The System That Urges You to Screw It - angry edu rant, but good links within.

Kids don't leave school knowing how to learn!

In Vonnegut’s book “Hocus Pocus” of 1990 he writes of education:

I argued that it was a teacher’s duty to speak frankly to students of college age about all sorts of concerns of humankind, not just the subject as stated in the catalogue. ‘That’s how we gain their trust, and encourage them to speak up as well,’ I said, ‘and realize that all subjects do not reside in neat little compartments, but are continuous and inseparable from the one big subject we have been put on Earth to study, which is life itself.

The character in the story says that as part of attempting to defend himself during the meeting where university trustees are firing him.

Think back to your teachers, did you ever get a chance to talk about all other things but the subject at hand?

I do agree. The issue is not technology here. Let me give you an example of what I meant originally. Suppose that you want to talk about problems of agriculture in the Arab World. Under this heading, you can list around 20 points. When the student is requested to understand these, no one trains him/her to think in a, say 5 0r 6, aspects that he/she can organise these 20 points, thereby making his/her life easier. You can't remember 20 points, and if in the exam you are requested to say these 20 points you will fail unless you exert lots of efforts to memorize them. If, on the other hand, you know how to re-group these 20 points into 6 or 7 aspects, it would be easier for him/her to do that, and more probably to get the 20 points correct.

Sorry about the long example, but as you can see, we are not talking here about agriculture, or even better ways to memorize things and lists. I am talking about a needed mental skill of getting the structure of things, relations, etc. If our students become trained to do this,the whole level of their achivement, argumentation, etc will be much higher.

Thought these two videos are relevant:

If I understand you well, then its about building analytical thinking skills into students minds. Most traditional educational systems are about "pushing" content into students and for students its about memorizing information. That's the probelm with a system built on a "ciriculum" that doesn't alow for discussion, different points of views and conclusions.