Modern Superheroes

from http://postcaption.com/1460/batman-and-ironman/

 This was brought up in church a few weeks ago how most of the top summer blockbuster movies involve superheroes. The pastor also said that two of the top grossing movies of all time are The Avengers with Iron Man and The Dark Knight with Batman. The point was made on how these two characters are appropriate superheroes for today's society. Think about it for a minute, neither of them have special powers that they were born with or got from a spider bite or something.

What do Iron Man and Batman have in common? Well their alter egos, Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne, are both billionaire businessmen and both get their power from technology. Money and technology are what make them great, gadgets if you will.

I couldn't help but think of education today. The heroes who are driving reform in this country are people like Bill Gates and Eli Broad, rich billionaires who love technology. Also the drive to use technology to "individualize" learning, aka have a computer algorithm match a students abilities as it drills and kills them.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am no Luddite but technology needs to be a tool for students to control their learning not just a teacher substitute program. Educators are all tired of the themes of Waiting for Superman but we need to watch out for the "help" from Iron Man and Batman.

Money should not be what drives the focus of education in this country. I for one am tired of the political and for profit companies meddling in education. Educators need to stand up more and show better ways for learning.

What can you do in your sphere of influence to change the education conversation to student-centered learning instead of the current "reforms?"