These are my grandparents, Milton and Gertrude. Milt was born in 1902 and died in 1974; Gertie was born in 1906 and died in 2004, nearly 99 years old. One hundred years ago, in 1917, my grandfather was in high school, and my grandmother was in 6th grade. Women could not vote, horse-drawn wagons clopped along their downtown Chicago streets next to Model Ts, air travel involved biplanes, and the high school graduation rate was 15%.
Yet, if my grandparents walked into a typical classroom today, they would know exactly what to do: Sit at their desks, be quiet, and listen to the teacher. Our schools are educating children for a world that no longer exists; our Industrial Revolution curriculum and teaching methodologies are so obsolete that I’m surprised students don’t take classes in Hunting and Gathering.
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