Changing the Face of Education??

Here are some thoughts after watching the movie “Waiting for Superman,” the documentary that is supposed to “change the face of education.”

1. It was interesting to see the endless parade of middle aged men in suits and ties (mostly white, a few black) who were the experts, leaders, and commentators, when the majority of people who deal with children on a day to day basis at home and in the classroom are women (teachers and mothers). Only two women spoke at length and both were polarizing and controversial figures. 

2. Any school that is willing to hold the kind of spectacle that was shown in the final scenes of the lotteries is NOT thinking about what is best for the children - all the children, not just the ones who "win," but also the vast majority who are “not accepted.” Why in the world does this have to be done publicly with the children present? One mother left, murmuring to herself "I wish this had been done without B... present, so by the time I got home I could gather my thoughts and be ready to talk to her!" It is interesting that the lotteries for entrance into the exclusive private schools in New York (for middle class and upper middle class families) are done either by mail or without the children present. These public lotteries seem almost designed to give the vast majority of children the message that they are "not lucky" and "not accepted"; they lost the lottery and so had lost their chance for success. What kind of message is this to give children? That your chance of success in life is determined entirely by luck, by forces outside your own hands?

3. Why so much scripted chanting and rote learning in these charter schools? This is something I want to write about more. It is an important point in light of brain research that shows that learning that is done by rote, without real attention, forms pathways in the brain that are only temporary. (You might pass the test, but the understanding will quickly fade.) For permanent changes in brain wiring, you need full attention, and ideally, the participation of all the senses. I’ve seen for years that chanting vocabulary in language classes, for example, is very inefficient. But I see groups of children mindlessly chanting after the teacher in clip after clip of the KIP schools, and the other schools profiled in this movie. 

4. Finally, the whole system of charter schools, lotteries, longer school days, even boarding schools, gives the message to parents (especially poor and working class parents) that they are powerless. Their job is to work their assess off and hand their children over to someone else to educate. What happens to any one child depends, as a school principal said, on "geography and luck." How about putting the tools for giving children a powerful, individualized education into the hands of parents? This is possible and would be a true change in the "face education." That's what I am about anyway. 

  

Comments

[Karen Reimann]

How about the homeless woman in Conn. being charged for grand larceny and facing up to 20 years in jail for registering her child in the wrong school district? They are charging her with stealing an education for her child!! How is this possible?? Have you been following this story? Am I missing anything here? Any comments??

I'm going to watch a trailer on youtube right this very moment on this film!

Love,
Karen