Most Likely to Succeed: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4267108/

 

The 2015 documentary “Most Likely to Succeed” produced by Ted Dintersmith and Tony Wagner and directed by Greg Whitely explores the pitfalls of our western education system and how it can be improved. It opens with the premise that our current system is outdated, restrictive and does not suite everyone’s learning style.  Which can cause some students to burn out and lose interest in school. Not a very controversial idea.

The film forces us to ask, “are we setting children up to fail?”. As technology advances at an ever-increasing pace, traditional labour and office jobs are likely to automated away.  it is unsure whether the skills we are teaching kids will be useful to them at all by the time they graduate.

High Tech High is presented as a model for the school of the future.  Teachers set their own curriculum, traditional boundaries between subjects are removed, and learning is much more self-directed by the students. It’s a system that places extra value on independence, resilience, grown mindset, and soft skills. This is meant to prepare students for an uncertain future, so that they have the capabilities to think critically, problem solve and adapt. Not just give up when the unexpected happens.  Teachers at HTH are able to teach to their passions, which also likely helps them be more engaging with their students. Instead of final exams that force you to cram your head full of content knowledge that you will likely forget a week after, students create complex projects that instil interdisciplinary learning throughout the process. For these reasons, High Tech High appears to be the ideal school.

Most people can probably agree that our current education system needs work, but the solution presented by the film may come off as extreme for some. No tests, no specific classes for math English, and science. Even though students at HTH complete a fair amount of traditional schoolwork, like papers and reports, parents still worry that their children will miss out. When it comes to standard test scores, will they be encumbered? and therefore, will they miss out on university opportunities? It is interesting to note that according to the documentary, children from High Tech High perform better on tests then the average public-school student and have higher acceptance rates to post-secondary education as well.