Changing Education

Long but well worth watching, this the full lecture version of the Sir Ken Robinson video I referenced in this post. As he quotes in the end:

"All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move." --- Ben Franklin

Thoughts on a Blustery Night

What makes you think people are smart? Adults, I mean – not kids, who are still in process, as it were. I’ve been trying to work this out, and I think the most important characteristic you can have that shouts out “smart” far and wide is intellectual curiosity. It’s not if you were a National Merit Finalist back in high school, it’s not that you went to Harvard for undergrad, or that you had a 4.0 coming out of law school. All in all, “smart” means that you are terminally curious about how things work and how to make things happen. Mind you, the 4.0 GPA, etc, can indicate that you were and are intellectually interested in life, or it can indicate that you were capable of absorbing exactly as much knowledge as was needed and then regurgitating it on test day for an A. We all know people who had great grades and were brilliant, and we all know the other kind of character as well. But that tells the whole story: credentials can’t tell you if someone if truly smart or not.

What does all of this say about our goals as parents? How do we educate our children to keep them as curious as they are at six, while also helping them gain the ability to check the boxes the world will want them to check to get ahead? How can we impress on them that the former and not the latter is what makes them who they truly are and what will always define true intelligence?

A few nights ago Husband showed the boys a fantastic video on the educational system. One and Husband watched it through several times and then began to discuss what was right and what was wrong in its assumptions. Two? There were no discussions for Two. He’d watched the real time, super-fast animation in the video and was captivated. Without saying a word he ran for the playroom, where I found him 45 minutes later, writing out his own real-time cartoon scripts and telling a story as he went along. The point? Each of them has a unique way of seeing the world and a unique way of engaging with it. As parents we need to strive above all else to keep that intact: upon being presented with an interesting hypothesis at forty years old, One needs to still want to engage in debate and discussion, and at the sight of an interesting and new style of art, forty year old Two needs to want to run off and try it out for himself. At the same time the two of them need to – sooner rather than later, I hope – master test-taking, following directions, collaborating with classmates (and later colleagues), working long after they’d like to be in bed, and all the other skills it takes to be successful in life. But we can’t let the creativity, curiosity and individuality be snuffed out in the rush to gain those skills. Because in the end, wanting to know how things work and how to make things happen – the critical skills for solving problems – are what will matter most of all.

How to Destroy a District

The Houston Independent School District (HISD), the 7th largest school district in the country, has received the report prepared by the independent consultant it hired in the fall to analyze and make recommendations on changes to the HISD Magnet Schools program. The report, prepared by Magnet Schools of America, is a shock to many - including the Grass Widow household, who enjoy their fine arts magnet elementary school quite a lot, thank you very much. Here is a summary of the report's recommendations:

1. Stop testing for admission to all magnet programs. This might not be that bad for elementary schools, since testing of 4-5 year olds is not much a predictor of elementary school performance. But the study proposes not testing for any middle or high school programs, which truly will hurt the magnet program more than almost anything I can think of. The testing that the magnet schools currently use is a report that (1) combines a child's grades, Stanford and NNAT test scores, and a teacher recommendation, then (2) weighs those elements, and (3) gives the child a score on a scale of 100 points. Magnet schools currently establish a cut-off point for their program, then either rank children and accept them 1, 2, 3, etc, or throw all qualified students in a pot and pick with eyes closed. Without this testing element, the schools will not get the best qualified students for their programs, and the best qualified students will not be rewarded for their prior years of hard work with the opportunity to attend a magnet program. To me, one of the things that makes magnet programs work is the motivation that the children bring to the table. Empowered by the ability to choose a school, rewarded for their past successes, they can work toward more achievements in an environment filled with like-minded and motivated children. To me, this is one of the things that makes a magnet program in such a large district so special: it can pull kids from all around the city - kids who may be very different from one another in many ways, but who all have a common goal of high achievement.

