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Earlier this week, as part of the Tallahassee Democrat's Citizen Editorial Board, I had the opportunity to meet with Barney Bishop of Associated Industries of Florida, an organization that looks out for business interest in Florida. A major lobbying association, Barney reviewed some of AIF's, big issues for the upcoming session.
A new issue for AIF this session and one of great importance is education. AIF is concerned Florida's Education system is not producing quality talent. Agreed. Most importantly they want employees that can think critically and creatively. Agreed, this is certainly a need. As Mr. Bishop first mentioned that businesses were interested in education and finally taking a position that we need more creative, critical thinkers I was thrilled. My excitement quickly shifted to confusion once Mr. Bishop got deeper into their position. Good intentions aside AIF is greatly mistaken on how to get employees with the skills needed in a knowledge economy.
AIF has taken a position that Florida's education system needs to cut electives (art, music, drama, etc.) and focus more on core subjects specifically math and reading. Confused. Math and reading certainly have their place but critical and creative thinking has incredibly low limits when we make them the entirety of a child's education. AIF's belief that cutting the arts , which at their core more than anything promote creativity and critical thinking, will achieve a goal of more critical thinkers appears at best, typical of how we treat the arts and at worst suspicious. Warning conspiracy theory: Are FCAT proponents in the ear of AIF?
Teachers are already sacrificing important lesson plans as their being forced to teach for standardized test (FCAT). Standardized test, the murderers of critical and creative thinking, they are "what to think" "not "how to think" tests. The arts, physical education, history, philosophy and even science have seen their budgets slashed, their time crunched into smaller blocks all in the name of school funding which is based on the schools performance on these standardized tests. Now those same subjects are being targeted by a business association with good intentions but misguided thinking. Perhaps the AIF needs a little bit of creative and critical thinking itself.
