Open Thread 1: Your Dreams of Alternative Schools?
It’s 12 minutes from 2008 here in Seoul. It’s also 12 minutes from the One Year Anniversary of Beyond School. So it shouldn’t surprise you that I’m spending New Year’s Eve with my beloved B.S. 
(I do have an uncharacteristic glass of wine next to me as I write.)
I want to steal a trick from my favorite political video blog, Crooks and Liars (whose link to my “Truly Critical: Thinking about Science, Religion, and Goodness” post last week opened this blog to readership beyond edubloggers - to the tune of almost 1,000 visits to that post - in what I hope becomes a wedding of educational and political blogging, and another escape, like Students 2.0, from the echo chamber), by creating a regular “Open Thread” feature.
The idea of an Open Thread is to pose an issue, and then let the comments come. The thread - and that means the conversations in the comments - is the thing, not the post. It’s crowd wisdom - it’s blogging - at its best.
The question I propose for this thread comes in response to the following recent posts in the ’sphere:
- The 33-and-counting comments to my “On Leaving Teaching to Become a Teacher“
- Will Richardson’s “Some New Year’s Dreaming” from Weblogg-ed, and its 24-and-counting comments
- Graham Wegner’s “Parable 2.0,” and its 11-and-counting comments
- Jeff Utecht’s “One Door Closes….Where Does That Leave You?” (Jeff announces he’s leaving his job here, without a new one to go to), and its 25 comments
- Taylor the Teacher’s “You Got Punk’d: An Open Letter to American Parents” and its 11-and-counting comments.
And the question is this:
If you dream of starting a new school, what are the reasons you don’t try?
If you’d prefer a positive framing of the question, how about:
How would your dream school look, and how would you make it a reality?
or, to get really outside the box:
If you believe it’s time for schools to end, how would you replace them?
Happy New Year, everybody. Since realities begin in dreams, maybe this thread will make it really happy.
(Stay tuned for the next thread: “What are the biggest obstacles to education reform that you would like to campaign against?” - But again, that’s next time. Just priming the pump.)
Photo credit: …utopiacere… on Flickr
Hmmm - the problem with the question is it is so difficult to describe the “out of the box” school when we are so deeply harnessed to the box called school…. I have not yet started a school because I fear the starting and running of a “school” would put me in a place I don’t want to be - administrivia - instead of inspired and inspring learner…. I guess I am a bit fearful…. wish I were braver in 2008
Gail Lovely
1 Jan 08 at 1:28 am
If I started a school, I wouldn’t call it that. I’d call it a learning cooperative, or a cool discovery group.
Taylor
1 Jan 08 at 4:33 am
StumbleUpon - Your page is now on StumbleUpon!
1 Jan 08 at 4:34 am
Clay,
I had this very same conversation with my wife while driving back from the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey today.
Looking purely at the high school level, I’d structure it more like a university approach. Use freshman year to get the “requirements” out of the way. I’d define requirements as the canon of learning one needs to be a culturally literate person in one;s society. (Basic history, mores, computation, ethics, philosophy, literature, biology, investing/saving, and how to fix things in your home. There would be some kind of assessment to determine that you’d met the minimum proficiency; not a pencil and paper test. Instead, some kind of “exhibiton” or other way to demonstrate what you’ve learned. If you don;t succeed in year one, in year two, you get smaller groups and intense teacher support to scaffold and help you through. Sophomore through senior years are purely elective. Take what interests you and you want to learn more about. Intern and externships and apprenticeships abound. Online and videoconferencing classes to promote collaboration abound as well. Faculty are much like colleges; some full time, some part time, and some an adjuncts. There are also counselors, advisors, assistants, IT divisions, community service groups, etc.
The goal is to finish more worldly, passionate about something, and inspired for adulthood and making a contribution to the world.
Best,
Barry
Barry
1 Jan 08 at 6:02 am
It is not time for schools to end, because we still need them. Our schools need to look like an inviting place. They need to be student-driven.
I am not starting an alternative school _yet_ because I want more experience in the system to have a better idea of what good to take to the new school.
Jethro
1 Jan 08 at 6:11 am
Barry, what an inviting response (and what a funny coincidence - I wonder if I was writing this post in Korea as you were talking on your drive in New Jersey?).
Jethro - assuming that we still need schools, do they still need to be in a school building, five days a week? Do they still need to be mandatory(-ish) to age 18?
