Okay time for a rant....
In 1981 I decided to become a teacher. I went off to college to "become" a teacher. After one semester I was frustrated. I wanted to learn about how a child's brain worked, how to integrate learning and experience and how to make learning meaningful. These courses were not offered in the education department. (They were provided in the psychology department. And all of these coursed were considered electives). The emphasis in my program was how to teach groups of children ...not how an individual child learns. Oh but I learned plenty about diversity in the classroom, social foundations in American education and how to design a damn good felt board.
Fast forward to 1999, I send my child to public school. I discovered that nothing had changed. Teachers still knew nothing about brain development and meaningful learning. (But hey, now instead of felt boards they had computers). Teachers would tell me that my son had to complete very specific tasks at very specific times during each school year. I would ask why? They would tell me about the curriculum standards. I would ask questions about learning readiness (basic to brain research). They would stare at me blankly. It was clear that they didn't know what the research said. I would ask if it was even developmentally appropriate to ask a 6/7/8 year old to be able to master all of these very specific steps in the kindergarten/1st/2nd grade curriculum? Again the blank stares. I even became PTA president at my child's school, hoping to facilitate some change. I went to school meetings and district functions, begging the schools to emphasize learning in real world contexts instead of sets of abstract standards on a checklist. I wrote letters to the superintendent talking about programs that work. Where collaborative and cooperative learning is stressed. Where authentic assessments are used, giving feedback about learning and not letter grades. I was thanked and dismissed at every turn.
So now I is 2008. I am homeschooling and have been happily educating my children for six years. I am NOW able to be the teacher I have always wanted to be. To have my child learn the way their brains were designed to learn. To create an environment where learning has meaning...because without construction of meaning, there is no leaning!
So today, I read an article about the dropout rate in urban schools, "The dropout rate of more than a million students each year 'is not just a crisis; this is a catastrophe,' said former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, founding chairman of America's Promise Alliance, which presented the research." The Alliance seemed shocked at this "crisis". But I'm not. Urban students are saying what I said in 1981 and again in 1999 and still in 2008, students need an environment where leaning is meaningful. There is no meaning in current high schools for a majority of urban students.
So what is the solution? Students are leaving the schools in record numbers. I would think their voices are loud and clear. A program designed with no meaning for the student is viewed as valueless and a waste. But if our leaders couldn't figure this out, well then why not ask the students themselves? That's right, let's ask the customer why they no longer desire the product being sold to them. ASK students why they are leaving!!!! Exit interviews...hmmm that makes sense right? "The alliance announced plans for 'dropout prevention' summits in every state over the next two years, bringing community, school and business leaders together 'to develop workable solution and action plans for improving our nation's alarming graduation rates.' *Head thumps on desk* I give up.
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frustrated