Starting with, School. "Frustrated with the traditional school system, a family in Los Angeles pulls their two children out of one of the highest-rated schools in the area and takes their education into their own hands. In the quest to better their children’s lives, they must overcome long-standing assumptions about education and face the social ramifications of their bold decision. " Many of the issues talked about in this film are ones that we are trying to address within the parameters of traditional school. I think you will find it interesting as it raises many questions that were highlighted in the 1960s and '70s by authors like John Holt and yet are still with us today.
"Class Dismissed shows parents a glimpse into the future of education. Everyone concerned with education would benefit from watching this film." - John Taylor Gatto, Former New York State Teacher of the Year and author
Linked very nicely to the questions the family raise at the core of the film, is an article by Hannah S. Sheehy, an IB Diploma student from Sevenoaks School in Kent, UK, who was about to take her IB Diploma examinations, which as we know have been canceled. She returned to Singapore, completed 14 days quarantine and thought about her education. In an article published in The Straits Times, she reflects upon what she would have done differently if she had known that there would be no examinations. Very interestingly this is how she concludes her article. I say interestingly because Sevenoaks is regarded as one of the top IB Diploma schools worldwide with an average diploma score of over 40 points. So it is most likely she would have been defined by her results as highly intelligent and a successful student:
"But I digress, I still seem to be asking myself if my education was wasted? But I do not think so as, in my opinion, doing well in examinations does not equate to education.
Exams are a measure not of a student's intelligence or even dedication, but of a student's performance on one day.
If there were no exams, besides everything aforementioned, I would have focused on learning not for a slip of paper with a number on it. I would have learned about the love of learning and spent more time with my friends. I would have fallen in love with subjects and topics, and most of all I hope I would have learned from people and not from textbooks."
Secondly, COVID 19: A leading Stanford professor raising questions about the interpretation of the impact of COVID 19 globally. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is a professor of medicine at Stanford University. He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a senior fellow at both the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and the Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute. His March 24, 2020, article in the Wall Street Journal questioned the premise that “coronavirus would kill millions without shelter-in-place orders and quarantines.” In the article, Is the Coronavirus as Deadly as They Say? he suggests that “there’s little evidence to confirm that premise—and projections of the death toll could plausibly be orders of magnitude too high.” In the video interview with Peter Robinson, Dr. Bhattacharya explains his questioning of the logic and data that has informed government strategies around the world. I believe that many of us have raised the same questions in our heads as Dr. Bhattacharya talks about in this interview.
There is no doubt that the world is and will be different as a consequence of COVID 19. We might see the further diminishing of the influence of neoliberalism and in its place a return to strong central government, supported by increased acceptance of AI as our protector against such events as pandemics. Or perhaps not. We will see. However, one thing that will remain important is the need to question conventional wisdom and develop alternate and original thinking and problem-solving if we are to find solutions to the challenges that lie ahead in the 2020s.
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