Untitled Document

TOPIC: ASchool Today@

Lesson Element .1: AIntroduction to School Practices@

The Elements of School are Currently Pretty Much Opposite of the Ideal Elements.

Society has changed, but school hasn=t.

There Are Several Major Problems In Current School Practices:

Deciding on ideal teaching methods.

Teachers are isolated in their classrooms.

School schedules.

Individualized learning.

Parental and Teacher Accountability.

Family support for schools.

Teacher motivation.

The teaching of values.

Trial and error.

Lesson Element .2: AIdeal Teaching Methods and Teacher Isolation@

The Purpose of Education Has Fundamentally Changed in the Last 50 Years.

Teaching methods have not effectively changed.

The school used to be a purveyor of scarce information.

This was because information was scarce.
Information is no longer scarce. We live in an age of abundant information.

However, since information is no longer scarce, we need to develop another method of teaching.

The ideal should be active, not passive learning.

Passive learning is when you just sit there and read. Passive information is the mode.
Active learning is when you really learn things and transfer them into long-term memory. Active learning should be the standard.
Our brain=s neurology supports active learning much better than passive learning.

Teachers Ideally Should Not Teach In Isolation.

Currently, it is a rare (and not always welcome), situation when someone comes into your classroom to evaluate the teacher=s methods of presentation.

This leads to teacher isolation, which can span an entire career.

This can lead to stagnation of methods and procedures. It can lead to ineffective and boring teachers.

Feedback and reinforcement are the ways we change.

Different ways to get feedback:

Distribute teacher evaluations to your students and then discuss the results.
Solicit informal feedback from the students. But this is limited and not ideal.

The ideal situation is to have teachers constantly visit each other, give advice, feedback, encouragement, suggestions for improvement, and criticism in terms of the things that aren=t working.

Lesson Element .3: ACoordinated Scheduling@

School Schedules and Parent Schedules Are Not Coordinated.

More than half of the mothers are working or in school themselves.

After school child-care is a major expense and concern.

Ideally, the children=s school schedules would coordinate with parental schedules.

Our Current School Schedules Are Based on Outdated Agrarian Society Needs.

The children have the summer off so that they can help with the harvest.

Children get out of school at 3 pm because they needed to be able to go home and get the chores done before the sun went down.

This schedule has become so much a tradition in America, that to even suggest a change is viewed by some as Anti-American.

A More Effective Schedule is Needed.

Dr. Allen thinks that having school go from 7:30 am to 6 pm is a schedule that would better fit modern society.

This doesn=t necessarily mean that the teachers would have to be there all the time.

Some people are morning people, and others are nighttime people.

You could arrange it so that some teachers come in early, while others come in late.

It also means that the students don=t have to be in class all that time.

School Should Be a Community Resource.

They should be open from 7:30 am to 9 or 10 pm.

Azalea Gardens Middle School in Norfolk is a good example of the use of innovative scheduling.

They have a Saturday morning program.
The kids go to school for 3 hours on Saturday, and then they are allowed to use the recreational facilities for three hours.
Plus, the school gives them refreshments and even provides lunch.
This gives the kids something fun to do on Saturday morning, and is a small trade-off for a couple of hours of school. It also provides a healthy alternative to other forms of juvenile entertainment.

Dr. Allen Believes That There Are Other Ways to Also Sharpen up the School Schedules.

Year round schooling.

There is no reason that kids should go to school for nine months out of the year and be home for three months.
This is not a good learning schedule.
Teachers spend a great deal of time reviewing during the first weeks of school just to bring the students back up to speed because of the summer absence.

Many people object to year round schooling because of societal problems.

Many areas count on the high school students to fill into the work force during the summer.
Ex: Colorado uses the high school students as low paid, essentially, slave labor during the peak time of the resorts.
Many of the kids feel like they are penalized if they don=t get the time off to work.
However, if we as a society planned things better, then the year round concept would work.
In South Africa, they have year round schooling.
They rotated the vacation times by province. Instead of having the whole country take spring vacation at the same time, they spread it out over a four-week period.
Our resort industries could win if we had different schools or states take their vacations at different times to get an even use of the facilities, rather than a huge influx of people at the same time, and a paucity of people after Labor Day.

The Bottom Line: Having Uncoordinated Parental and School Schedules is Not Ideal.

Lesson Element .4: AIndividualized Learning@

Individualized Learning Is Difficult, but Necessary.

People learn in different ways.

Since people learn in different ways, we ideally should have opportunities for individualized learning.

Some people learn slower, some faster.
Some people are visual learners, while others are verbal learners.
We should have the opportunity to provide different stimuli, or multi-media stimuli to assist in the learning process. We don=t currently have this opportunity.

