A must read!

Every once in awhile I come across blog articles that seem to so clearly put into words the thoughts that have been swimming around my brain, but that I have been unsuccessful in articulating. This guest post by William Farren on Change.org’s education blog, “Pharmer’s Market: The Cost of Producing ‘Successful’ Students”,definitely meets that criteria. To anyone who knows me, it has undoubtedly become obvious by now that my interest in education has had make room for my growing interest in food, agriculture, and the environment. This article nicely brings the two together. A must read. Here’s a sneak peek…

Our education systems, seeking efficiency through standardization and conformity end up creating students who, just like their agricultural counterparts, are no longer well-adapted to their environment. Michael Pollan reminds us that, “Most of the efficiencies in an industrial system are achieved through simplification: doing lots of the same thing over and over.” Like corn planted in a monoculture, removed from the diversity that protects it, or cattle fed an unnatural diet of corn, students today are fed a standardized diet of procedures and reproducible facts. This educational monoculture does nothing to nourish minds that have evolved to seek diversity, novelty and stimulation.