Crazy Stuff

I want to hear a few crazy ideas. I'm getting bored with the wonky stuff.

I want to hear totally imaginative things that have no regard for practicality or the status-quo or standards or traditions or best practices or cost or any of it.

Completely insane stuff.

Like replacing four years of mandatory English classes with four years of mandatory free improvisational music classes.

Like banning grades and instead assessing kids on the basis of their motivation and ability to innovate.

Like assessing basic reading, foreign language, and elementary math skills one-to-one online using tutoring programs led by college students and teachers-in-training and using physical class-time to dance, build robots, sing, write poetry, imagine pure mathematics, and learn to play together.

Like destroying all Scantron machines; blocking access to multiple choice quizzes on Moodle; and letting students choose to be graded by their peers in all subjects by means of discussion, debate, and collaboration.

Giving extra credit for demonstrating compassion. In fact, giving grades based not on academic progress, but on the progress of one's compassion.

Teaching kids that the goal of education is to not be afraid of the unknown.

Crazy stuff.

Completely unpractical stuff.

Crazy stuff.