I teach a mixed-grade semester elective for students interested in a career in education called Exploring Teaching As A Profession. It’s both an introduction to American public education as well as to the teaching profession, and I’m just about to complete our 7th cohort of students. It’s a blast, and one of the highlights of my career’s work.
In the aspect of the course that focuses on the history of education and schooling in America, I have my students create a timeline on a wall in the room that highlights various types of events in our history from the 1600s onward, and then a section that goes off the timeline that captures what they see as issues, questions, concerns, events, concepts that will impact / play a role in education for the current year and beyond.
Here’s a list of what they identified for “2021 & Beyond”:
- 1st woman president will be elected
- schools are properly funded; all schools are equally funded
- More future presidents making their top priority in Education and Schooling
- President Biden (or any future president) will update our current Every Student Succeeds Act, gaining teachers’ perspectives on the Act, and what changes they would want apart from ESSA, as long as it’s reasonable
- mandating Covid-19 vaccine for students
- teacher’s teaching styles will change to deal with mental health of students
- student acknowledgment of pronouns, LGBTQ, gender neutral bathrooms, can students be able to speak out?
- Joe Biden pulls troops from Afghanistan
- what will the vaccine mandate be like?
- new laws will reduce gun violence in schools
- views on education due to covid-times with teaching
- vaccines will be mandated for students and teachers
- teachers will focus on students’ mental health more
- POC and minorities won’t be discriminated and be given more opportunities in 2032
- Covid-19 deemed “neutralized,” masks no longer required in school
- new updated school buses based on the technology of the time
- focus on the climate crisis – funding will be decreased for things like the military that take up lots of resources and relocated into things like fighting the climate crisis, welfare, and education
- Covid laws and or laws regarding vaccination / laws and rules on # of kids in school
- new thoughts to being safer, how to improve students learning abilities
- the focus of education shifts to improvement of students, rather than meeting grade requirements
- society thought on standardize testing changes and more focused on the students progress
- LGBTQ+ community will be widely accepted and no longer discriminated from anymore in 2026
- children getting higher scores on testing
- less tests and different standards
- new ways / ideas teachers can / will start teaching
- measures taken to make sure working students don’t fall behind / get enough sleep
- health and regular teachers should teach more about the LGBTQ+ so people don’t see it as strange. This will hopefully lead to no more “coming out” bc being LGBTQ+ will be just as normal as being cis and straight
- forests are no longer being cut as much due to reusable resources
- electoral college is no longer used
- all religions are at peace with one another
- new views, thoughts on being more open in the sense of accepting others
These students give me hope. I think it’s high time we share the reigns.