The education system most of us grew up with represents what has been agreed upon as valuable for students and the public. The prescriptive nature of content-driven education supports this belief system of educating about what is valuable and representative of the system that created it. As such, content-driven education serves to create informed citizens with a common knowledge base and set of values. Jeff Hopkins and the Pacific School for Innovation and Inquiry on the other hand represent education that serves students’ interest and provides students with the skills and processes that are necessary for self-direction and greater independence and self-efficacy.

Photo by Leeloo The First

Both systems have merit; one seeks to create community and a public identity around what is deemed important, and the other aims to create a degree of independence, individual identity, and self-efficacy. Not every student will see themselves represented in either system; as is often the case, the answer likely lies somewhere in the middle. The most common concerns levied against inquiry in schools are a lack of curricular breadth, and student motivation. Students will struggle to learn about as broad a range of topics in an inquiry-driven school as they would in a more traditional educational setting, but the conceptual breadth is supplanted by educational depth; the only way more traditional schools are able to cover such a wide range of topics is to remain fairly superficial in their examination. Inquiry enables and encourages students to engage with their chosen topic with in as much depth and with as much vigor as they can muster. The motivational concern is assuaged by students’ investment in their chosen area of inquiry – since they hold the reins to their education they are more likely to investigate areas they are passionate about, and their motivation follows.

It is easier for students to have their education prescribed to them; I am more likely to read a news article that is presented to me by whichever algorithm governs it, than I am to seek out an article I have not seen represented elsewhere. That is not to say that it is easy to get student on board with learning anything you put in front of them; that relies on the presentation method and other means of fostering student buy-in. Presenting students with the material they are to learn for their entire education opens the door to a manner of learned helplessness; if a population never learns to take their learning into their own hands, they are significantly less likely to investigate things for themselves or challenge material that they are presented with.

Photo by WillSantt

As educators we need to be mindful of what our education systems and methods privilege. As our position in the school hierarchy afford us relational power, we mustn’t forget that many kids don’t know what to think and will look to us for guidance. I am partial to a system that nurtures childlike wonder and allows kids to investigate their ideas, and to learn for themselves.