What is the Future of Private Education?
The next phase of global education has presented politicians, parents, and education leaders with a quagmire as we work to discover the most effective way to educate the world’s nearly two billion children.
Trending educational concepts – like charter schools, education plan consultants, cyber-learning, and school vouchers – all point toward the fact that parents demand choices for their children’s educations. And more than ever before, they have them.
Under the current education model, students are held to the rigid standardization of their local school districts, forcing highly individual children into cookie-cutter classrooms that too often limit discovery and interaction with academic topics.
Furthering these limitations are issues including underfunded and overcrowded classrooms that make it difficult for students to get the personalized education they need to pursue their passions while receiving the foundational knowledge necessary to succeed.
Alternatives can be limited for parents looking to avoid the issues often associated with public schools. Private schools carry the perception of being elitist and expensive – places where prestige and tradition trump innovation and student interests. Religion-based private schools similarly may not fit the values of a student and their family. Despite this, more than ever before, parents are choosing private schools and are expected to continue to choose private schools at an increasing rate into the future.
More than a place to simply learn the core fundamentals, modern schools can create the citizens the world needs to solve 21st century issues. Flexible curriculum, inclusive learning, and sustainable practices are just a few of the reasons parents are choosing private schools to prepare their children for the future.
Student customized learning has been touted as an effective way to increase student engagement and learning. Students are tasked with working with their teachers to create a curriculum that appeals to their individual strengths and interests. When combined with creative studios and makerspaces, students can leverage their passions with practical lessons in science, mathematics, media, art, and technology.
Modern private schools also strive to be sustainable, reducing their footprint through initiatives that power the schools with solar power, minimizing waste through composting and recycling, and serving vegetable-based meals grown largely on-site. The school uses these initiatives as teaching opportunities to instill these values of conservation in students while also providing real world applications to classroom topics.
Diverse and inclusive, there is a place for all students at these newly imagined schools, bringing with them their own personal and cultural identities to the classroom. Project-based collaborative learning takes advantage of their varying talents, promotes social and emotional learning, and assists students in building skills in communication and collaboration.
Parents have a choice in educational institutions for their children, and more often they are choosing private schools. That’s because these private schools are leading the future of education with the flexibility and funding needed to create highly effective centers of learning.