I’m just damned if I can think of much that was useful in my last three years of high school. And many “experts” are calling for ending high school early by a year or more. Thoughts?
Clay Burell
1 Jan 08 at 6:18 am
Clay,
Barry’s model sounds like something I could commit to - as student/teacher/facilitator/learner.
I would add a tutorial, similar to the classic Oxford model, where a student would confer periodically with his/her professor and discuss difficulties, challenges, ideas. Any one-on-one time I’ve had with students, regardless of their academic or behavior record, has been enlightening and productive.
We need to put more of a human face on education. If that means increasing staff, then that’s what should be done.
diane
diane
1 Jan 08 at 7:50 am
It seems so straightforward to me. Why aren’t administrators placing teachers more effectively? Those interested in digital learning and teaching are very frustrated by the lack of enthusiasm either with colleagues or admin. Place us in schools where we can create an exemplar of what is possible using technologies.
Fiona, Brisbane.
Fiona Banjer
1 Jan 08 at 8:16 am
Fiona: Interesting that what “seems so straightforward” to us isn’t so in reality - yet - isn’t it?
Want to know my fantasy? Find investors for a school that hired only teachers with roughly the same 21st c. vision and skills; hire those teachers from points around the globe and, as international schools do anyway, pay them very well (necessary to motivate them to uproot - though most I.S. teachers maintain a home in their own country while living abroad). Market the thing for what it is in whatever city has the best demographic of parents looking for a cutting-edge school. And take it from there.
Barry’s vision of curriculum and scheduling, Diane’s point that a larger and more flexible staff (not necessarily on-site?) would excite forward-thinking parents, I would bet.
Of course, that assumes a physical space is necessary, which seems less and less self-evident with each passing day.
Just a fantasy? Let’s see what the objections are. There should be several, of course.
Clay Burell
1 Jan 08 at 7:31 pm
Hi Clay–Thanks for starting such a delicious conversation for the new year!
If I had a magic wand, I’d create more places that enable students to “learn in public,” while taking part in the life of their community. A couple examples from the U.S. include: Minnesota’s School of Environmental Studies, better known as the Zoo School because it sits on the grounds of the Minnesota Zoo where students naturally gravitate toward environmental projects; and the Henry Ford Academy in Dearborn, Michigan, where students learn in a museum. Surrounded by the artifacts of history, they are inspired to pursue their own innovations. Although these remain the rare exception among U.S. schools, more examples of “learning in public” are in the works. The Gates Foundation is supporting an $11 million effort to develop new schools in partnership with cultural institutions and other public settings.
Gets me thinking about all the places where we could engage with students instead of isolating them away from the real world. Would love to hear of any similar initiatives happening elsewhere in the world.
Cheers,
Suzie
Suzie Boss’s last blog post..Name Your Top 10
Suzie Boss
2 Jan 08 at 7:57 am
Goodness, Suzy, what a great comment.
I assume the bell schedule went out the window with those projects?
I’m looking forward to reading your “Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World PBL in the Digital Age” (did I get that right?) as soon as it arrives.
Seriously, you’ve been instrumental my development since we did that interview back in June or so.
Hey, the Gates Foundation - do they play with Apple-based schools?
And what are your thoughts on the future of school-buildings? What do you picture, hope, predict?
Nice to hear from you
Clay Burell
2 Jan 08 at 11:33 am
Clay - your fantasy is pretty close to one of mine.
It must be a New Years’ thing–because I was having the dream schools and how to make them conversation with my husband on the drive home two nights ago.
On the opposite end from the strongly 21st C school (and possibly non-physical learning environment?) I have the dream of really interesting schools based around the sites that are there. Like that Minnesota Zoo school Suzie mentioned. There are so many incredible historical sites in the places I’ve lived that I would love to be schools of their own. More broadly, I have this dream of a “living history” school, in which everything (from science to math to engineering to history to government to social skills) is taught through projects based on the historical context. It would travel half the year (in order to take advantage of historical sites around the nation and/or globe) but probably also have a site of its own for other parts. (I grew up involved in reenactment and living history, so this is a personal passion.)
All my various dreams center around getting rid of separate disciplines and creating project-oriented learning environments, I guess. The tech thing is a less-developed but definitely there part of them, too.