2. Eliminate almost half the magnet schools and pull their funding. The report admits that our own elementary school is of the highest quality, full of motivated and intelligent teachers, administrators and students, and possesses a high quality of fine arts education. It states the same about several other nearby magnets that it also recommends be eliminated. These schools are all rated "exemplary" by the TEA, and several of them have been and/or are currently on the TBEC's list of the best schools in the state. But they shouldn't be magnet schools, even though they are some of the best programs in the district. The stated reason is that they are at capacity (perhaps because they are so good?), but it is not suggested that they are failing at their mission as magnet schools because of the crowds.

3. Force each magnet school to mirror the district-wide demographics. HISD is currently 8% white, 92% non-white. Some of the magnet schools - in particular most of the ones that are to be eliminated - are currently not racially normed to the district as a whole. For example, our elementary is approximately 33% asian, 33% white, and 33% black or hispanic. We also have over 40 birth countries represented by the student body (no, not the parents - the students themselves. seriously). But because we are only 66% non-white, and because of the neighborhood demographics we will never reach 92% non-white, the report recommends eliminating our school from the program. It doesn't state this as the reason to eliminate us (see #2 above) but if the goal of the magnet program is racial norming, you can't make it when schools like ours are counted. Even though our school may be the most diverse in terms of ethnicity, life experience, cultural background - you name it - in the entire district, it doesn't meet the narrow definition that Magnet Schools of America has given the word "diversity". For all the schools that remain in the program and who are not at 92%, the report recommends requiring them to decrease their white population by 2% per year or face losing their magnet status as well.

4. Remove magnet funding from the Vanguard program. HISD Vanguard schools are magnet schools that focus on academics rather than have a specialized subject like fine arts. They are some of the most sought-after schools in the district, and many have a very high rank within the city and even state-wide. Quite frankly, they need the magnet designation because they need the funding it provides. Taking it away may make sense on paper, since they don't "specialize" the way a traditional magnet program does, but they shouldn't be punished for their good results by losing badly-needed money.

The report is long, and full of other recommendations that change the nature of some of the schools who would be allowed to stay magnet programs. But in summary, the long and short of it is this: Magnet Schools of America is committed first to the goal of "desegregation, equity, excellence, and the expansion and improvement of magnet schools." [emphasis added] When HISD hired them to perform this study, the outcome should have been known before their consultants set foot on a single campus. I am not going to suggest here (or indeed anywhere) that desegregation is not a good goal for a school district that has discriminated against its students. But I will state quite clearly that I do not believe desegregation is or should be the goal of a good magnet program (which is what HISD currently has). The goal of HISD's magnet program should be to improve the quality of education throughout the district, and to provide students with good schools from which to choose from to educate them not only in the basics but also in the specialized subjects that interest them most. It should provide public school choice to students who work hard, get good grades and test scores, and who want a good education as a ticket to a better future. With the right recommendations and leadership HISD's program can do all of this, but this report does not provide a roadmap for doing so. Instead, this report merely suggests that a minority student in a poorly performing magnet school will be better off it the district takes the magnet program away from a non-minority student in an exemplary magnet school. In fact, neither student in that scenario benefits, and in the end both will likely suffer as HISD looks less like the success it is currently and more like the failed urban school districts in other large cities around the US.

I sincerely hope that the HISD administrators, teachers, and board will see this report for what it really is: a ticket to the destruction of a district that in the past has deliberately avoided many of the mistakes of other large city districts. Every student in HISD deserves better than the plans this report has for them. Every. Single. One.

I Miss Homeschooling

There. I said it. We only homeschooled for a year, when One was in first grade (3 years ago now) and I was happy when he returned to school. Hey, I'm happy now with our public school; the boys have fit in well and are glad to be part of the school community. It's a good school - a very good school - and we're blessed to be zoned to it. It's hard to find, especially in a public school: a good education, combined with art, dance, music, lots of recess time, a very involved PTO, a good attitude toward boys and their antics, students from over 40 countries. We couldn't ask for more from a school, especially a public school in one of the largest urban school districts in the nation. I'm not saying any of this to "protest too much"; it's all true.

