New Schools

I hope we are ready to move away from the old paradigm of teaching: stand and deliver. I hope that we are all ready to start a new collaborative, self-guided learning model. If you agree with this, I would love to hear your new ideas on what school should look like.

If you were in charge of starting your own school from scratch, what would it look like? Who would attend? What would students do?

Tags: alternative, class, school

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Comment by Teach_J on January 4, 2009 at 2:26pm: I'd love to teach in a self-guided school. I see this as an 11-12 grade campus. Students would finish 10th grade by designing a 2-year plan that would lead them towards 2-3 career options. Students would then take "presentation" courses where the projects they create would be directly related to the careers they want to pursue. That way none of their courses are "wasted." Of course there would be required classes for certain careers such as Physical Education for Law Enforcement or Military career or Physics and Calculus for Architects or Engineers. Don't force kids to take classes they don't want unless that is their career goal. In the more career based courses like journalism or industrial trades a project or series of projects would be required for completion of the course.

The biggest problem with this model is athletics and fine arts. Very few students will be professional athletes, musicians or artists. But we need to have options open for those who have the talent. But it is a huge expenditure of time/funding for those whose career path lies elsewhere. I played football and was in band in high school, so I am not knocking the merits of either. There are plenty of leadership, life lessons in both. But what cost are we willing to pay to block off so much time for so many kids who will never use those skills after they are 18?

Comment by Matthew Samson on January 7, 2009 at 7:03pm: In our district, students who want to pursue career/voc. ed. classes either have to go to a separate voc. ed. school or go to the local community college. It's a shame more schools don't adopt your ideas.

Do you envision independent contracts with each student? Career tracks?

To answer your question, I think PE and art are inherently valuable and have to be sustained.