Future Smart

Parents of twice-exceptional learners often lament the current system of American education. We feel little has changed in schools despite considerable societal shifts, and it can be quite difficult to find programs and teachers that are a good fit for our kids. In Ulcca Joshi Hansen’s landmark book, The Future of Smart: How Our Education System Needs to Change to Help All Young People Thrive, she takes this subjective experience and frames it within an historical and cultural context. She echoes so many of us when she calls for a radical re-imagining of what our educational system could be. Her broad professional background in education, philosophy, foreign language, and the law, as well as her experiences growing up as an English language learner in the United States between living abroad in various cultures, and, most significantly, parenting two children, combine to give her a unique capacity to explore this topic. In the first part of the book, Hansen dives deeply into how our current system of education came into being. When considering the worthy, but not well thought out, goals of “No Child Left Behind,” she writes: “The initiative failed because they [the government] didn’t understand the problem… the experts were looking at an education system designed during the Industrial Revolution to prepare the children of laborers for factory jobs, rank them, sort the best from the worst and inculcate the values of the time…. The times had changed, our values had changed, and the machine was still chugging along in the same old way.” [perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Hansen envisions a school system where specialized programs for giftedness are unnecessary because all students are engaged, valued, and participating in activities and content that is meaningful and accessible.[/perfectpullquote] In the second part of the book, Hansen shines a light on how we got here. Admittedly, there’s some choppy waters in the technical-sounding language of the indigenous vs. the Cartesian-Newtonian worldview, but when she dives into these philosophical depths, it’s to reveal hidden treasures. She re-discovers the early 20^th century innovators in the field, specifically Maria Montessori (who pioneered child-directed learning), Rudolph Steiner (whose Waldorf schools combined art and music with spiritual resonance), and Jiddu Krishnamurti (who believed in a moral-based education to empower free-thinking) as beacons for “education as a force for the liberation of individuals, societies, and the planet as a whole.” She labels these types of programs as holistic-indigenous learning (HIL), versus conventional or whole child/innovative reform educational orientations. As those of us in the education field know, conventional programs continue to follow the industrial-model approach, emphasizing remediation, college readiness, and academic achievement, falling into the category of whole-child/innovative reform. While public and private schools still have their foundation in the industrial model, they have sought to improve the system by bolting on an ever-growing list of reforms. This can easily overwhelm teachers, administrators, students, and families with the addition of the “next best thing” without any true fundamental shifts. On the other end of the spectrum, the HIL approach focuses on community, critical thinking, emotional development, social justice, and academics grounded in a sense of purpose. Hansen explores the barriers that currently exist in implementation of HIL, as well as how the three orientations (Montessori, Steiner, Krishnamurti) differ from one another.

Finally, Hansen presents ideas for where we go from here and the practical steps necessary to reach those goals. She uses the development of the cellular phone industry as an analogy for how HIL could promulgate. Rather than continuing to build the infrastructure for landline telephones to bring service to everyone, industry change-makers invested in the burgeoning cell phone system. Rather than continuing to “fix” the industrial model, investing in existing successful HIL programs will give us a better way forward and out of our current educational morass. Hansen outlines a plan for codifying and disseminating effective practices, creating broad age-band competencies to gauge learning outcomes, integrating authentic and performative assessments, envisioning a new understanding of accountability, and developing methods for presenting student accomplishments for the transition to post-secondary pursuits. The use of the word “smart” in the title can be emotionally loaded, when we think in the context of giftedness, abilities, access, equity, and the like. Yet, Hansen’s vision aligns closely with many programs effectively serving gifted and 2e learners. She envisions a school system where specialized programs for giftedness, disabilities, or 2e students are unnecessary because all students are engaged, valued, and participating in activities and content that is meaningful and accessible. In the pursuit of just such an equitable and inspiring educational atmosphere, many parents, myself included, have turned to a homeschooling model or other alternative learning environments. Not everyone can manage those options, but it is the responsibility of the government to support effective education. Hansen posits, with clarity and passion, that this shift towards holistic indigenous learning would benefit all students, especially those whose potential is not being reached in our current public education system.

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Jessica Lawrence is a National Board-Certified Exceptional Needs Specialist. She regularly provides support to parents of gifted and 2e learners in the Seattle area.