The film, Most Likely to Succeed is a 2015 documentary that explores new practices of teaching which go against traditional educational thought. I was apprehensive when I first saw we were assigned this piece. Often, when movies are assigned in class, they are given simply so the class has something to do, providing little to no actual value in the process. Not to mention they also can be pretty dull and, overall, a waste of everyone’s time. To my surprise, Most Likely to Succeed was the complete opposite. Instead, this documentary was not only highly entertaining but also very thought-provoking. I would recommend it to not only fellow aspiring teachers but to any of my friends as well.
In particular, what I found most interesting about this documentary is the notion that the conventional ways of education are beginning to fail. As it was mentioned near the opening of the doc, the education system that we still use today was established hundreds of years ago in a colonial world. Unlike almost everything else in this world, there has been little to no change to the core education system in this time. Now, having not been adapted to the modern world, its flaws are beginning to show more and more. Flaws that show us that change is needed in our profession. Flaws we cannot keep in this system much longer; we know it can bring more harm than good to the next generation.
Thankfully, this idea is beginning to spread in our profession, and change is starting to occur. In just the first few weeks of this school year, I have learned that much of what I experienced in elementary school is no longer in practice. It’s made me wonder that if teaching styles from the early-mid 2000s are no longer used today, what will be used in 2050? It’ll be so interesting to see how our profession changes throughout our careers.
To conclude, as future educators, it will be our job to pave the way for the next era of education. We will be the trailblazers, but we must do it right. We may only have one shot to change things positively. We have got to do everything in our power to ensure this happens.
