The problems of the existing educational paradigm have been huge, yet the solution is simple. This book clearly describes what is wrong, how to fix it, how we got here, and how to avoid going there ever again. Forty years of extensive and diverse experience in education have been focused and distilled to equip you to pull back the curtain, talk the language, understand the concepts, and propose your own solutions that will rapidly transform the current compliance-driven model into an engaging, beckoning pathway leading all students towards fulfilling adulthood. The current system assumes that the crumbs falling from the table of the college-bound are adequate fare for the majority who are not-so-bound. One model of vehicle could never meet all transportation needs. Likewise, one set of educational standards, such as the Common Core, can never meet all students' needs. A separate set of practical standards must be offered for the majority who do not aspire towards, will not attend, nor will complete college. There are three basic questions regarding education. Why are we teaching? What are we teaching? And how are we teaching? A UPS delivery person knows how to get a computer package to your door. That person does not know how to design or install the computer. By virtue of institutional isolation, educators know how to deliver knowledge, but do not know what knowledge is necessary for vocation-bound students. Only when end users, those skilled and knowledgeable in their field of expertise are asked to vet educational standards will the "what" of education finally be appropriate, relevant, and engaging for the millions who are now dis-served, dis-interested and dropping out. The "why" of education is also insightfully addressed, suggesting that school should be an explratorium where students discover, explore, and mature their natural gifts and inclinations. The current fragment-based educational model can easily be replaced with more holistic, placed-based, theme based-models that teach in the way students will later approach life's issues. When students enter a course of study engineered by those successful in vocational/avocational destinations, with strict adherence to a mandate for relevance, when they are taught holistically, they will willingly engage, then retain and master skills/knowledge. Teachers, principals, school boards, superintendents, students-maybe even tax-payers will finally be pleased with the end result. The primary target audience of this book includes those who are outside of the system-parents, legislators, activists, those who are concerned about quality of education, those who are frustrated by the seemingly endless spinning of the gerbil cage of education reform, those who have been beaten back by the system's invisible forces. To equip you, the author has decoded educational vernacular and concepts and have provided simple irrefutable data. Herein are insights, followed with persuasive arguments that have seldom, if ever, been expressed in lay terms. You will gain confidence with which to hold your ground in the blizzard of jargon and acronyms. As a team, we will reach and pull back the curtain that obscures the Wizard who now rules Oz. The target beneficiary of this work is every inner, outer, former, current, or future child who ever has, or will ask, "What do I need this for?" and was, or will be met with resounding, undeserved silence.
The author, Alan MacLean, hitchhiked from the East Coast to Alaska in the mid-60s. He lived a subsistence lifestyle with his wife and five children for over a decade before receiving a B.Ed. in Cross-cultural education from UAF in the late 70s. He taught in remote one-room classrooms for many years, served home-schoolers in very distant locations, then became the curriculum and vocational education coordinator for an interior Alaskan school district. Following that, he traveled the state of Alaska for over twenty years, training teachers how to make education meaningful and relevant. He helped write state, and later, NCLB standards. He has served in other statewide educational functions as well. He authored many books and produced several videos promoting place-based, relevant education, as well as cultural activities and Dena'ina language lessons. He and his daughter, Rachel, recently co-authored a book of historical fiction, Tatiana, based on the true story of the matriarch of Dena'ina people now living in the upper Stony River country. In more practical terms, he has, for decades, been an Alaskan bush pilot, ultralight instructor, heavy equipment operator, carpenter, firefighter, miner, hunter, trapper, fisherman. He built over twenty log cabins, over thirty riverboats, two ultralights and a hovercraft. He currently resides in a remote Alaskan location, still living off the land with his Athabaskan wife of forty-eight years. They are grandparents of fourteen and great-grandparents of eight.
