Cycle Three - Schools as Embryonic Communities

This morning, I sat down to eat my cereal and turned on the Today show. It usually annoys me and is not something I typically watch. But this morning, Phil Mickelson was on! He spoke with Matt Lauer not just about his British Open win (amazing!) but the new school he is helping to build with Exxon Mobile. Phil and Matt played ping pong together as Phil explained the math and science behind the game. He pointed out that he wants the students attending his school to learn math and science skills while also applying their knowledge to what they encounter in the real world.

After having spent time this week reading about school communities for our third cycle, I found myself happily surprised that even Phil Mickelson gets it. He understood that school communities should not just be four tiny walls with desks in rows but, rather, a place where the real world and the classroom connect so students can relate.

Our schools are in a large part designed out of a need for oder out of chaos. Many of the designs for our public schools were created during the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. It has often appeared to me that, like suburbia and factories, many Americans desired organization and structure. You can see that in our schools because they are oddly designed to match the machine like system (Dewey, School and Society). I do not find myself faulting Americans for doing this at the time. It was indeed what they knew and what they expected back then. However, I can fault Americans today for the inability changing our education system and its design. In School and Society, Dewey asks his readers, "why are we so hard of heart and so slow to believe?" Yes, really. Why are we so afraid of imagination and a classroom that lives outside of the box?

While reading Dewey's School and Society, I found myself completely in love with the idea that our schools should be our ideal home but on a larger scale. What a brilliant yet simple thought! My home is where I made and sold lemonade, it is where I learned to pitch a softball, where I learned to love and have empathy, where I learned to cook mac and cheese, it is where I fought but also forgave, and it is where I felt most comfortably happy. I am truly fond of the idea that our schools should be modeled after our homes ... a place to test, to observe, to take a chance, to fail, and to try again in a comforting environment. Our schools should not be "a place set apart to learn lessons" (Dewey, School and Society), our schools should not be isolated factories, and our schools should not have a disconnect between learning and the student (Lieberman & Miller, Teachers in Professional Communities).

So, how do we get there? How do we create this type of community? How do we take the chance and dive right in so we can change education for the better? I believe there are five essential elements to model our schools after our ideal home. For one, you need colleagues and teamwork. I would be nowhere in my teaching career if it was not for my colleagues. Whether they be on Twitter, at MSU, or in the classroom next to mine, my team of colleagues is everything to me. I can be honest with them, exchange ideas, be challenged and questioned, reflect, and be given approval to think outside the box (Teachers in Professional Communities). The beautiful part about my relationship with my colleagues is how similar we are to a family. We argue, debate, and discuss. We often disagree but we always come back to the commitment we have for one another and for teaching. This reinforces all the more how much you need support from trusted colleagues, or a family, if you are to venture forth in the world of teaching, or life.

Secondly, if we are to create schools that are like our ideal home, we must involve the community. What I found most beautiful about John Hardy's Green School was the constant connection to the community. Whether it was through the environment or through the people of Bali, Hardy's Green School involved the community in which the students lived. Often times, when students enter their school, they are then shut off from their community for a set amount of hours each day. It shouldn't be like this! We must connect them to the culture and the livelihood of the place in which they call home. I recently had a meeting with the vice-president of the Skillman Organization in Detroit. The Skillman Organization focuses on funding and facilitating good work in Detroit that aims to help students graduate high school and to be prepared for college, career, and life. Equally as important, the Skillman Organization involves the communities in which these students live. They work with the people living in these neighborhoods to truly foster homegrown initiatives for a better Detroit community. The Skillman Organization is helping to bridge the gap between schools, workplaces, and the home in order to create a united community. What a genius way to create collective learning environments in the process!

Third, our schools need to foster the whole person. Students are more than a number, more than a percent on a test, and more than an essay on the SAT. Our students are creative, imaginative, and beautiful human beings. We should not be suppressing their learning experiences by ignoring all they are capable of accomplishing outside of a pencil and a scantron. I found it fascinating that many Finnish citizens do not focus on their outstanding test scores (LynNell Hancock, Why are Finland's Schools Successful?). Those involved in Finland's education system know they are indeed great but they do not dwell on the numbers. Instead, they cheer on their soccer teams, foster teacher companionship, and provide their students with solid learning groups. This only perpetuates the idea that a school should be a nurturing home environment rather than a box that produces testing machines.

Fourth, I believe that our curriculum should not be a set amount of detailed standards. Instead, I believe schools should apply a curriculum to each subject that is more broad and open for interpretation. As a social studies teacher, I am tied to a tight and concise curriculum. The GLCES and HSCES cover a broad amount of material that is impossible to cover completely in a school year, let alone a semester or trimester. This also limits me to have more creativity in my lesson plans as a teacher. In turn, there are days my students have to suffer through a boring lesson rather than engage themselves in a group activity. In all honesty, I often fear the politics of working around the curriculum in my classroom. I wonder what my administration will think but I also wonder how I will impair my students when it comes to the standardized tests they must take over the state chosen content. I believe that if schools broadened our curriculum standards, many teachers may feel less fear of branching out and trying out a classroom that is more free flowing instead.

Lastly, I believe that schools should foster small learning communities. Whether it be group work in the classroom, reading buddies between grade levels, or student teamwork groups that teach about healthy living, all schools should recognize the importance of smaller learning environments. I have fond memories of my schooling in which I was a part of a team, a group project in Spanish class, or a student led fundraiser through an after school extracurricular. Students are able to learn so much from one another, through testing their knowledge, and by taking chances on something new together (Creating Small Learning Communities). It is okay for the teacher to be the guide or the facilitator in order for students to take ownership of their learning as a team. Just like when teaching our children how to bake cookies or how to ride a book at home, we should not be afraid to let them have their shining moment and to take ownership of the learning process in the classroom.

One of my goals for this coming school year is to give more of the classroom over to my students. I am a control freak with a type A personality. This can come in handy sometimes but other days, it can also be a curse. This year, I am determined to loosen up my need for control, in whatever form it may take in the classroom, and be okay with my students taking the reigns more often. Who knows, maybe I will learn even more than I already do from them in the process!

Resources:

• Phil Mickelson on the Today Show
• The Skillman Organization
• Sir Ken Robinson discusses how schools kill creativity and how we try to solve this problem as educators.
• A look into the Reggio Approach, in which schools are redefined as community learning centers.
• Twitter has become a new and unique place to foster teacher communities.  Here is why you should join twitter to better yourself as an educator.