The authentic School template

​After years as a teacher and administrator in urban, rural, and suburban schools, I’ve never felt surer that the current education model needs transformation. The evidence is everywhere: charter schools, vouchers, ubiquitous cell-phones, lack of funding, failing physical spaces, low pay, increased student absenteeism, misinformation, book bans, and the continued reliance upon drill, kill, and test/curriculum. In the interest of not only identifying a problem, but proposing a solution, I have an idea for restructuring a students’ learning: Schools need to be redesigned as a student-as-client model, with all aspects of development--academic, social, emotional, and behavioral strategies--weaved into the school day rather than the continuance of an industrial template we’ve used for a hundred years. Are there tradeoffs? Sure, but not if we develop a philosophy prioritizing the development of individual children that is measurable and observable. 

Let’s build upon the idea of school readiness which means a child is ready to learn because she has reached the appropriate, social, emotional, and behavioral milestones for K-1. We tend to forget how important it is for children to have these skills which includes the patience to learn, sit and concentrate, be confident enough to make friends or ask for help, follow basic directions, and have appropriate skills for play or group interaction. Notice how what they come to school already knowing how to do, like writing their names or reading basic words, isn’t the focus of readiness. Since these students are a pleasure to teach, they learn quickly. They are excited to be in school—what more could we want?

Unfortunately, these skills are taken for granted as the early years go on, to the point where some districts no longer have recess after grade three, or teach handwriting—a fine motor skill—to save “teaching” time. Instead, the educational bureaucracy decided that the grind of drill, kill, and test was essential for the mastery of upper grade concepts. Sad, isn’t it, that their early interest and excitement for learning wanes over time? The academic grind of mastering many two-dimensional tasks stifles their interest in problem-solving, creativity, and patience. What if we built learning around social skills, and focused on executive functioning instead with as many authentic learning opportunities as possible built in?  

What if we created a school day with three classes, ELA, social studies, and an elective focused on technology or art and then, the next day, math, science, and physical/health education. The purpose of the time frame allows for a class “set-up” of what’s to be done and then have “lab time” for hands-on investigation. In fact, the basis for investigation could be a version of the scientific method where we ask our students a question or let them pick from more than one and have them follow that method to learn. Here’s an example: we provide grade 6 students with pictures and annotated documents (by teacher/media or source) of US colonial times and ask them to determine how colonists survived in the new world. This question takes into account the many ways the community would come together (e.g., food, clothes, shelter, laws, trade, norms, weather, farming, dairy, and safety) to support each other. A lesson like this allows for social, emotional, and behavioral opportunities as well as building executive function around problem-solving. 

Some researchers argue that social and emotional learning is more important, especially in childhood, as a predictor of future success than academics (“Social and Emotional Skills Are More Important Than Academics,” Pathway to Success, 2019), so we should consider a type of daily survey, something simple that asks students when they first arrive how they are and how they hope their day will go, then later, how the day went. Simple enough, and could be done on computer--if available--in no time. A small survey could build a longer history of how each student arrives and the finishes each day, an important bit of information for the teacher and school support staff. 

Now, I know the first thought is, but there’s so much content to cover... how can we do this? Here’s a quick anecdote. A wonderful English teacher colleague of mine once said, “There’s just so much to teach in English. I’ve spent almost two weeks just on commas!” I agreed, but driving home I thought, are commas that important, especially when no one spends much time writing anything other than worksheet responses or homework questions? She was right, there was a lot in the curriculum to teach, but shouldn’t we decide based on the students walking through the school door what’s more applicable? Is time better spent writing and seeing where and why commas are needed? It is. It’s an authentic way to learn a lesson that won’t be forgotten any time soon.

Finally, every class evaluation of a student should include a “process” grade or summary, highlighting the effort and care used to reach a conclusion. Here’s a process rubric. We’ll never know what children are truly capable of if we don’t create an open-ended process for teacher planning, student learning, and wholistic evaluating. Once we leave the drill, kill, and test grind behind, we can better teach to let students meaningfully learn.

Thanks for reading.