Penelope’s last blog post..Happy New Year
Penelope
2 Jan 08 at 11:55 am
As a frustrated admin, I will tell you that this thought has crossed my mind more than once. I have several reasons why I have done done it yet:
Reasons 1, 2, and 3. Funding. As a public employee, I have no idea how to obtain funding for such a project. Aside from raiding the public coffers to begin a charter, I am naive about the funding.
My dream school would operate more like a college campus than a factory. Instead of regimented times and schedules, teachers could hold class when needed and students would come when necessary. Granted, this is not for everyone. Why do we need to make kids go to classes every day at the same time? Open, project based education is called for.
I do believe it is time for schooling as we know it to end. How we bunk the system depends on how much grief and ridicule we are willing to tolerate as individuals. I have three children and a wife to support and pay for. Gambling my career and salary is not an option for me right now.
Michael Parent’s last blog post..An Alternative to Suspensions
Michael Parent
3 Jan 08 at 1:51 am
@Penelope: You touch on my own thrust that it’s not about creating alternative education so that we can all go ga-ga with technology. I don’t dream of turning students into my own geeky, computer-unbalanced self. I do dream of turning them into people free to pursue their own interests for mastery of one trade/skill over jack of all - curriculum-prescribed - though.
@Michael: piggybacking on the last paragraph: you and I aren’t experts in fund-raising (despite being so educated), yet we should be able to either learn possibilities in our own, adult, “real-world project-based learning,” to riff off Suzie Boss, or else use our social networks to find collaborators who _do_ have that expertise. I’m going to send a tweet out and see what results. And maybe post a call for help later.
Funding, funding, funding indeed. But my goodness, the world is not short on funds. Is it short on investor-visionaries, though? I don’t think so. Thanks for pushing the idea. I’m totally with you on the thoughtless abuse the daily school grind is for our young.
Clay Burell
3 Jan 08 at 2:53 am
Clay,
I feel I must include more in my original posting about the school I envision. How do we begin to change the educational system in America? How can what we (schools) do to reflect what is needed? How can we (the educators and leaders) take advantage of the ever flattening world? I offer five idealistic, and maybe naive, propositions.
1. Replace existing local and state high school math and science curricula and assessments with “International” cirricula and assessments and mandate Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. Our students will be studying and working in a collaborative and connected world that will require more science, math, and engineering degrees. Internationally, science and math curricula are pretty standard - there is no “American Algebra”. It is possible that our students’ exposure to the widely accepted international standards and assessments of physics, calculus, chemistry, and engineering would be of greater benefit than any local standards or assessments. We may begin this endeavour by becoming a part of the International Baccalaureate Program.
2. Marry our high school to other schools in Europe, Asia, India, Australia, and the Middle East. We can provide our students exposure to a wide range of cultures, and cultural nuances, if we connect our school to other schools in the world. We could, conceivably, interact on a regular basis with the global classroom; other teachers and students from the world could connect directly with our students, teachers, and classrooms. Discourse regarding international issues, technology, politics, and news events would be greatly enhanced.
3. Provide each student with free, powerful, and consistent wireless connectivity, personal laptops, and e-readers. These are the tools of the learning trade. No more will I ask for the purchasing of hefty, underused, and consumable textbooks. Our students will be using the latest e-readers; textbooks will become more accessible, convenient, and easy to decode. Their laptops will be open-source based; students will be able to learn and contribute to the open-source network while having a laptop free of cluttering and expensive software and gadgets. Needless to say, the schools will be completely wireless (on an open network) with the fastest broadband speed available.
4. Embed technology into the pedagogy. No longer should we simply “use” the latest technological tools in our classrooms, rather the tools must become the standard - embedded in our practice. The best way to do this is assess each prospective teacher’s technological abilities and knowledge and their incorporation of that knowledge in their pedagogy. Bottom line: hire Millenials who understand the new learning.
5. Change the courses of elective study in our high school. American Zippies are demanding more relevant and meaningful elective classes from knowledgeable and “connected” instructors. Courses like HTML, International Law, Flat World Economics, Collaborative Technology Applications, Ethical Business Practices, and Virtual Learning courses must be implemented. Our students are craving these types of 21st century classes.
