ED playing to its strengths

There is frustration at ED. Not with any specific person, but collectively, I think people would like to see more done. They’ve put up with years of criticism for No Child Left Behind and worked with what must seem like a constant influx of political appointees. And with political appointees come different ideologies and a renewed focus on fiscal responsibility. But this “responsibility” is sorely misplaced, as ED contributes only 10 percent of schools budgets across the country. While this is still a large amount, it is hardly enough to make sweeping changes in schools across the country. Despite this, there is still a focus on the money side of education.

ED should instead play to its strengths. It is constantly churning out information – information that would be immensely helpful to schools looking to update and improve their education systems. Given the successes of many charter schools, one should realize that their successes are coming from a new, tailored, way of doing education.

In reading John Dewey’s Education and Experience, he asserts time after time, that an education is intended to not only to promote future educational expansion but also to build of past experiences. In the past, education has focused solely on the former, but it went about this in a rigid system that was not structured around the experiences of kids. For example, sitting quietly in rows of desks, copying sentences from a book doesn’t play to children’s natural propensity to be energetic, social, creative and active. This is not to say that a classroom that lacks structure and all dull educational lessons is a better alternative. But in designing an educational system, one should take into account the previous experiences of those being taught. Structure is good, and it ought to be present in education, but it should be created in a way that takes into account the students’ unique set of experiences.

Also, just like you and I don’t like to be told what to do from “the boss,” the process of educating students would be greatly aided by a school system that is build upon understood rules. In this way, there would be fewer moments where teachers need to exercise their authority, making for a frustrating, tension-filled situation, and instead more situations where students make the choice for themselves to follow the rules.

Some of you may be thinking, “that all sounds great, but you’re still in the theory stages, Magie. Wait until you test it out.” But how many of you have ever explained “natural consequences” to a kid? I know I have, and did this summer with many of the kids I worked with as a VISTA. As an AmeriCorps worker and not a teacher, I really had no power over the kids. So when they acted out, I didn’t ever send them to the corner, yell at them, send them to the principal’s office, or anything of the sort. Instead, I did what I could to redirect them, and explained the consequences that would naturally flow from the actions. To one nine year old boy, after spending 15 minutes trying to avoid reading, I said “if you’re not going to read with me, I don’t want to waste your time here. So we can just go back to class.” He started reading. One girl was rude to another, but when told that “that was really mean to say. I really don’t like when people say those things,” she stopped. Natural consequences help kids make their own decision to behave, helping them develop critical thought and the teacher with an easier job since they didn’t have to have a battle-of-of-the-wills.

Many schools have used artificial incentives to get kids to behave, whether its tickets they can use for some game in the future or stars for good behavior. These can be good at getting kids to do what you want them to in the short run, but lead to two major problems: 1) what do you do with kids as they begin to see through the façade?; and 2) this seriously impairs a student’s ability to make their own critical judgments in the future. Yes, they can follow rules, but they can’t judge whether a rule is just, evaluate whether something is worth their time and energy, and they’re indoctrinated with the idea that as long as they aren’t caught, they escape all consequences. Thus, the idea of natural consequences is lost.