By Brian McSwiggen ’14, Perspectives Co Section Editor
As I move into my senior year, I’ve had to reflect back on what I’ve done in my time here at Country Day. This is a pertinent question for all students here, not just for the seniors. You should know why your parents are paying over $20,000 per year to send you to this school. Certainly I’ve had many experiences here, and I could come up with a multitude of ways to describe it, but I think the most essential part, and the part where Country Day most succeeds, is represented best in the words of Sir Ken Robinson.
Sir Ken gave a TED Talk this past April on the American system of education, specifically where it is failing. “In some parts of the country, 60 percent of kids drop out of high school. […] But the dropout crisis is just the tip of an iceberg.” Equally disastrous, he says, are “all the kids who are in school but disengaged from it, who don’t enjoy it, who don’t get any real benefit from it.” As a Country Day student, I have done my utmost to get as much benefit as possible from our school, and I feel that I have been given the opportunity to grow individually. This is not, however, an advantage shared by all students in the US, and perhaps not even most. Certainly it’s not for lack of trying. “America spends more money on education than most other countries. Class sizes are smaller than in many countries. And there are hundreds of initiatives every year to try and improve education.” Rather, it’s for a lack of understanding. “The trouble is, it’s all going in the wrong direction.”
Sir Ken goes on to outline his “three principles on which human life flourishes,” and how they are “contradicted by the culture of education” in the United States. These three principles are diversity, curiosity, and creativity. All children are different, are “natural learners,” and are inherently creative. Unfortunately, however, the drive in the United States has been toward standardization and telling teachers how to teach. A recent initiative in the US, including Ohio, has been that of the Common Core Curriculum. Essentially, this is legislation defining what will be taught and focused on in schools, and how. But as Sir Ken states, “The trouble is that education doesn’t go on in the committee rooms of our legislative buildings. It happens in the classrooms and schools, and the people who do it are the teachers and the students, and if you remove their discretion, it stops working.”
An education from Country Day is an excellent education, but that’s not just because it costs over $20,000 per year. Throwing money at education isn’t sufficient to improve it. Our education costs that much because Country Day is a private school, and that money pays for the school to survive without the aid that public schools receive from the state. That money also provides for very nice facilities and excellent opportunities. But perhaps the most important fact is that Country Day keeps that discretion. The founders, board, and administration of Country Day have recognized the absolute importance of Sir Ken’s three principles, not specifically, but in spirit: Country Day promotes academic diversity, curiosity, and creativity.
We have amazing teachers here who believe in, as is so oft repeated in opening year speeches, “the power of a Country Day education.” We have a campus and a program which supports and nourishes academic individualism. Even though this caliber of education should be available to all students in the US, it’s not. And so as we move into our next (and for some of us our last) year here at Country Day, remember that, though high school can be difficult and trying, there are very few schools who can do as good a job as Country Day at celebrating and promoting your education. Remember it, cherish it, and be grateful for it. Take time to thank your teachers for what they give to you – not only verbally, but also by your actions and your commitment to your own education.
(A link to Sir Ken’s TED Talk can be found here: http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_death_valley.html)
