Shifting the Paradigm

As parents see education reform take effect in their local schools and school district, they begin to hear new words and phrases. One of those phrases is paradigm shift. In the context of education reform, what does this mean? Those advocating education reform will tell you that what they are talking about is moving away from the old system of seat time, clock time, and Sputnik in which learning was flexible and time was constant, to a new system of education in which time is flexible but learning is constant. Parents will hear that all children can learn; success breeds success; and schools control the conditions of success. This can all sound pretty confusing to parents who believe it the job of the school to teach children the basics — reading, writing and arithmetic, and wonder what all this newspeak means. The chart that follows compares the old paradigm and the new paradigm, giving parents more than thirty-second sound bytes and half answers. Parents need to ask themselves under which paradigm would they rather have their child educated. Under education reform, children in the public schools are being educated under the new paradigm.

	Traditional Paradigm	New Paradigm
Goal	To produce an innovative, creative, intelligent child capable of reaching for the star or stars of his or her choice.	To produce a socially productive human resource unit; properly socialized to meet the needs and goals of the state.
Purpose	To develop mental stimulus and scholarly discipline; to sharpen the brain for its intellectual mission; to cultivate and discipline the mind; to effect an individual.	To condition the child to a perceived environment as determined by exit outcomes or standards; outcome-based
Foundational Philosophy	The belief that man is an individual creation of God; each to be celebrated in his or her own right as an individual with individual rights; that the state serves the individual.	The belief that individual man is but a part of the collective of man; that community supersedes individual and individual rights; that people serve the state and goals of the state.
World View	Judeo - Christian	humanism/New Age/theosophy
Result	A child who is an individual, who can analyze, critique, and evaluate information as an independent thinker according to a moral standard of right and wrong, who has had a broad but intensive liberal arts education; who is capable of entering the workforce on graduation or continuing on to higher education.	A child who is cooperative, collaborative; who looks to the collective – the peer group for his attitudes, values and beliefs; who believes right and wrong are a matter of perception; who believes there are no absolutes; whose thought process is based on feelings, not logic or reason; who has been taught what to think, not how to think.
Identifying Principles	Core knowledge as the foundation of curriculum and learning; liberal arts; structured disciplines (as opposed to integrated curriculum); extensive and repetitive exercises intended to sharpen and hone the mental capacity and capability of the child such that the child can take a vast scope of knowledge and formulate a reasoned conclusion as an individual; teaching of foundational core skills, building year to year on prior core skills (scope and sequence); grades indicating the ability level of the child — how well the child can think and reason, utilize and retain knowledge; high standards and high expectations of every student; strict discipline programs conducive to self-discipline and good order; teacher as instructor and guide; structured classrooms focused on learning; standardized, norm-referenced achievement tests measuring the factual knowledge base of the child and ability of child to apply what he or she has learned; schools accountable to parents; parents as primary educators of children; school as extension of the family.	Goals 2000; School to Work; apprenticeships; work-based learning; certificate of mastery, certificate of advanced mastery, certificate of proficiency; world class standards; exit outcomes (essential learnings); assessments and criterion-referenced tests; conflict resolution, peer mediation; integrated curriculum; life-long learning; outcome-, performance-, competency-based; constructivist, child-centered, or self-directed learning; teachers as facilitators; cooperative, collaborative learning, group grading; critical thinking, problem solving, decision making; thematic units or unit themes; readiness to learn; at risk; social and health services in schools; parents as teachers; "village" concept of raising a child; psychologists, social workers, intervention specialists, and counselors; total quality management and continuous quality improvement; site-based councils; consensus building; equity and diversity; multiculturalism; community learning centers; family as extension of the school.

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