Positive Ideas for Our Schools

After a wonderful long weekend , I thought it might be appropriate to momentarily drop my Junkyard Dog/ Badass Teacher persona and offer some positive ideas about how to improve our educational system. *******I think we need to drop the test based, one size fits all model of education and allow for far more experimentation in school design. To this end, I would suggest that the following approaches to school organization and design be encouraged, in some cases beginning at middle school age, in others beginning in high school, ********1. An expansion of "portfolio schools" which have assessment based on holistic evaluation of student academic work, rather than performance on standardized tests. New York City's "Urban Academy" is a great example, a multiracial school known for high levels of student/teacher engagement. ********2 The revival of vocational and technical high schools teaching skills connected to the rebuilding of the infrastructure, sustainable design, repair and maintenance of information systems, along with traditional skills that such schools once offered such as plumbing, electronics, auto repair. Not only will such schools create an entry into existing job markets for their students, they will ease the transition to a nation less dependent on fossil fuels. ********3. The creation of schools organized around sustainable agriculture, and health centered food preparation and delivery. Such institutions would not only contribute to the improved health of their students, and the communities in which they are located, they would create jobs, and open entrepreneurial opportunities for students in an economic niche which is expanding locally and globally. Such schools could be located in cities as well as rural areas. ********4. The creation of schools built around community redevelopment and democratic participation by local residents. Dr Henry Taylor is experimenting with this model of school organization in Inner City Buffalo and it is an approach that could help stabilize and revive resource deprived neighborhoods while promoting broad community involvement in the schools, along with student involvement in neighborhood design and revitalization. *********If those in charge of the nation's schools would give exemptions for schools that follow these models, it would do far more for teacher morale and student engagement that having every school adapt to a unitary set of national standards and dish out rewards and punishments based on their success in mastering them. It would also help our stagnant economy by producing graduates with the practical and entrepreneurial skills necessary to help us move beyond a dependence on fossil fuels and compulsive consumerism that is steadily threatening our collective health as well as our quality of life.