Wednesday Writing Assignment
So it's September. That glorious time of year when the leaves start changing, the Halloween Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are released, and school buses start their daily to-and-fro. I'm not taking any grad school classes this year, so I was mildly surprised to see kids standing on corners for the first time in months last week. I remember the feeling, though.
The question: If you had to put together a whole school--elementary, middle, or high--on what principles would it be based? How would you structure it? Would you emphasize any particular philosophy? How would you want your hypothetical kids to learn about the world?
posted by Anonymous @ 10:17 AM
10 Comments:
This is a tough question for me, precisely because I think I received an excellent education. Had my schooling been terrible, it would be much easier to point out areas in need of reform.
If I were to found my own educational system...First, I'd do away with the math Mad Minute (as it's known in some schools). This is the third grade torture whereby students are given a jarringly bright yellow paper covered with basic arithmetic problems, like "12 x 12 =". Students race against a stopwatch to complete as many problems as possible in 60 seconds, then are *graded* on the results. The whole thing is terrifying, and used to happen every Friday afternoon under the watchful stare of the terrible Ms. Couteau. Greg (who also endured this torture at his school) and I have determined that this Minute of hell is when girls start hating mathematics. Briight yellow still stresses me out.
Concepts and values I would emphasize in a school include:
*The interface between and value of community/cooperation, individual responsibility, and boundaries (Could be enforced through well-facilitated team work)
*Connections between things (thanks, Mr. Holmes, for driving that one home: "Everything's conencted to everything")
*Foreign language from, like, birth, accompanied by foreign culture studies from maybe 2nd grade (Need to make the US part of the world community)
*Symbolism
*Critical thinking
*A good grounding in Philosophy
*Holitstic health, including: food and where it comes from (using a program similar to those in CA, where the kids work in the garden and then cook thier food at the end of the year); nutrition; and the environment/nature (which I would make a cross-disciplinary health and science unit)
*I would find ways to make math less abstract and more practical, esp. high school math, which we learned in the dullest way possible. Perhaps there are ways to teach even advanced math using play, the senses, etc.
*Reading and writing and spelling and grammar and history and science and all that normal stuff (very rigorous grammar), but all taught with more learning styles in mind and lots of field trips.
*I think, too, I would bring more memorization back into the curriculum. See this article:
http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_3_defense_memorization.html
*And GYM class! Oh how i would change phys ed. Less torture; more choices. Actually, I think our h.s. gym teacher did a pretty good job of giving us square dancing units and a yoga video class and stuff. I might also allow students to take an outside class, like a martial art or dance or yoga, and count it towards their gym credit.
*Kindegarteners would be taught manners in a fun way, maybe using role-playing, as parents sure ain't teaching them anymore.
Most important would be to foster a love of learning and curiousity about the world, which any teacher worth her salt strives to do already.
Also—how great would it be for a school to offer optional workshops kids could take? Shiatsu school is great like that: We have the regular curriculum covered in class, but then there are loads of workshops on herbs, cooking, martial arts, calligraphy, and so on we can take in addition to the regular courses. Imagine having evening or weekend workshops lead by local business leaders or chefs or scientists or artists or whatever that kids could take for a small fee.
All good suggestions. Karen for Secretary of Education!
(Thanks for the link to the article on memorization. This has been a subject that's interested me ever since I took Howard Bernstein's Philosophy of Education class at Wesleyan. He was very progressive, very anti-anything like this, and he and I argued a lot. Since then I've been of two minds on this, so I'm glad to have a good article to sink my teeth into.)
I'd integrate yoga into every classroom. And some kind of meditation. I'd teach kids methods to concentrate, to calm down, to recognize their own bodily/mental needs. there would be a variety of sports, too, and some actual instruction, so the less-talented kids would learn, too.
I'd teach a lot of basics: reading, writing, math, history, critical thinking, scientific basics and inquiry. I think sports go here, maybe. No caluculators for awhile. I'd use as many primary sources as possible as the kids got older. I'd encourage kids to participate in ways that are comfortable--reading for some, drawing for others, for example--and to change roles sometimes.
I'd teach manners, using Miss Manners as my textbooks, and some practice each day or week in some of the finer forms.
No bullying. Ever. By anyone.
Freedom to make mistakes--but not to make the same one twice, and not to lie.
I'd find a way to group kids in ways that helped them learn without either (a) boring them or (b) making them feel dumb.
SMALL classes--that seems to be the single biggest determining factor.
I'd pay the teachers more than the administrators, or I'd enable teachers to run their own school. And the principal has to teach, too, at least once in awhile.
I'd definitely teach the kids about nutrition and help them make good choices about their food. I, too, like the work in the garden idea. I'd teach them to cook, too. And maybe do laundry. Everyone would have chores, and they'd rotate. I'd prefer it if the kids actually cooked some of the meals, and served some, too, so they don't think food magically appears in front of you. No soda or candy machines. No fast food.
carla
Oh, and at least one language in addition to English, from the lowest grade. And time/space for arts and crafts, broadly understood. (I'd include fancy needlework, for example, and sculpture.) Maybe even some trade-type skills, but definitely the simple things like sewing a button and ironing a shirt. Plus, that would enable inquiry into what clothes are made of, and where they come from, and who makes them.
Thanks, Eric. I nominate Carla for co-Secretary of Education!
Love the manners idea. A Carla/Karen administration would be OK by me.
I must contest Carla's proposal to rid schools of principals. A good principal does wonders for the school. My dad's a principal and my mom's a teacher, so I know something about this: teachers want to teach; principals, many of whom have taught, want to make sure the school runs well, and often guide their work by overarching educational philosophies. My dad, for example, just got legislation passed to revisit the middle school vs junior high philosophy in his state. This examination had been on the table but was then shelved for years, and he fought very hard to bring middle schools back into discussion. There's a LOT that principals do that no one sees.
Eric, what did you think of the article?
Oh, I know that principals do a lot! If teachers administrated the school, one would have to be acting principal or something, for example. Principals have an interesting, liminal history in american education: during unionization spurts, school boards would often promote the most troublesome teachers to principal, because then the principal was often ineligible for membership in the union. Some principals had teaching experience, others did not. Another inequity, in my mind, has been that the only way for teachers to earn more money is to become . . . administrators. So you can end up losing your best teachers, simply because they've hit the salary ceiling. (I remember once here in IL, a principal who had encouraged her students/teachers to cheat on standardized tests was "punished" by . . . making her a teacher again. That's just demented.) I can see the advantage of having someone in the position over the longer term, so s/he can fight the battles like the one you mentioned, though, too. As long as teachers can make money doing what they're good at doing, I'm happy.
Oh, while we're on this tangential subject, I'd also welcome teachers' unions, but also insist on a mechanism for getting rid of bad teachers.
And I'd make school year-round, but with several longish (2-3 weeks? maybe a month in the summer?) breaks. Kids forget too much over the summer, and we no longer go by an agrarian clock.
carla
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