College Comp

We began our fourth theme this week. It is a how to essay. Or rather a series of how to essays. The first deals with how to improve education. We read a Time article about how to get schools out of the 20th century. Then we read the preface to "Doing School" by Denise Clark Pope. One question she posed an audience at Stanford two years ago when she discussed her book was "think of a time you were engaged and excited for an assignment in school."

I posed this to my class. Here are a few snippets from their responses that I found interesting.



"I enjoyed it [the project] so much that I forgot about the huge post-lab exam. I did fine; it didn’t matter."

"Then when it came to actually writing the project, it seemed like hardly work at all."

"I got to express myself through paintings and shapes. My assignments seemed more like a time in my day to let my tension go. The cold clay formed around my fingers, and my emotions would flow down my arm to shape or paint what couldn’t be said. When the class was over, I dreaded having to do homework for another class, wishing they would be as fun as art."

"The best part was probably the interviews [for a career project]. It was fascinating to be able to hear firsthand what ti is like to be a physical therapist. We were just supposed to ask 25 questions for the report, but I probably asked over a hundred. It was one of the few reports that I can honestly say I enjoyed every part of from front to back."


How often does learning like this take place in schools? Not nearly enough.

And the great thing about those learning experiences. How many can be judged by a standardized test?

The lack of experiences like these are the problem with secondary education in America. This should happen in every class. Yet, how often are students subjected to busy work, learning facts as opposed to processes and strategies, or simply suffering through a class taught by a teacher who either doesn't like kids or is marching their way toward retirement?