Legislators and pundits keep talking about educational reform. William Bennett recently wrote on CNN.com that we are now ready for “real” reform. Well, it is about time. School has not changed much in more than a century. Other than the presence of technology and a slightly more student centered teaching focus, our grandparents would find today’s schools very similar to their experiences. It is time to put away the assembly line model of education. The reforms of the past are like saying we are going to redesign the automobile by painting the tires a different color. The educational debates in legislatures across the nation assiduously avoid substantive issues and focus on testing, tenure, and taxes.
What would real educational reform look like? What would we need to do to revolutionize our school systems? We need to go beyond the simplistic test and “data” driven measures of success and redesign the car starting with the engine!
That engine has four components: students, parents, educators and communities. Schools live at the intersection of these four worlds. How these worlds connect, relate, and support (or work against) each other provides the impetus for learning. Parents and community must be integral parts of the school. Classes, if we even still call them that, must take children out of the schoolhouse into the community. Parents must be more than an afterthought in education. Regardless of whether or not there is “homework,” home should be highly connected to school.
One way that parents become more involved in the educational process is to start it far earlier. Instead of waiting until a child is five to begin public education, we need to work with parents before the child is born and, perhaps, before the child is even conceived! Education starts with parent education! From prenatal information and pregnancy guidance, nutrition to discipline, sleep issues and play time, our system should enfold the family from its very beginning.
Our current educational model looks like an assembly line. Kids arrive in age groupings and moved from grade to grade and subject area to subject area just like Chevys. Just as our industrial society has transformed into an information and service based world, our schools must also move beyond the assembly line.
Children don’t all develop the same way at the same time. Just because two children were born in the same year does not mean they have the same needs. Grouping children by age is not the best way to meet individual educational needs. Instead, we need to allow children to learn at a pace that matches their learning temperament. While students will work in groups, those groups should be multi-age. They should form for specific purposes and, when those objectives are met, new groups for new goals should form.
The other half of the assembly line needs to change as well. We have built artificial subject areas and forced them on the students. Reading, writing, problem solving, creating, communicating, exploring, questioning, and thinking are universal. While there may still be some basic “content” that we want students to “know,” it is no longer reasonable or desirable to think of education as simply turning our kids into little encyclopedias. They need to know how to find the information they need and then how to evaluate and use it. We are moving from a content-based education to a skill-based curriculum. The lines between English, math, social studies, science and other academic disciplines have become less useful. In fact, these content labels discourage kids from transferring their skills from one “subject” to another. We build fences between subject areas and then are disappointed when our students can’t leap over them.
If we are not grouping by age and we don’t have rigid subject areas, then education is not only going to be more individualized, but students are going to get much more independence and control. The range of activities that constitute “schoolwork” will broaden significantly. Students will work with their parents and other adults in the community. Students will create their own learning experiences and adults will merely facilitate them. Rather than teaching kids, we will help kids teach themselves.
And how will we know if we succeed? Will there be a series of big tests that each child must pass? What would be on these tests? Tests are good at measuring a finite amount of knowledge. Knowledge based learning died in the late Twentieth Century. We need to find a new way to measure and evaluate learning.
In a skill based “school,” students should be evaluated based on the skills they have mastered. Just as a girl scout must prove she is capable to earn a merit badge, we should have sets of skills that our children must master. There will be as many roads to skill mastery as there are children. And those who know and work with these children will help them self-evaluate and, if necessary remediate, their skills.
Of course teachers and schools will be accountable for this kind of evaluation, but parents, community members, mentors, and even lawmakers will also share this accountability. And the largest share will reside with the students themselves!
If you are thinking that this idea is difficult and different and will require remarkable, creative, and brilliant people to make it happen, you are right. Our educators need to be the best of the best. We need to attract and retain people who are gifted in a wide variety of areas. We cannot afford to stick with a narrow definition of “smart” for our children or our teachers. Those who guide and coordinate this process should be highly trained, dedicated, and richly rewarded professionals. As a nation, we should create a system that not only attracts those who are best suited to teaching, but also encourages them to stay in the system!
The final reform that will be critical to the success of our education revolution is the most difficult. Schools are a reflection of their communities. If our children live in poverty and have to fight gangs, drugs, and the myriad of social ills each day, they will not learn. If they have not eaten well and their parents cannot give them adequate attention because they must work long hours, they cannot learn. While an improved educational system may help alleviate some of these problems, these problems will prevent our children from thriving. All children, all families, have a right to live in a safe community free of violence and fear. All families have a right to healthy nutrition, a productive job and a decent wage. These issues must be addressed or we will be forever divided between the haves and have-nots.
It is time to redefine school and I don’t think lawmakers have the guts or ability to do it. Their mistakes and machinations have created the system we are trying to reform. It is time for families, teachers, and community leaders to take the lead. It is time to put our tax dollars where our hearts are: with the children, with our future, and make real change!
Here is an excellent video that explores this topic further:
No comments:
Post a Comment