These are great words, with definitions from Merriam-Webster:
Roil means: to make turbid by stirring up the sediment or dregs
These are the origins of turbid: Latin turbidus confused, disordered, turbid, from turba confusion, tumult, crowd; akin to Latin turbare to throw into disorder, disturb, make turbid
Turbulence means: wild unruly disorderly commotion : disposition to stormy unruliness : violent agitation or disturbance : great perturbation : disorderly or tumultuous conduct
In many ways, education is roiling. Money is running out, teachers unions picket, textbook committees argue through the night, politicians promise, parents anguish, pundits prattle — and the goal of elevating learning for yet another generation eludes us.
This disorder and commotion are forcing consideration of what children do all day while they are growing up. Under the umbrella term “education,” issues of culture and nurture loom larger and larger. In a Politico article today, Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-Calif) sketches turbulence in the life of kids who are prevented from focusing on learning.
How long will education be turbidus? Who and what can fix it? Or will education fix itself, with the sediment and dregs that have been stirred up settling into a new pattern in a changing world. I think the latter is true: education will reconfigure itself around the network of what is known by humankind that is emergent on the internet. The world will become a far better place because all the young global generation will connect to the same virtual pages online to learn their knowledge. Separately, and largely locally, what kids do all day will be resolved in many different ways.
Already we can put individual students into the calming future.
While education roils on, we can snatch one mind at a time out of the turbulence. The action is simple: provide the youngster a mobile device and connection that provide him with his own web browser. We may not soon replace the turbid schools Judy Cho describes, but this very day, she could provide a student there with his own connection to what is known by humankind.