The rigid schedule of schools doesn=t allow for individualization.

A teacher with 30 kids in a classroom may be able to identify a particular students learning needs, but does not have the resources or time to address those particular needs. The other 29 kids also need attention.

The current methods of organizing and scheduling schools, do not encourage individualized learning.

Lesson Element .5: AParental and Teacher Accountability@

Currently, There Is Uncertain Accountability for Parents.

Some states have tried to legislate accountability.

Virginia passed a law that states that parents must sign a responsibility statement.
If they don=t sign the statement, they are fined $50.00.
Likewise, if the parents don=t cooperate with the school, they can be fined $500.00.
Where are the welfare mothers going to get the money?

Dr. Allen is in favor of the sentiment that parents should be more responsible, and have more accountability for their children.

He isn=t sure that a $50.00 fine will accomplish this.
He believes that it will take education, in that the schools, parents, and community must learn to work together.

Currently, there isn=t much accountability.

If parents let their kids go wild, there isn=t much the school can do about it.
Now the state can fine them. If may or may not help.
However, the main benefit of the law is that is raises awareness of the problem, and may help to get people to cooperate.

Teacher Accountability is Also Uncertain.

If a teacher does an outstanding job, that teacher goes up a notch on the salary scale.

If a teacher does a poor job, that teacher also goes up a notch on the salary scale.

There is no accountability for doing a poor job. Salary is divorced from reality. It is based solely on time, not performance.

Kids Also Have Uncertain Accountability.

There isn=t exactly villains to this part of the problem.

If a kid has been held back twice in a grade, is it going to do any good to hold them back a third time?

Typically, we push the kid on to the next grade level where they are even further behind.

We Need to Develop Alternatives to Solve the Accountability Problems.
We may understand the problem, but our current system doesn=t provide us with the resources for adequate alternatives.

Lesson Element .6: AFamily Support@

One Major Problem is that Family Support is Uncertain.

If the family doesn=t trust the school, this is a disastrous situation.

This goes well beyond not helping with homework, or different styles of learning.

Schools have done a lot to deserve this mistrust.

Breaking the Cycle of Mistrust.

Teachers should not try and sneak up on parents.

Controversial subjects used to be cloaked under misleading names.
The hope was that the parents would recognize the true issue.
That is irresponsible.

Parents should have the reasonable expectation that schools aren=t going to sneak up on them. It is a moral issue.

Parents and schools are not always going to agree.

Much better for all if the source of the disagreement is out on the table, rather than hidden.
This can lead to discussion and if you can understand something, you are both better prepared to deal with it.
Teachers should be able to find a compromise ground. This may me a slight accommodation of the parent=s wishes, but the parents also must be prepared to compromise.

The worst thing is for parents not to have confidence in what the school is doing.

If a teacher can=t support the policies of the school board, then they shouldn=t be a teacher in that school district.

Dr. Allen feels that teachers have an obligation to be up front with their value systems, and not subvert any of the school board=s values, or family values.

Lesson Element .7: ATeacher Motivation@

The Lack of Ideals Leads to Confusion.

Much confusion by people about the role of teachers.

Most think that teachers should be motivated primarily through personal dedication.

We do need dedicated teachers, but there is something wrong with society when it wants dedicated teachers, but is unwilling to pay them anything.

Just because teaching is a service profession, doesn=t mean that teachers shouldn=t be well compensated.

If teaching is as important as we believe it to be, then teachers should be compensated at the high end, rather than the low end of society.

Sadly, teaching is starting to look better as a profession only because the other options are looking worse.
The starting salary of a teacher in the Norfolk Public School System is $27,000.
This is much better than other options in the service industry.
However, this salary is barely adequate for a beginning professional. Plus, it can be expected to go no higher than $40,000 for decades of service.
If a teacher really wants to follow a professional lifestyle, they must have a two income family.
Likewise, the potential for other professional occupations is much higher. A doctor or lawyer can expect to see a dramatic rise in compensation for decades of work. This is not so for a teacher.

There is confusion of goals to confuse dedication with compensation. We need both.

Confusion of Goals: Teacher Satisfaction is Only Achieved From Teaching Academic Learners.

We have created a system where teachers feel rewarded for teaching kids that are going to be successful almost in spite of, rather than because of them.

Ex: Many PE teachers are frustrated athletes.
They never personally made it to the big time, so they live vicariously through the gifted students that come their way.
They would rather teach the gifted kids than slug through the routine recreation or fitness course for all. They don=t get a lot of satisfaction out of teaching ordinary kids.
The system encourages such thought.

