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blogs.kqed.org http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/09/why-kids-need-schools-to-change

Why Kids Need Schools to Change

Flickr: Elizabeth Albert

The current structure of the school day is obsolete, most would agree. Created during the IndustrialAge, the assembly line system we have in place now has little relevance to what we know kids actuallyneed to thrive.

Most of us know this, and yet making room for the huge shift in the system thats necessary has beendifficult, if not impossible because of fear of the unknown, says educator Madeline Levine, author ofTeach Your Children Well.

People dont like change, especially in times of great uncertainty, she said. People naturally goconservative and buckle down and dont want to try something new. There are schools that are trying todo things differently, and although on the one hand theyre heralded as having terrific vision, theyre stillseen as experimental.

Im astounded at the glacial pace of change in education.

During this time of economic uncertainty, especially, Levine said parents want to make sure their kidswont fall into the ranks of the unemployed and disenfranchised young people who return homebecause theyre unable to find jobs. Theres so much anxiety around the economy, theyre thinking,What can I do to make sure that my kid isnt one of the unemployed? she said.

Yet therein lies the paradox. Its exactly during these uncertain times when people mustbe willing to try

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new things, to be more open, curious and experimental, she said. In education, although there are greatnew models of learning and schooling, they are the exceptions, and the progressive movement has notgained much momentum.

Im astounded at the glacial pace of change in education, she said. Like many academic areas,theres a huge disconnect between whats known and whats in practice. Its very slow moving.

Levine, who was a teacher herself for many years, said she has tremendous respect for educators andbelieves they need full support from parents and administrators. But until the directive comes fromthose in power national and state policymakers, superintendents, principals what can teachers doindividually to make learning relevant for their students?

One thing we know for sure is that kids learn better when teachers are invested and paying attentionand showing they care, she said. The biggest impact youll have as a teachers is the relationship youestablish with your student.

Try to integrate what students are interested in within whats happening in class, get to know eachstudent, and have high expectations. Taking seriously the range of interests kids have, she said.

In addition to individual attention, Levine believes a childs time in school should look much like what

kindergarten did.

Theres probably no better example of the throttling of creativity than the difference between what weobserve in a kindergarten classroom and what we observe in a high school classroom, she writes inTeach Your Children Well. Take a room full of five-year-olds and you will see creativity in all its formspositively flowing around the room. A decade later you will see these same children passively sitting attheir desks, half asleep or trying to decipher what will be on the next test.

In an ideal world, the school day would reflect kids changing needs and rhythms. There would be timefor free play; school would start later to allow time for students much-needed rest; the transition timebetween classes would be longer, allowing time for kids to walk down the hall and say hi to their friends

and plan their next moves; kids would have the opportunity to step away from school work in order toregroup and process what theyve absorbed. The actual encoding of information doesnt take placewhen youre hunched over a desk, she said.

And just as importantly, the arts would be integrated into a curriculum, not as an ancillary addition, butas a primary part of learning. For developing creativity and flexible and divergent thinking, we need tobring back the arts, she said. Its a travesty that kids dont have arts anymore.

FIVE AREAS FOR CHANGE

Were operating on a 200- year-old paradigm in a world that needsan entirely different skill set, she said. When we talk to business

owners, we hear this large and increasing drumbeat that the jobs arethere, but kids applying for jobs dont have the kinds of skills theyneed.

Levine spends a lot of her time at Challenge Success, a schooltraining program at Stanford thats been incorporated into about 100schools across the country. The five criteriathat Challenge Successbrings to schools attempts to modernize the obsolete system in placetoday: scheduling, project based learning, alternative assessment,climate of care, and parent education.

http://challengesuccess.org/resources/sample-policies-and-practices-space.aspxhttp://www.challengesuccess.org/

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PROJECT BASED LEARNING. Project-based learning hasshown to be a much more effective way to think about learning,particularly when you live in a world thats incredibly unclear onwhat content is going to be relevant in not just 10 or 20 years, butin three years, she said. Over and over business leaders say kids need to be collaborative,work across time zones and cultures because problems are so complex.

ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT. You dont have the opportunity to show what you know in aregular school because standardized tests that are mandated only show what some kids know,

but leave out a whole bunch of kids who arent able to show what they know in different ways, shesaid. We should have alternative criteria for gauging students knowledge and ability to showwhat they know.

SCHEDULING. Neuroscience research on sleep is becoming more compelling by the day,particularly around depression, Levine said. Wed always thought fatigue is symptom ofdepression, but now its looking more like lack of sleep causesdepression, and thats somethinglooked at seriously. Kids needs nine hours of sleep, and if schools were in synchdevelopmentally with teenagers, should would start at 10 a.m., especially when kids enteradolescence. Teachers should also coordinate their exams with each other to ensure thatstudents are not taking multiple tests on the same day.

CLIMATE OF CARE.Research shows that kids do better in classes where teachers knowtheir names and say hello to them, and when they have their own advocates or advisers at schoolAlmost every private school has advisory, a person for each kid to go to, Levine said. But inpublic schools, there are just a few counselors for a thousand kids or more. By the time yourehitting high school, you need someone apart from parents to test ideas with, to kick aroundproblems, a go-to person who a kid feels knows them.

PARENT EDUCATION. Well-meaning parents are confounded with how to approachmanaging their kids times. Kids needs playtime, downtime, and family time, Levine said. Weverobbed kids at each stage of childhood and adolescence of tasks that belong in that particularstage, she said. You cant push kids outside their developmental zone and expect them to learn

You want to push them towards the edge of it, but not over.

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