Dr. Richard Bozza was my instructor for a class called “Curriculum Design” during my master’s program. He was a former Superintendent and a very wise man - maybe one of the two best teachers I have ever had. He introduced me to educational rebels like Alfie Kohn and Kozol. One of Dr. Bozza’s closing statements during our last class session was something like this, We [American education] have been driving the same train for the last one hundred years. The train is maybe faster, more powerful - but it’s on the same track, going in the same direction. Sure, new ideas and reforms have come along, but they essentially are just “hitched” onto the train. You would have thought we would be flying by now; moving and mobile, not tied to a track, able to move freely and with speed. So, you must decide as a future leader - will the changes you make fly your schools in a sleek, new, fast, and powerful shuttle, or will your changes simply add another caboose to this same, old, slow, gasping, chugging train?
Mike Parent’s last blog post..An Alternative to Suspensions
Mike Parent
3 Jan 08 at 4:17 am
@Mike Parent: thanks for the second take. Powerful. I wanted to leave a comment on your “Alternatives to Suspension” post on your blog (isn’t the CommentLuv plugin a powerful way to discover more?), but comments weren’t enabled.
I twitted a link to it, and will repeat it here: that post - and you should put your comment above on your own blog too - is a must-read for all administrators and more.
Clay Burell
3 Jan 08 at 4:30 am
I love that discussions like these have a very grad-school like feel to them. Good discourse, questioning, what ifs…. All good stuff. Clay, thanks for the forum in which to do this– with the start of a good question.
Much like grad school (of which I am an adjunct in, so I admittedly am part of the problem) we debate and question and propose, but very little of it translates to action.
That is one of the frustrations I have in the blogosphere. Will Richardson wrote “Be the Change” in his new year’s post. It is admirable, but I wonder how many of us have the guts (and the financial means) to rock the boat to truly make change and not just write or talk about it.
Would you (the rhetorical you) go to a local Board of Education meeting, your boss, your grad school dean, your state Board of Ed, your professional society, or any group like that and tell them that the way we/they are doing it isn’t effective, is outdated, is hurting kids, and instead should be reduced to rubble and rebooted? Is saying that you want no paet of it and going out on your own enough to make change….unless we all do it?
Alas, I have a hard time seeing this because the decision making in a body like that supports the “train” that Mike just mentioned. If the train makes your living, why destroy the train? If you destroy the train to fly, airline pilots have jobs but engineers do not.
My approach for now is to work within the train to make it the most efficient. questioning, and thoughtful train I can.
The train must die. Long live the train.
Barry’s last blog post..The Freedom to Be
Barry
3 Jan 08 at 5:03 am
Well, I’ve been working on this for the past year and a half, since I have been given the directive to create the perfect school–AND have been given the resources to do it! All that has been left is for me to find the balance of how to make it work. My colleagues and many collaborators have been working with me on this; we’re calling it the Life Practice Model, based on the fact we want to prepare students to take on the challenge of life! We got SO sick of hearing “just wait until you get into the real world” from teachers and wanted to create a school that mimics as much of adult life as we can.
We’re starting small, with grades 5-8. I’ve eliminated age-placements. We all work on the same topics together, but each child is held to the expectations of what s/he is ready for. I’ve eliminated Language Arts class, since we read/write all the time in our other classes and just a few specific workshops from time to time is all we need to be able to attack writing/reading. (But I must confess, I also live in NCLB land, and have given in to fears of those damn tests. We have begun this year doing some online test-preps, which we call out loud in class, “crap curriculum.” We also are doing that with a bit of the Social Studies and Science curriculum too. Math is all online, but we get )
HOWEVER, as Penelope envisions, we do project based learning in all topics. We group in multi-ability, as well as similar-ability groups, depending on my objectives for them. They have independent learning time, where they get to pick some of their “extra” learning. We do foreign language studies, where they can pick Spanish, French, Latin, German (for now).
They are also learning what jobs fit them, what colleges/training fits those careers, what the costs of the degree are, and then are getting “jobs” with resumes/applications, and buying homes, cars, having babies, etc. We’re trying to do Life Practice here as much as possible. The kids are all interviewing and shadowing people in their career interests.
We’re a 1:1 MacBook school, using tech tools from iChat, to Skype, to PolyCom to connect with classes and people all over the world. We’re not yet perfect at it yet; it could use some more organizational work on my part, but dang it, I’ve not had any plan time in all the time I’ve been hired (other than evenings, after my 9.25 hours a day with kids–no kidding). BUT, I love this and the bosses are hiring some help to take the kids for a bit so I can now have plan time this 2nd semester! This will seriously help with organizing things so we (the kids and I) can do a much better job of archiving our work.
