Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Crazes in Crazy Education

I walked into a classroom to teach to teach a third-grade "gifted" math class, and all the students were sitting on large balls. A teacher on her way out of the classroom as I entered told me that if any of the students bounced on their ball during class they would have to sit on the floor for the lesson or on a regular chair. I smiled and said, "of course," thinking just how does a nine-year-old child sit on a giant ball without bouncing? The teaching assistant in the class was in a rush for me to get on with the math lesson: we were, after all, dealing with high achievers, but I told her I first had to know what was up with these balls. I thought a brief discussion about the balls would perhaps allow me to teach the lesson without having to repeatedly ask the students to stop bouncing, which most of them were doing.

Students explained that research has shown that sitting on a ball helps you concentrate better due to the fact that more oxygen flows to your brain under such conditions. I remember reading, years back in grad school, studies which found boys preferred standing to sitting in a classroom, and some schools were experimenting with tall desks in which boys stood rather than sat at their desks. I had obviously not heard about this latest craze. I use the word "craze" because in education, a craze, along with a little science, can be dangerous.

As a culture, we are always looking for "the" answer that will solve our educational woes. We had the ''whole language" craze, the "back-to-basics" craze, the "no child's left behind" craze, the "everyone needs their own personal computer" craze, the "charter" school craze -- on and on and on. The crazes keep coming and schools keep failing many students in our country, especially those from poor families.

In another class I subbed in recently, the second graders were all in a state of great excitement, wanting to rush down to the library to check out their school's latest craze: a bag with a book and a mini device that they plugged into to listen to the story. The device hangs from their necks and they put the earplugs in their little ears, push a button and hear the story being read by a professional actor or actress. They couldn't get enough of it. This may be an example of an excellent craze, one with some staying power. Sitting on balls? Not so sure about that one, but who knows?

Yesterday in the New York Times I read about yet another educational craze. The story was about a successful middle-school principal from the Bronx who is now the principal of The New American Academy in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, one of the poorest school districts in NYC. New York City is a city like many in America, where children from families with money attend private schools and the have-nots attend the public schools.

The new school for the have-nots is modeled after an exclusive New Hampshire private boarding school, Philips Exeter Academy. High-school students at the New Hampshire school sit in small groups discussing and helping each other with self-directed lessons. Yes, they are trying this approach in Crown Heights -- but with kindergarteners, for god's sake! As you may have guessed, even those of you who are not teachers, the school has experienced some setbacks.

This fall, the school began with 60 kindergarteners in a huge classroom, a master teacher, who is paid $150,000 a year, and four novice teachers who are not paid $150,000. As of January 2011, the student population has been reduced by 10 students and the young teachers are pulling their hair out. Actually, one of the novice teachers had some of her hair pulled out by one of the kindergarteners and an ambulance was called. The teacher went to the hospital for treatment. The kindergartener was left untreated.

The principal at the new Crown Heights school was a favorite of the NYC Chancellor of Schools, Joel Klein. Klein's tenure recently ended when Bloomberg hired Cathie Black, who began as the new chancellor this month. Klein is now working in the private sector earning in one year what it took him six to earn as the chancellor. Harvard University has been involved in the development of this Crown Heights School, where student independence, scientific inquiry, and self-expression are more important that teacher directed lessons, memorization, structure and discipline.

As an old teacher, I know that some directed lessons, memorization, structure and discipline are good for kindergarteners. I know I did not go to Harvard, but the school of hard knocks taught me that. The former Bronx principal was quoted at the end of the article: "In education, what works one day, oftentimes does not work the next. We are trying to find out what works for the kids." Now there's a real craze!

Teaching is both an art and a science, that's why it is so difficult. The master teacher at the new school, with 23 years of experience, is described as magical. The students follow her directions and listen to her when she teaches them. The goal of cloning her in the young inexperienced teachers is not working. Teaching is difficult, it takes years to become really good at it. Not everyone who chooses teaching as a career is a good teacher. Bright students survive bad teaching, struggling students do not.

The St. Louis Park district, rated #2 for academic excellence in the state, would find the New Hamshire model a joke. When I took the kindergarten methods course at the U of M, Dr. Harlan Hansen was my professor. His wife taught kinder in St. Louis Park for decades. As a team over the years, the Hansens developed the quintessential classroom setting and curriculum for the five-year-old child. St. Louis Park kindergartens still use much of the program these two brilliant people developed.


The young novice teachers are having a hard time at the Crown Heights Academy. They told the reporter they are exhausted and feel defeated. The principal admits he was wrong to have hired so many new teachers, but they cost less. This principal, darling of the former chancellor, admits that it takes longer to develop a teacher than he thought. Oh really!

Speaking of educational crazes, Mayor Bloomberg hired Cathie Black as his new chancellor even though she has no educational experience. Professional educators have failed to find the answer to education for the poor and disadvantaged. She is described as the unsentimental, cut-throat media mogul of the Hearst Corporation. Teachers in NYC public schools are crying out that class size of 35 students is too large. (The year that happened in Mpls is the year I knew it was time to retire: luckily I could.) Cathie Black's children attended exclusive private boarding schools in Connecticut. What a surprise!

Last evening I watched President Obama speak in Tucson about the need to meet the expectations of our children. I don't think it is possible to do that when we have 35 students in a classroom. I don't think we do that when we put children who have very little in schools modeled after those for the children who have much. Education, especially for poor children, is beyond complex. You don't just put them on balls, or put them with novice teachers learning from self-directed lessons. Educating a child is a custom job, and an efficient corporate assembly line doesn't work.




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