This trap of only wanting to teach the gifted kids applies to most disciplines.

The real challenge of teaching is to take kids wherever they are and bring them forward.

The best example of this is the special education teachers.
They are the closest to the ideal.
They gain their sense of accomplishment through the incremental accomplishments of their students at whatever level they find them.
They are an excellent role model for all teachers.

It is more exciting and challenging for a teacher to take someone whose life is transformed by a particular education experience, than someone with a silver spoon in their mouth.

This is why Dr. Allen finds teaching at ODU more exciting and rewarding than teaching at Stanford.
The kids at Stanford will probably be successful regardless of what the professors do. The kids at ODU have more potential for the professor to make a difference in their lives.

By suggesting alternatives, the professor is able to help construct different opportunities for the kids at ODU.

One such option is the opportunity to teach English in China for a year.
All teachers should get excited about opening up alternative for students, whoever they are, and whatever level they may be at.

The Bottom Line: We Have a Confusion of Goals When Teachers Believe That Real Success Only Comes from Teaching the Top Performers.

The real challenge is teaching all of our students as we may find them. We can achieve a greater sense of accomplishment by helping to open up opportunities for those who most need them.

Lesson Element .8: ATeaching Values@

There Are Only Two Purposes for Education: Make Kids Smart, and Make Them Good.

This is a big issue today.

If you make kids smart without making them good, you create a menace to society.

Unfortunately, in schools today, we spend much more time making them smart, than making them good.

This is a confusion of goals. If I make the kid good without making them smart, at least I haven=t created a menace to society. Making them smart by itself is dangerous.

Dr. Allen Thinks That the Reason Schools Are Teaching the Kids to Be Good Is That the Parents Are Sending the Kids off to School Solely for Education, and Not to Be a Guide in Their Lives.

Historically, many people thought that the family was where the kids learned to be good, and the school was where they learned to be smart.

This is a foolish concept. Everything we do in life reinforces the way we are behaving, or helps us change the way we behave.

This can be either intentional or unintentional.
This includes learning how to stand in line to take your turn, or the principals of honesty vs cheating.

You can never isolate schools from values.

The problem is that some of the values are confusing and controversial.

About 2/3 of the values are not controversial.
However, the controversial ones have received so much attention that the schools have given up trying to teach the non-controversial values. They have gotten caught up in the controversy over the values that are controversial.

Dealing with the Controversial Values Is a Difficult Situation.

Dealing with the controversial values is a matter of balance.

The school can=t sneak up on the parents, nor can we allow a minority of parents to tyrannize the majority.

If a parent has a minority point of view, that point of view will either be within the society, or not within the society.

í If within, the point of view should be tolerated and supported by the school in the sense of supporting the right of the parent to transmit that value.

If without, the school has no obligation to support the parental point of view at all.
In fact, the parent has to be shaped up in terms of recognizing that this value is simply outside the value of society.

Schools Often Find Themselves in a No Win Situation.

Some schools take different positions than other schools.

This is both good and bad.
It is good in the sense that it is part of the tradition of local control.
It is bad in that it is inconsistent and confusing to both parent and child.

Society is confused about these issues in terms of what position to take.

Dr. Allen=s Position.

The school has the obligation to teach kids to be both smart and good.

The school has the obligation not to sneak up on parents, and to let the parents know exactly what values they are going to be teaching.

The school has an obligation to teach value positions that will be offensive to different groups of parents at different stages, and that the school should accept some responsibility for helping the parents and kids deal with that divergence.

Ex: Finding a way to allow a kid to not participate in prayer in school without embarrassing the child, nor being intrusive into the program.

The school should have the objective of trying to honor the parent=s point of view without allowing the parents with a minority view, to terrorize the majority program.

Lesson Element .9: ATrial and Error@

We Fail to Recognize the Value of Trial and Error.

This is a key obstacle in trying to make the elements of a desirable school program work.

You have to make mistakes as a constructive part of learning.

You can=t learn to ride a bicycle without falling off.

Today=s schools don=t celebrate error. They act as if it is bad.

We need to develop the attitude that error is good. We can then learn to help kids learn to make the right kind of mistakes.

We Need to Engage in Systematic Experimentation.

We need to learn how to do this correctly.

Our current method is analogous to trying to change a tire while driving the car.

We also need to allocate the resources.

This is very unpopular because we will need to raise taxes to achieve these resources.

The Bottom Line: We Need to Learn Patience and Not Demand Instant Results.

We get impatient with long term strategies.

However, we are not going to succeed unless we realize that the reforms we make today in kindergarten, may not be useful, and that we won=t realize the result of the reforms until ten or fifteen years from now.