SCHOOL CHANGE--ROOT QUESTION- WHAT DO ALL CHILDREN NEED?

[Mike]

Hi All.... hope this finds you well.

There is a lot of work going on concerning school reform....standard, curriculum, teacher training, accountability, technology, professional development...the list of things people are thinking of and working on is endless!

For me.... the root question of any change initiative... begins with a fairly
simple questions:

"WHAT DO ALL CHILDREN NEED?"


"We can either smother the divine fire of youth, or we may feed it."
– Jane Addams (1860-1935)

Many people have looked very carefully at this question.

Here is their answer in pictures.............

Maslow-

Glasser-

Deci & Ryan

Cirlce of Courage- Brentro, Brokenleg, Van Bockern

Using the Circle as a unifying theme...... the school community can begin to look at the kids and begin to identify their needs in a very systematic way.

1. BELONGING- ATTACHMENT

" To be alienated is to lack a sense of belonging, to feel cut off from family, friends,school or work- the four worlds of childhood." ( Urie Bronfenbrenner )

Which kids are not connected to this place?
Which children have the most difficulty establishing positive relationships with adults in this place and what can we do about it?
What does our community do to create connections for all its members?


2. MASTERY- ACHIEVEMENT

“Part of the art of choosing difficulties is to select those that are indeed just manageable. If the difficulties chosen are too easy, life is boring; if they are too hard, life is defeating. The trick is to choose trouble for oneself in the direction of what one would like to become at a level of difficulty close to the edge of one's competence.
When one achieves this fine tuning of his life, he will know zest and joy and deep fulfillment.”— NICHOLAS HOBBS

1. We certainly can recognize the students that are struggling academically.
The question is.... what do we do systematically to provide supports for those kids and what do we do when they do not work?
2. Does your school community allow students to fail? Why?
3. How does your school create "islands of competence" for all kids?

3. Independence- Autonomy

1. Where in your school community do kids have choices?
2. In this school do all kids have a place where they feel important?
3. List some things students have done to impact the culture of your school in a positve way?
4. What forums do students have to raise concerns or complaints in your school community?
5. Does your student discipline policy stress obdience or responsibility? If students break rules what happens in your community?
6. How does your school community encourage greatness?

Generosity- Alturism

1. How does your school community make "caring" fashionalbe and a cool thing to do?
2. Where in this school community to all kids have an opportunity to "give back" to others?
3. Where in this place do kids get to provide a needed service to others?
4. Where in this community do all people get a sense of joy and excitment?


Could your school community gather around these questions and do you think they would begin to lead....slowly....to the type of changes that schools may need?

be well... mike

[Mike]

Hi All.... hope everyone is well.

Playing a bit with the "dirt" or "soil" of growth and development.

On and older thread i posted some of these thoughts to combine with the Cirlce talked about above.

Characteristics of Democratic/Progressive Schools:

From Alfie Kohn.....

Attending to the whole child-
Progressive educators are concerned with helping children become not only good learners but also good people. Schooling isn’t seen as being about just academics, nor is intellectual growth limited to verbal and mathematical proficiencies.

Community:
Learning isn’t something that happens to individual children — separate selves at separate desks. Children learn with and from one another in a caring community, and that’s true of moral as well as academic learning.

Collaboration:
Progressive schools are characterized by what I like to call a “working with” rather than a “doing to” model. In place of rewards for complying with the adults’ expectations, or punitive consequences for failing to do so, there’s more of an emphasis on collaborative problem-solving — and, for that matter, less focus on behaviors than on underlying motives, values, and reasons.

Social justice:
A sense of community and responsibility for others isn’t confined to the classroom; indeed, students are helped to locate themselves in widening circles of care that extend beyond self, beyond friends, beyond their own ethnic group, and beyond their own country. Opportunities are offered not only to learn about, but also to put into action, a commitment to diversity and to improving the lives of others.

