'Kids Are Different: There Are Lots of Different Ways to Educate Them' - The Atlantic

'Kids Are Different: There Are Lots of Different Ways to Educate Them' - The Atlantic
"There are a dizzying number of theories out there about American education.
Smaller classrooms are the solution one day, the next, iPads.
Glenn Harlan Reynolds of Instapundit takes on these ideas and makes his own predictions in his new book, The New School. 
I talked with him about his conclusion that the future of American education is rooted in technology, choice, and customization.
Here’s a transcript of our conversation, edited and condensed for clarity and length.

• How did schools get to be like they are now?

Our models for education, both K-12 and higher ed, were basically imported from Germany in the 19th century. 
Those 19th-century German models were in many ways not bad models for the United States in the 19th century...

• Why do these German models fail us now in the 21st century?

...You have the quasi-monopoly with mostly unionized teachers in K-12 and the tenured professoriate in higher ed.
Frankly the administrators on both sides have arranged things...in ways that make their lives as comfortable and pleasant and secure as possible.
...That is relatively easy for the people who are teaching, but it doesn’t necessarily serve children well.
...On the higher ed level, the problem is a little different.
What you have is the cost of the college education increasing at slightly more than double the rate of family income increasing and the difference being made up for with debt, primarily student-loan debt. That doesn’t work once the debt reaches an unsustainable point...
...In your book, you predict that there are big and controversial changes coming to education, like homeschooling, charter schools, and online courses.
...How do online courses meet today’s needs?
My daughter did almost all of her high school on online school.
...She finished a year’s worth of work in one class in three weeks of intensive effort...
...Careers change a lot.
There are a lot of older people who really don’t want to go back and spend four years as Joe College and Betty Coed going to classes but need to get an education...

• What will the downsides of these reforms look like?

It’s going to be like almost any other system: Life for the producers is going to become less comfortable and probably less lucrative and life for the consumers is going to become a bit easier and cheaper.
Net, we will probably be better off as a society...
Why haven’t these changes happened yet?..."
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