I was very intrigued by the documentary “Most Likely to Succeed”; I thought the film offered a lot of interesting commentary and things to think about. I started school with a love of learning but gradually felt that I had gotten burned out by the time I had reached grade 12. I really resonated with a lot of the documentary’s criticisms of the modern education system and the dangers of viewing education as an exercise in character building and resilience, rather than taking advantage of the potential to get students involved and active in their own learning. I have always been the type to really enjoy self-directed learning; it has never felt like work to learn about the things that interest me. I think there are a lot of opportunities for teachers to give students the freedom to explore their own interests and I think that in many cases, doing this can help students to invest in themselves and take ownership of their learning.

I also found it interesting to learn that most of the American education curriculum was decided on by one small group of men, and that it generally hasn’t changed much since then, even though it is clear that the changing times may call for some modernization of curriculum. It made me feel grateful for some of the changes we have seen in the BC curriculum and made me wonder how we should go about deciding who designs our education curriculum (which topics are included and which are left out). It also brought up questions about whether or not the traditional curriculum truly prepares students for the “real world”, or whether the traditional path that schools often push students to follow (from high school to university to career) gives students the skills they need to compete in a world where the number of qualified, educated individuals greatly surpasses the number of job openings available to them.

Image from Adobe Stock

While the documentary made a lot of points that I think were valid and interesting, I was taken by surprise by just how different the High Tech High school was compared to schools that I have experienced. Above all, I was surprised by the fact that the school did not have a set curriculum. While I agreed with some of the arguments that were made against traditional education, I feel that an established curriculum, even if it quite flexible, is essential to ensure equity in education. Students rely on schools to give them a good education so they can be prepared for what society will expect from them. If teachers are given the freedom to teach whatever they want, I worry that there is a danger that students will receive a less complete education compared to students at other schools. I think it would also be unfair to students of other schools if the education that students at High Tech High were receiving was far more advanced. In my opinion, because students are generally assigned to schools based on proximity to their place of residence (which is likely also tied to socioeconomic status), they should at least be given the assurance that they will receive the same quality of education as students would at other schools, and I don’t think this is possible without a standardized curriculum. I also think that the lack of curriculum at High Tech High could cause teachers stress if they expect students to have learned a set of foundational skills in previous years, only to learn that the past teacher taught their students something else instead. I think it would require a great degree of collaboration and effort in order to keep all teachers in the know about what the students in the school have and have not learned, all of which could be avoided by following some type of set curriculum.

Photo from iStock

Instead of getting rid of curriculum, I think it would be better to focus on updating our current curriculum (like BC has done to incorporate indigenous perspectives into education) in order to meet the demands of changing times, rather than relying on the discretion of individual teachers to decide what they will and will not teach to their students. I think the BC curriculum works well by focusing more on competencies rather than content, as it ensures for some form of standardization while also allowing for some flexibility. That said, I would like to see more emphasis on the development of “soft skills” like collaboration, building confidence, and problem-solving in the BC curriculum because I do think that those skills are just as important for emerging adults.