But I miss homeschooling all the same. All that time that regular school takes up in nothingness could be so full with goodness! As good as our school is, the boys admit that it is quite frequently boring - waiting for the last person to understand the directions, to finish, waiting for everyone to hand things out and back in again - all the administrative time that drives teachers as nuts as it does the kids, I'm sure. If we could instead fill the days - in particular the time they are now at school - with more, we'd have so much more free time for the boys to explore on their own the things that interest them most. Right now, we do "enriching" activities after school: they do extra math work, they will be starting some extra writing work soon, they attend art class and One just completed his Saturday acting class, to which he is now completely addicted. And that means we're busy! Now I'm looking into music for the fall, and that will mean even busier - but they've never had music lessons, so how can I pass up a class that teaches them piano and how to make and play a dulcimer?

But where does it all fit? Where's the time to dig holes in the backyard for half the afternoon? To play four games of Scrabble in a row? To practice archery every. single. afternoon. in the backyard - if that's what you feel like doing? It seems as if there are four categories to the time kids spend: administrative baloney, workbook/pen and paper learning (like math), creative, fun learning (music class, reading history books because you love history, etc) and good old creative play (digging holes to China, playing Star Wars with your brother while wearing capes and cowboy boots, or doing someraults on the trampoline until you can't stand up). The first category, administrative baloney, is found in school, be it public or private. There is very little of it in homeschooling, and it's that wasted time that I long to be rid of.

Oh, and the fun of coming up with what to do! Mixing in the more disciplined math, grammar and spelling workbooks with fun history reading and science projects, taking the day off on a random Wednesday to go to the Science Museum just because your 7 year old loves dinosaurs so much, growing a garden together - it's all so overwhelming and at the same time so much fun. It's such a project, it's so much work - but is there any better project, any better work that can be done?

Books for a Better World

My high school friend Volker (now known as Fr. Alkuin) told me about this amazing organization, and I have to share it with y'all - Better World Books. Here's their own blurb that best describes them:

"Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than two million new and used titles in stock, we’re a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all our stakeholders. We were founded in 2002 by three friends from the University of Notre Dame who started selling textbooks online to earn some money, and ended up forming a pioneering social enterprise — a business with a mission to promote literacy."

Check out the site! You can buy books online, get involved in organizing a campus book drive, or find a library sale near you. I am an online book shopping fanatic; I have the feeling I'm going to be spending more than my fair share of time on this website. And to think: I can feed my addiction for book shopping and feel good about it all at the same time. Ah, sweet charity!

Can It Be?

Can someone actually be doing something about skyrocketing college tuition costs?

Maybe so.

Waiting for Kindergarten

I just read this article about how "redshirting" for Kindergarten is a bad idea for so many reasons. There is so much wrong with it I don't know where to begin. But that won't stop me:

1. the author says that holding back upper middle class kids makes it harder for low income kids who don't get held back. So remember: your job as a parent isn't to raise your child, it's to raise everyone else's, too.

2. how many public schools do you see these days with the real income disparity that the author discusses in #1 above, anyway? Oh, I know - look in Washington DC, where all those good-hearted and caring politicians take a stand for public education by sending their kids to local schools and not somewhere like St. Albans.

3. the author somehow forgets how to do Kindergarten math by saying that starting your child at an older age means fewer years of school for him/her. Huh? K-12 still means K-12, right? I count 13 years - what do you get?

All in all, a foolish article about trying to further regulate parents' ability to choose what's best for each of their children. Don't waste your time.

Picking Schools

How did you pick your child's school? If it's public, did you have a choice, and, if so, did you look at your public school closely before you decided "hey, cool - free and great! we have it made!"? If it's private, how many places did you look at? What made you pick the one you did? Finally - home schooling? There's tons of great reasons for that - what are yours?

I ask because we've had such a strange journey with schools for the boys - I've written about it before, but I haven't talked much about where we are now and why we are there. Here is our story:

As I've said, we pulled both boys out of school for the 2006-2007 school year - One left and officially home schooled first grade with me from November 1 on, and Two hung on until March and then left. Although we liked home schooling - and it worked - we still wanted to give school another try and see if we could find something that fit the boys and allowed me to work. So, as it turned out, Two spent this past year at a spectacular pre-school, and One went Montessori.

Now they both go to school together: starting at the end of this month, One will return to his Montessori classroom as a third grader and Two will start Kindergarten at the same school. Montessori has been such an amazing success for us, and like most great ideas, it came about in a very round-about way.