Nothing from the regular schools (except State Assessments) are getting in the way of my kids’ learning. OH, did I mention the parents are UBER supportive and give me extra money in gift cards for those “extras” that all teachers buy?
I know I have the perfect petri dish here and that’s why I’m working my tail off to make it work! Teachers and Edubloggers talk all the time about what should happen. I’m watching/listening and putting it to action to PROVE that it works! Anyone want to Skype in to see it in action or to provide some assistance with any portion, lemme know!
GingerTPLC
3 Jan 08 at 5:11 am
@Mike: talk about 1 degree of separation! And fyi, this blog is one year and one day old, and didn’t get more than a few comments for the first many months. I wish I’d known that commenting on others was a way to get others to give me a look.
@Barry: the disconnect between talk and action tops my list of True Abominations. Being held by the economic short-hairs is a constraint we can’t comfortably shrug off (*ouch*), without laying some groundwork. Whether I’m wind or willpower will be seen eventually (and I know you weren’t accusing me, I’m just addressing my own concerns about your very valid objection).
I left a comment somewhere - Will’s post, my Leaving Teaching post, I dunno - to the effect that the attempt to stray off and build an alternative, even if a tiny mutation in education’s kingdom, still “deepens the gene pool.” And in the end, you’ve got to try what feels right to you.
I love Gandhi for taking on the British Empire. At the same time, I know that Hitler was more instrumental in bringing it down than Gandhi was. But Gandhi’s life had much more life in it than those who didn’t commit to insanely impractical idealism.
Clay Burell
3 Jan 08 at 5:22 am
Clay-
My comment wasn’t a criticism of you– I’m glad you didn’t take it that way.
Much like grad school, I see value in dissecting and what iff’ing and debating….even if one doesn’t set out to topple the empire, change can still be made.
Ghandi gets all the good press, but his followers who stood in line with him at the salt mines or who wrote letters to editors or whom at least promoted his efforts contributed to positive change in India in one way, shape or form.
Lots of people doing a little might be more powerful than one person doing it all.
Barry
3 Jan 08 at 5:36 am
But it took a Ghandi too, to lead
Clay Burell
3 Jan 08 at 5:44 am
Why don’t we approach Sun Microsystems to see if they would let us in on their MPK20 (http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=BJS8DGjeGvM) project. I am a teacher, therefore need more support / voices to speak up.
There are a few educators I am aware of who are frustrated by the resources to hand. We have a wealth of resources we have all created over the years - just think, it wouldn’t matter if it was a Smartboard or a Teamboard file. The students walk in and choose a space to work at. How learner centred would that be!?
I imagine that we could create learning experiences from lower to upper school between us?
Fiona Banjer
3 Jan 08 at 8:26 am
I am not ready to give up on schools at the moment. That being said, I believe that Web 2.0 has many powerful implications for language teaching. And, if the goal is to encourage and instill the capacity for self-learning and self-teaching, then Web 2.0 can do just that where language education is concerned. The new Spanish Pod really excites me, as do online classes at the high school level.
Miss Profe’s last blog post..I’m Home!
Miss Profe
4 Jan 08 at 6:09 am
I want to add that aspects of progressive and Montessori education appeal to me, and are viable elements to include in an alternative learning community.
Miss Profe’s last blog post..I’m Home!
Miss Profe
4 Jan 08 at 6:15 am
Miss Profe, I think I tend to agree with your idea of Web 2.0 being full of tools for starting to solve some problems. However, I wonder about the oft-repeated analogy regarding 21st Century education and the Titanic. We can re-arrange the deck chairs and listen to the band play all we want, but the fact remains that the ship is still going down. It’s massive and we may not have noticed it for a bit, but it’s still happening. Right now, some are jumping on to life boats (charter schools, alternative learning environs), but it’s going to take a lot more of these types of boats to save the people on that massive ship.
I’m ready to give up on schools as we know them. We need to build from ground up, looking to see what was GREAT about the Titanic for rebuilding, but we must start anew. And we must get this new ship built before everyone either drowns or are scattered adrift in separate lifeboats.
