Khan’s article and the video largely aligned with what I’ve learned in previous courses about how the design of the school system was intended to teach people to obey, follow directions, and memorize steps without thinking deeply about why. However, the chapter on tests challenged my conception of which parts of the current system are okay to keep and which need to be thrown away. Specifically, Khan’s point about grades as well as tests unfairly limiting kids’ futures resonated with me. Although I know grades are rarely a complete reflection of students’ learning, I think it was more difficult for me to think outside the status quo in this area because it’s harder for me to and imagine how we would remove both grades and tests and then evaluate who gets into college or who gets certain jobs. I realized that I was stuck on grades because I was also stuck on the idea that college education should be earned based on achieving a certain level of knowledge and skill, which is an extension of the false idea that all people learn the same and need to know the same things.
I was also intrigued by the idea that we need a “workforce of creative, curious, and self-directed lifelong learners who are capable of conceiving and implementing novel ideas.” Although I do agree, Khan’s later point that we don’t need manual workers but rather mind workers recontextualized the earlier statement. I thought it was odd that Khan was stating that education in a creative, individual way is important in order to produce a certain kind of workforce, when in reality I believe that the purpose of education should not solely be tied to the workforce. Yes, we should be producing citizens who can advance society, but even manual workers (who are still needed and still exist) deserve to be taught to be creative, curious, and self-directed. I suppose this might be pedantic, but I think that the education system in general separates manual work from mental work, which ultimately reinforces that mental work is for a more educated, higher class of people than manual work. (Here’s an
article I found expressing a similar idea.) I think everyone regardless of their future occupation should be taught to be a creative, critical thinker because every person needs to vote, have relationships with others, and make decisions on a daily basis in an increasingly complex world.
I also thought it was important that Khan mentioned how test quality can only be measured by test results. Thus, there is no way to know if a test is accurate, only that it consistently produces the desired outcome. I think that has trickled down to curriculums as well — there’s no proof that students are actually learning or enjoying a subject, only that they test well on the appropriate assessment. Specifically, I resonated with Khan’s point about science education largely being the “grammar and vocabulary” of science (i.e. the facts) and not the process of scientific thinking and creation. For example, my curriculum doesn’t even teach the scientific method. The NGSA is a fact-based test but it does not measure a student’s ability to design an experiment, come up with an interesting scientific question, or even to adapt to issues with a procedure.