Their school is 13 miles from the house, and I'd heard of it but never visited. I wasn't even interested in Montessori; I had a lot of misconceptions about it - the biggest of which was that it wasn't very good for boys. I was near their current school looking at a Catholic all-boys school (!) and drove by the Montessori school on the way back to the freeway. You can barely see it from the road, but I spotted it somehow and suddenly decided to swing the car around and stop by. I wound up staying and talking to the admissions director and later returned for 2 classroom visits. After the visits I actually decided the environment wasn't for the boys, and although we'd already put in applications the subject was dropped.

Last fall Two went off to pre-K and One started at a small cottage school at the edge of our neighborhood. One's first couple of days were rough but we figured it was just transitional. So we hung out, but I still, somehow, had enough sense to call the Montessori school and ask for help. One's situation deteriorated quickly; the children were given lectures by the middle school teachers after the school fired the elementary teacher (One couldn't write fast enough and got nothing out of it). The owner's daughters hated him; the youngest ransacked his locker while the fat middle one sat on One to stop him from interfering. Finally, the Montessori school called: they had a spot for that year and could we come for an interview? The minute One and I walked into that classroom I knew it would work. One and the teacher bonded immediately, and we left with light hearts. He switched over the next Monday and has loved it ever since.

I'm not sure in retrospect why I was so worried about Montessori not fitting our boys. The combination of freedom to explore so many subjects along with the structure of the teaching methods has been exactly what the doctor ordered. Also, the fact that subjects like math are covered in so many different ways helps keep One interested, and also means that if he doesn't get it so well one way, he'll pick it up another. Two made so much progress last year I know he is ready for Kindergarten in this stimulating and challenging environment.

I love watching how school has matured them - it's helping them to grow up, to stretch their imaginations and work out what they like best. It is truly a joy to have found the right school, one that does all those things that school should do for our children.

The Well-Trained Mind

This book by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise-Bauer changed my life, although I didn't set out for that to happen at all. Here's the whole story:

I bought this when we were looking at putting One into pre-school, and I was busy planning ahead. I never thought to buy a home schooling book (I guess I missed the subtitle: A Guide to Classical Education at Home). I meant to buy something like Bill Bennett's The Educated Child: A Parents Guide From Preschool Through Eighth Grade, to tell me what my child should learn at each age. Then again, I bought that book and it was a disaster. It was lists. And I don't react well to laundry lists of things my child should be learning. Half the time I don't understand the edu-speak in there, and then I get confused. When I'm confused I ask my husband - for instance "what does it mean when it says he should have an understanding of integers? What are integers?" And then Husband laughs at me. A nice laugh, but he laughs. So I have to retaliate. And so on. And so forth. And the book is left downstairs and we go elsewhere. Together (but without the children).

Now, what was I saying?

Oh, yes: So I read The Well-Trained Mind, and it changed the way I thought about how my children learned. In short, the book divides up learning into 3 phases: grammar, logic and rhetoric. Which meant, for me, that stuffing my small boys' heads full of facts was a good idea. Their school didn't seem to agree with me, and we wound up home schooling One for first grade, using this book as a guide. Using this book as a resource not only led us to a great year home schooling, it has continued to influence how we educate our children now that they are back at school. Because no matter how good their school is, it doesn't do it all - learning still takes place at home, and I'm better off if I have an idea as to how that should happen. This book provides that - it has lists of resources you can use, timelines to follow, and how to make the best use of all those things, whether your child is in school or at home for school.

For example - for a child in school - if your child is struggling with his handwriting, you can look up what the book suggests for writing in a home school curriculum, and use all or part of that suggestion to supplement what your child is doing at school. Or if you have a history fanatic like I do, you can use the exhaustive lists of reading materials in the book to keep your future historian entertained - and use some of the complementary activities (drawing pictures or writing about what was read, for instance) to reinforce the reading material.

The Well-Trained Mind is the best resource I've found on how I can help my boys obtain the rigorous and comprehensive education we want them to have. It has empowered me by showing me how much a part of that process I can be - how much I have to contribute to their education. It's priceless, as the commercials say.

And don't come 'round here asking to borrow my copy, sister! You have to buy your own!