*sigh* My little life boat holds about 65 students (11 students in my f2f program, the rest are in the virtual program) and we’re steadily making room for more, but we cannot add too many at a time, nor can they be too rambunctious, or this little boat will topple too!
GingerTPLC
4 Jan 08 at 7:17 am
I loved this from Diane: We need to put more of a human face on education. If that means increasing staff, then that’s what should be done.
And while Michael brings up a strong point about raiding the public coffers (he and I are from the same state where raiding anything public right now is a huge turnoff for overtaxed citizens), is this truly a financial issue? I think it is deeper. Will’s comment string, like this one, is full of very powerful voices saying things ranging from “down with the public schools”, to “save the many along with the few.” I have to agree with the save the many.
The biggest obstacle I see to mass change in American public schools: lack of vision. Teaching in 20 years is going to look nothing like what it does today, yet I struggle to find a teacher willing to collaborate on a global project.
As for creating my own space, I’d like to see a model that incorporates the ideas that we’ve been throwing around lately of pushing adolescence as a mindset out of the picture. Present real problems, make them laced with interdisciplinary skills, and help expose them to ideas and objects they otherwise wouldn’t find themselves (owe that partially to Barry).
Patrick’s last blog post..If you had your druthers
Patrick
4 Jan 08 at 10:37 am
Ironically, I attended our school’s Curriculum Committee meeting today. We discuss and approve course offerings and proposals for new courses. Today we talked about the planned September start for CAD, Applied Engineering, and Child Development. We also were treated to an update of our Virtual High School program. That’s when it got intersteing and I opened my big mouth.
We are one of 17 high schools in NJ to offer VHS (govhs.org) to our students. We offer 25 seats right now (your get 25 when you have a teacher in the distirct teaching a VHS class). We want to expand it to 50 seats. We need another teacher to offer to teach a VHS class. The Union President is on the committee. SHe made a face - I got fired up. She worries that making more VHS seats will create a loss of teachers. That’s her job. She’s supposed to look out for her membership. My job is to create problems. So I started one.
I said, “Why not just train our teachers to create their own virtual classes using Moodle?” The I explained what Moodle is and can be. SHe was horrified. That woud mean that kids would have classes without classrooms. That would mean that a teacher could ELECT to create an online class instead of a desked classroom assignment. I loved stirring this pot.
So this is how it happens. This is how you change the schools. This is how you get agendas done. But I ask all of you now, where does the NEA or any “EA” stand on our ideas? We all know the unions have a choke hold on progress. In my dream school, students meet as a class for discussion, coaching, collaboration - not information deposits by teachers.
I love schools and teacher - I hate the unions and their politics. They are the problem. So how do we deal with them?
Michael Parent’s last blog post..Near Criminial Activity
Michael Parent
4 Jan 08 at 11:08 am
Michael,
Last year, my colleague and I went down to spend a few days with the folks at the Florida Virtual School. It was well worth the trip to see how they began, and then expanded into a 100,000+ student online school.
However, when we returned home and began fleshing out the idea, we ran into similar resistance from the same constituency. As it turns out, virtual schools are more prevalent in states with weaker teaching unions, and less prevalent here in the Northeast, where unions are incredibly strong.
You are correct, though: that’s how you do it. You begin to offer solutions to problems that are uncomfortable to people because they work, and work brilliantly.
Solutions to these obstacles? That I don’ have, but I think showing examples like Moodle and the affects that online learning have on student engagement (of all student populations) might help.
Patrick’s last blog post..If you had your druthers
Patrick
4 Jan 08 at 11:19 am
Mike, your latest comment fascinates me.
I wondered when somebody was going to address the roles of unions in all of this.
@Patrick, I’d love to hear more about your thoughts about the Florida virtual schools visit you took a while back (and I did read your blog posts on them, as you know).
I guess my biggest question about unions is, why would virtual teaching not qualify as teaching in the unions’ (and governments’) eyes?
@Ginger, quite a follow-up. As the holiday winds down and I have to turn to classroom nuts-and-bolts, I feel too thin to prod that comment as much as I would like. But I hope somebody else prods it - this is an “open thread,” after all.
Clay Burell
4 Jan 08 at 2:29 pm
I just have to let Albert Einstein’s ghost weigh in, via my sidebar’s Quotiki collection:
Clay Burell
4 Jan 08 at 7:00 pm
[...] school system Posted in January 4th, 2008 by Dave Stacey in Elsewhere online, Ruminations A few people have been musing lately about alternative school models, which got me thinking, if I was [...]
