Reflections on Chapter 8

The Little School that Could:

I find it interesting that so many articles on school reform involve imaginary schools, but I guess imagination is the beginning of true change. Chester High School has taken its first step toward educational reform when it went on a block 8 schedule in the 1999 school year. I find that it truly allows for more engaged learning. I was literally going crazy teaching classes on a 48-minute schedule. Doing hands on science was almost impossible in 48 minutes. Yet we have not really abandoned the ideas borrowed from manufacturing like this fictional “Millennium School” upholds. In fact the manufacturing world is influencing school reform more today than ever. Unfortunately my high school has an over abundance of classes that prepare students for work rather than higher education. Which is why the concept of too much local control bothers me. Chester is a small rural town with a population who mostly works for state agencies. There is very little manufacturing or industry in Chester. The main employers are the State Maximum Security Prison and the State Mental health for the criminally insane. In fact the population of Chester includes over 3000 people who are incarcerated out of a population of 8000. I don’t know how high the standards would be set if local control had more control. Most of these state jobs pay very well and require no college education. Our school board right now only has one in seven members with a college education. We have even had board members who did not graduate from high school. I did agree with the core principles needed to educate all students mentioned in this article and I do encourage more parental involvement in our school district. I know a community that works together can accomplish more.

The Spirit of Group Governance:

Again I feel that the type of community in this school district is an exception rather than the rule. I noticed that the “teacher-director” or principal admits that he is constantly in the classroom working with children in different ways. I wonder when he gets around to the traditional paper work of a principal. I think this is a good thing but not always possible in most schools. Most of what is going on at Alice Carlson is ideal and will work beautifully if we you have ideal students and ideal parents. As a mentioned in the above article, not all communities are blessed this way. School reform is about teaching all children and I wonder if all children can learn within a school that allows “an unusual amount of freedom and responsibility for their own learning.” I just don’t think there is ever going to be one prefect school. Students are all different, they learn differently and they change over time, so reform is a never-ending story.