed: February 20, 2009
Support:
mlive.com – Grand Rapids, Michigan Online News
mailtribune.com – Southern Oregon Online News Source
mlive.com reported a story about states saving money by cutting down on the number of school districts and, as a result superintendents. This goes into Pullen’s prediction that more and more teachers and superintendents will be responsible for more students and schools respectively. Mailtribune.com in Southern Oregon reported that budget shortfalls will most likely result in a four day school week and longer school days.
Audience and Agenda: Mark Pullen is an elementary school teacher in East Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is also the co-founder of www.onlinemathleague.com, “an innovative website that provides online math competitions to 2nd-9th grade students from around the world.” Mark Pullen’s blog is visited by over 4,400 thousand people in the globally. His blog is intended to be read, it seems, by his students, their parents and fellow teachers and community members.
Usefulness: This article is useful because it talks about the future of education from the perspective of a teacher. He explores the problems that exist now and how a lack in funding will exacerbate these problems and will likely change the nature of education. He is by no means a sociological or historical expert, but his conclusions are not wholly unfounded. With schools in a frenzy to get their students at 100% proficiency by 2014, it is not completely ridiculous to assume that that they will do as many extreme things as it takes to get to that goal. Pullen hypothesizes that by 2012, the standardized curriculum will be available online and many school districts will cut down teachers and raise classroom size. In some cases, he predicts that one teacher will teach one whole grade-level with the aid of paraprofessionals. Some of his predictions are a little extreme in the timeline he set forth, eventually, but they could all become realities if the unrealistic and arbitrary pressure of the 2014 deadline set forth by the No Child Left Behind Act is not amended or eased.
Works cited:
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