» My alternative school system teaching.mrstacey.org.uk: Thoughts, ideas and reflections on teaching, learning and technology
4 Jan 08 at 8:58 pm
In response to both Patrick and Michael’s comments (we are all fellow New Jerseans)– one peice that is also missing from this discussion is the role of the university.
Unless something changes, universities train the bulk of our teachers, whether they go traditional route, or in NJ, “alternate route to get their certification.
I teach as an adjunct in a university in Northern New Jersey. In my classes, I try to model my vision for what classroom instruction in schools should look like; inquiry based learning, a dose of reality and a dose of futurisitics; 21st century communication tools (blogs, podcasts, mash-up movies); I made 1/3rd of my course an online experience; there was no required textbook. Instead we watch short movies (Fisch, and others), read online articles and excerpts from current authors (Pink, Friedman, Shmoeker), and had students devise curriculum that meets student needs for the 21st century.
Some observations:
1. Most of the students are so grounded into the system that their “vision” (with a chance to be totally creative) wound up being a “rearranging of the deck chairs” as Ginger mentioned. We need to inspire teachers more at the university level.
2. When I walk down the hall at this university, even though it is a brand new building with technology tools out the gazoo, the vast majority of professors are still using the lecture with handwritten notes on the whiteboard method. They made their classes read a number of books that they can purchase for lots of dollars in the bookstore. A great deal of college, especially teacher’s college is still teaching the same way it did 50 years ago as well. The ivory towers need to get digital.
3. Far too many grad school students (in education at least) see graduate school not as a path to learning, but steps to take to get certification to move to the next level (usually administration). As an administrator myself, and knowing there is an administrative shortage, we need forward thinking administrators who aren’t afraid to “stir the pot” as Michael does instead of those who do the dance and maintain the status quo.
Public schools can work. It requires personnel; the RIGHT personnel. Who were trained by the right folks at a university.
Barry’s last blog post..On Getting Knowledge and Using Knowledge in the 21st Century
Barry
4 Jan 08 at 11:25 pm
Barry, you are so right. As a doctoral student, I aim one day to be a teacher of teachers. I hope to adjunct at state colleges to move teachers into the falt world.
Even though Seton Hall is providing a great education for me and my cohort, they do not utlize one tenth of the technology available to them for use; blackboards, document repositories, etc. Many of our professors still use overhead projectors and video tapes - in rooms where projectors and Internet access are staring them right in the face. One nationally famous professor who is the guru of class size studies (anybody know him?) actually boasts that he will not accept emails or electronic files. Everything must be mailed to him in hard copy. Rather than posting articles for us to find and read, he hands out pages and pages of photocopies and printed Powerpoints. And these guys are teaching us how to be Superintendents in the 21st century.
Michael Parent’s last blog post..Near Criminial Activity
Michael Parent
5 Jan 08 at 12:25 am
I’ve promised Clay a considered response to this set of questions, but in the meantime, I’d like to interject with a brief excerpt from James Martin on the topic of the skill/wisdom gap. If I was to break down some of the other responses in a simplistic fashion, I’d assert that some of them are skills vs. wisdom/creativity arguments. Essentially, Martin is arguing that synthesis begins with analysis of a broad range of concepts, as opposed to finite specialisation… I think a lot of our arguments in educational circles are about WHEN to specialize and how?
Might the Montessori method be an answer to many of these questions of individual alignment that many of us have?
“Deep wisdom about the meaning of the 21st century will be essential. A serious problem of our time is the gap between skill and wisdom. Science and technology are accelerating furiously, but wisdom is not. We are brilliant at creating new technology, but are not wise in learning how to copy with it. To succeed in today’s world, people will need intricate skills in narrowly specialized areas. Skills need detailed, narrowly focused study of subjects that are rapidly increasing in complexity, whereas wisdom needs the synthesis of diverse ideas. Wisdom requires judgement, reflection about beliefs and thinking about events in terms of how they might be different.
Today, deep reflection about our future circumstances is eclipsed by a frenzy of ever more complex techniques and gadgets and preoccupation with how to increase shareholder value. The skill/wisdom gap is made greater because skills offer the ways to get wealthy. Society’s best brains are saturated with immediate issues that become ever more complex, rather than reflecting on why we are doing this and what the long-term consequences will be.
