Week 2 Reflection
Hi Rich and Tanya,
This week’s reflection focuses on the documentary “High Tech High”. The documentary was an expose on a specific high school in California that has a unique pedagogy. Released in 2015, the documentary highlighted a number of deficiencies in the current education system and introduced a number of new concepts.
After watching the production, the first thing that struck me was the accuracy of the prediction that technology will eventually replace many human elements in the workforce. This production was made without any knowledge of generative AI which is now completely replacing whole jobs in the market. It’s actually a little scary how accurate the prediction was… The author suggested that schools should be focusing more on “soft skills” rather than teaching the traditional way which focuses more on prepping students for exams, post-secondary prep, and content heavy approaches.
Students at High Tech High (HTH) are given massive freedom and independence to focus on inquiry based project learning. The teachers themselves are not beholden to any government mandated curriculum. The end result of this style of learning is a gala where students get to present their final project to teachers, friends, and family in a large showcase. The students created very impressive work and I do believe they learned an incredible amount of skills related to teamwork, interpersonal skills, and creativity. However, I felt the documentary was somewhat biased and failed to outline any of the negatives about the educational approach.
I did a little of my own research after watching the video and there were two main negatives that consistently arose. The first is that a number of graduated students felt unprepared for post-secondary classes. STEM courses seemed to be particularly challenging for HTH graduates. Given the focus on independent inquiry and an apparent lack of foundational skills, this is unsurprising.
The second issue that kept popping up was related to the working conditions for teachers. Although things have changed now, as of 2022 the teachers were not unionized. They complained of poor pay and high job turnover. https://voiceofsandiego.org/2022/11/30/morning-report-high-tech-high-has-reached-a-deadlock-with-its-union/
HTH has since expanded to a number of locations and grade levels. I do believe the HTH approach is beneficial in the age of AI, it cannot completely replace the current system. Post-secondary institutions need to modify their educational philosophy prior to this style becoming the norm. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to change given the “business” like approach that universities currently operate on.