Intrinsic motivation:
When considering (or reconsidering) educational policies and practices, the first question that progressive educators are likely to ask is, “What’s the effect on students’ interest in learning, their desire to continue reading, thinking, and questioning?” This deceptively simple test helps to determine what students will and won’t be asked to do. Thus, conventional practices, including homework, grades, and tests, prove difficult to justify for anyone who is serious about promoting long-term dispositions rather than just improving short-term skills.

Deep understanding:
As the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead declared long ago, “A merely well-informed man is the most useless bore on God’s earth.” Facts and skills do matter, but only in a context and for a purpose. That’s why progressive education tends to be organized around problems, projects, and questions — rather than around lists of facts, skills, and separate disciplines. The teaching is typically interdisciplinary, the assessment rarely focuses on rote memorization, and excellence isn’t confused with “rigor.” The point is not merely to challenge students — after all, harder is not necessarily better — but to invite them to think deeply about issues that matter and help them understand ideas from the inside out.

Active learning:
In progressive schools, students play a vital role in helping to design the curriculum, formulate the questions, seek out (and create) answers, think through possibilities, and evaluate how successful they — and their teachers — have been. Their active participation in every stage of the process is consistent with the overwhelming consensus of experts that learning is a matter of constructing ideas rather than passively absorbing information or practicing skills.

· Taking kids seriously:
In traditional schooling, as John Dewey once remarked, “the center of gravity is outside the child”: he or she is expected to adjust to the school’s rules and curriculum. Progressive educators take their cue from the children — and are particularly attentive to differences among them.


How does the above list from Kohn compare to what you see around you in schools?

Where is the center of gravity in your school?

Where is the center of gravity in your classroom?

How can we begin to move the current reality toward a different vision of what is possible in our schools?

be well..mike

[Mike]

HOW FAR HAVE WE REALLY COME?!?


BE WELL...MIKE

[Cynthia Alvarado]

Unfortunately, I have had conversations almost identical to the one in the beginning of the video with parents about my use of interdisciplinary projects. I think most of what is said here has not changed at all, except that my students no longer know that cream comes from cows. They are from low income, urban homes and have never seen a farm or visited a zoo. The new state testing policy doesn't allow time for things like dancing, cooking and painting. If anything, I am afraid we have gone backwards, not forward in our educational policy since Dewey. I am currently reading Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford. He blames teachers for the demise of classes such as woodworking and welding. I think that is unfair, as I would love for all students to have the opportunity to work with their hands. I think the current educational policy makers are to blame. Testing has disconnected us from the real world.

[Mike]

Hi Cynthia... hope this finds you well!

Yes... i certainly hear you in the words you have posted!

One of the things i try and keep in mind is that although my classroom my be embedded in a larger system... as i closed my classroom door it really was my world for a period of time.

Teachers do have an ability to design and plan what happens and what does happen with-in that space and it sounds like you do attept that!

As we struggle with-in the larger picture.... we can allow some room to engage kids and light some fires....

Thanks and tell us a bit about your interdisiplinary ideas.....

be well..mike

[Mike]

Hi All.... hope this finds you well.... never been big on exteriors however, do the pictures of the
two schools below strike you as they do me? As we continue to try and standardize the children in these 2 buildings is anyone talking about standardizing the exteriors of these places of learning?

be well... mike

[Ellen Pham]

Mike, I am continually impressed with the resources you bring into these discussions. Do you have a place online where you keep it all? An online resource library, of sorts?

[Mike]

Hi Ellen... hope this finds you well and thank-you for the kind words.

No... i do not have a real good place on line to store stuff but i do share things that i use when i do some staff development for schools. Mostly collected over the years and i still work in the field so i keep my eyes open for stuff.

Working with "troubled and troubling" kids has been a passion for a long time now.

All of the stuff is really stolen over the years...so if you ever see something and would like the references to the work...feel free to ask.

The Cirlce of Courage and the reclaiming stuff is very good for all kids and can be found here:
http://www.reclaiming.com/content/

The schools above are from the net: One is my kids highschool and one is Camden City New Jersey's highschool.... been in both many times..... kinda sad isn't it.

be well... mike