University education today is much more pressured than when I was at university. The curricula have become overstuffed, the subject matter intensely complex and the examinations frequent and demanding. The student sticks to the curriculum and can deal with little else. The professors stick to their discipline; they are judged by the papers they publish in the professional journal of that discipline. Most areas of education have almost no interdisciplinary scholarship. As disciplines become deeper and more complex, the brilliance expended on them is formidable, but we don’t think much about its consequences or what impact it has in other areas. In specialized areas, computers will become vastly more intelligent than people, but such intelligence is not human wisdom. As computers become more intelligent, with intense self-improvement of non-human intelligence, the skill/wisdom gap will widen at a furious rate.
We have vast numbers of experts on how to make the train work better and faster, but almost nobody is concerned with where the train is headed or whether we’ll like its destination.
Wisdom is essential and comes from the synthesis of a large amount of knowledge and experience that may take much of a lifetime to acquire. Not everyone can handle such synthesis. We must ask where the broad wisdom about the future will come from. The answer is, we must set out consciously to develop it. Wisdom, like advanced civilization, will come when we learn to relax. Our best brains need to stop chasing the most highly paid careers, the fastest boats and the smartest country clubs. A mature society should exhibit deep respect for deep wisdom.
We need to set out very consciously to foster and nurture the wisdom that the 21st century will require. This should be a task for our greatest universities.”
Martin, James (2006) The Meaning of the 21st Century: A Vital Blueprint for ensuring our Future. London: Transworld. (pp. 292, 293).
Jonathan Chambers’s last blog post..The Skill/Wisdom Gap
Jonathan Chambers
5 Jan 08 at 5:23 am
As a teacher relatively new but making great strides to using 21st century skills in my classroom, I am understanding why a majority of my students are so frustrated. I feel so constrained and confined by the present system. I would like to think that we can save the system but cannot see how that is possible.
I live in a rural, poor, conservative area. I am grateful for my job and hesitant to jump without feeling I would have some sort of job security. I am also not in a position to move (we own a 3rd generation farm). But my frustration might put me there.
Michael, I would love to be a teacher under your administration. What you propose is what it should be. Students should have an opportunity to explore, learn and collaborate in projects they are interested in and serve a purpose for their future (vocational so to speak). But, connecting students globally to become better citizens - can you imagine what the future of the world could be like if enough of these schools existed globally?
I, too, am continuing my quest this year to expand my teaching and learning and have enough bravery to make the leap too.
Louise Maine’s last blog post..A real model?
Louise Maine
5 Jan 08 at 11:43 pm
You Got Punk’d: An Open Letter to American Parents | Taylor the Teacher
7 Jan 08 at 10:52 am
[...] the Titanic. I quote from the book, Why Schools Fail. The passage I am taking, is after the Author… Bruce [...]
The Social Reactor: Schools « Freelance Techie
27 Jan 08 at 12:03 pm
[...] This thread at a blog I was referred to asks “Why aren’t we creating more alternative schools?” [...]
This Is Why I Play The Lottery | Catching Sparrows
2 Feb 08 at 8:47 am
Category: Schools - Learning Conversations
14 Apr 08 at 6:55 pm
taylortheteacher's blog, page 2 - StumbleUpon
12 May 08 at 4:37 pm
Hi I’ve enjoyed reading your thought re what an alternative school can look like. I was part of an exciting opportunity to begin an alternative primary school here in Christchurch NZ. We have been going over 8 years now and I have moved from a foundation parent to being a paid full time teacher at this exciting school. We decided to write a differnt brief for what we wanted a school to be and this was our special character.It has many facets but very very briefly it includes aspects such as: first ask the child what they need to learn, we are a community of learners where everyone is a learner and everyone is a teacher, we are a partnership with families, parents are expected to be part of our teaching community, innovation is an expectation of everyone, everyone is respected as a learner with strengths and challenges, we are creating whole people who multifaceted etc.
One of the important things that we began and have continued with is a redefining of the language we use, teachers are learning advisors and go by their first name, classrooms are called homebases as the intention is that the child use them as a base from which they explore the world outside of the school, our principal is called a director and our school is called Discovery - with new language we can create new thinking.
It’s an amazing place to be and work! Melva
Melva
12 May 08 at 5:02 pm