Every year while looking at semester exams, I catch myself daydreaming about resdesigning school from the ground up. Why? Because this is the time of year, in my opinion, that the focus of school gets horribly skewed with all the pointless assessments that measure little, and with all the grade-grubbing and points-chasing that goes on, as if letters on a sheet of paper is what school is all about. But I guess that's what we've taught students school is about.
It's a time when I long to get rid of everything school currently does and represents and trash all that we currently think about what school could be as viewed through our rose-colored glasses. I want to wipe the slate clean and start making school what it could be, what it should be.
It should be about students leaving school with skills. With things they will remember and need to use. Not with content, content, and more content that flitters and blips through their brains and leaves as quickly as it went in, the junk they'll never remember and, if they ever really need it, is just a Google away. It should be about igniting student's interests and starting real life-long and independent learning that isn't just part of some mission statement painted on a wall.
You see, in my dream of school...
...there are no more content standards. No longer will teachers and students live in fear that they fall short in the content coverage game.
...kids aren't treated as if they were mass-produced and come with the same specifications and operating manuals.
...all teachers are responsible for teaching the same 5-10 skills to all of their students. These skills would focus on things they will need for their futures, like collaboration skills, critical thinking skills, and technology skills. Each school could develop these based on the needs of their students and communities.
...teachers would have the freedom to develop a realistic curriculum to help students learn those 5-10 skills. This means teachers would have the freedom to choose whatever content they see as helping students master those 5-10 skills.
...students would also be empowered to choose what they want to learn in order to help them master the main 5-10 skills.
...content areas would not be segregated; courses would be redesigned to have an integrated approach.
...teachers would get the time they need to collaborate in order to develop quality skills-based lessons, curriculum, and assessments.
...the school day would be totally restructured to reflect the nature of true learning. This means no more training students to move from room to room at the sound of a bell; it means structuring schools in such a way so students can master the 5-10 skills.
But what always interrupts this pleasant dream is the realization that everyone is hauling around too much baggage about school... the baggage of what school has done to them or for them. There's too many deeply-ingrained preconceived notions about school, too many memories, too many politicians seeking re-election, too many it-was-that-way-when-I-was-in-school-why-isn't-it that-way-nows lingering menacingly in the educational stratosphere.
I want change, but so many obstacles. But not, I hope, insurmountable ones.