Building New Palestine

Educating for Humanity

The Problem: Leaving Out What’s Most Important

Reflections by Mike Seymour

• According to Johns Hopkins researcher Robert Blum, 40% to 60% of students from all economic backgrounds are chronically disengaged from learning.
• A study by Civic Enterprises found that 47% of dropouts left school because classes weren't interesting, and 81% of dropouts called for more "real-world" learning opportunities.
• While almost 70% percent of teachers include environmental topics when teaching various subjects like science, history or language arts, only 4% specifically teach environmental education courses. (North American Association for Environmental Education-Environmental Literacy Report, 2000).
• An elementary school teacher in the Mukilteo, WA. school district was asked by her principal and district administration not to teach about the Earth Charter, the most significant international declaration in modern times of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society—citing reasons that it was too controversial and political.
• Justin Cambest, a senior at Nova High School in Broward County, Fla. was forced to remove his t-shirt with a picture of President Bush that reads "International Terrorist" after a few students and a school staff member claimed to be offended. The American Civil Liberties Union intervened on his behalf and the local school board agreed to re-write its policy giving students greater protection under the First Amendment.
• “By not welcoming the sacred, by not considering ‘that which is worthy of respect,” as Parker Palmer puts it, our schools run the risk of raising a whole generation of young people who will be bereft of the wisdom and connectedness they need to live a fully human life. (Lantieri: Educating for Humanity: Rethinking the Purposes of Education)

School had its ups and downs for me when I was a kid. I got into plenty of trouble, was kicked out a few times and rarely studied beyond the very minimum. Up till even ten years ago I would still have this nightmare about a bunch of tests I had to take the next day, and was anxious because I hadn’t read the texts and couldn’t even find them. It wasn’t until college that I really began to see a value in education for myself and got to work. I enjoyed it, did well and actually gave birth to the beginning of a thoughtful life.

A good number of people had school experiences similar to me. Many did not. But pretty much everybody I know—whether or not they liked and did well in school—felt like education was more of an obligation, not a choice we really looked forward to.  At least through secondary education, school was something you did because you had to. It was a way to get someplace else—the next grade, more credits, certain distinctions, into the right college, a good job etc.  And for lots, college wasn’t much different either. For the most part education was not done for its intrinsic pleasure, because we liked, were fascinated or had fun at school.

That’s not to say most of us didn’t have fun, memorable or truly valuable experiences at school. We made good friends—some lifelong--had a few teachers that made a real difference in our lives and did some really great projects that gave a service to people. We went on some cool field trips, or perhaps were part of a sports team, theater group or jazz ensemble where the team spirit and challenge forever shaped our sense of what a group people is capable of doing when  everyone works hard together to achieve beyond what they thought they were capable of. Some people were really fortunate to have educational careers where what I just described was more of the norm, and not the exception. But regrettably, they’re not the majority.

Some might argue that school is just one of the many things a person has to endure, and that’s part of growing up in the so-called “real world.”  I agree that it’s good for us to be challenged by things that are difficult—and persevere through something we don’t initially like in order to learn a valuable lesson.  That’s true as long as what you’re doing is really good for you and the larger whole. But what if that is not the case?

To answer that question, consider what school does not do. The  conventional school does not deal with what’s most important in our lives—like who we are, our calling and sense of self, the skills and attitudes to care for others and contribute to healthy families and communities. Where do we lean to understand and come to peace with ourselves and others who are very different from us? At what time in our lives do we get the training to be good marriage partners, faithful parents, good community activists who put the interests of others equal to their own?  Where do learn democracy by doing it--becoming knowledgeable citizens who contribute to a democratic culture by taking a substantive part in it? How much do we get to make our own choices and follow our own passions?

If we surveyed people anywhere and asked what’s really important, they would say things like: happiness; self-acceptance; being responsible; caring and respectful; feel like you’re going somewhere in life; being part of healthy and happy families; have good and satisfying jobs ; service to the local or global community; be kind to animals and nature.  These are all the really down-to-earth human things which, no matter how smart you are or how much book knowledge you have, you can’t lack too many of these before you’re less stable. Without those human basics you’re less happy and probably not as much help to the needs of the people and world about you as families and society require to be healthy. In fact, there’s a fair correlation between personal well-being on the one hand and family  as well community health on the other hand. Less happy people make a less happy world, and vice verse. 

These are some of the things that have importance, but these are not the main focus of most schools. Our system of conventional education, in fact, blunts our vital connection to ourselves, to meaning and a sense of connections in life. In this way it plays a role in the level of personal and world suffering we see around us today.

With the world in crisis and humanity’s future hanging in the balance, modern schooling is part of the troubled titanic course humanity is on today with itself and the environment.  Students and teachers work in the large, industrial-scale buildings with 600-3000 people, making it difficult to have the kind of family feeling or community and closeness most people want, and which is critical for everyone to “show up” and be ready emotionally and intellectually to learn. The automated system of sorting youth by grades and moving them from one grade to another every year assures an unnatural same-age mix of people, which is totally contrary to how we live, and diminishes the possibility for deepening relationships between teachers and students who spend a year or less with one another.  Subjects are treated as independent knowledge bases—totally unrelated to one another—and with little relationship to ourselves, the meaning we are trying to make in life, and to life itself outside the walls of the school building. Especially in the current environment of standards-based education, administrators and teachers—much less their students—have less and less say in what goes on in school, with curriculum determined by state and federal mandates.

So what are we really learning in this kind of school? What’s the “hidden curriculum,” or the real message behind the way we do things in school today? Depriving teachers and students of the right of choice over how school is run and what and how we learn is a recipe for apathy, frustration and defeatism. It communicates that some on-high external authority knows best, undermining students’ and teachers’ trust in themselves and willingness to take initiative. In this way, education encourages compliance, not creativity, adaptation as opposed to innovation, short-term memorization of soon-forgotten facts as opposed to real critical thinking—all of which is exactly the opposite of what we say we want, and what is needed for a sustainable world.

In fact, one master teacher and outspoken critic of schooling, John Taylor Gatto, says education today is “Dumbing Us Down,” the title of one of his books.

Part of the dumbing comes from using external drivers for motivating students like grades, spoken or unspoken threats, discipline and other social sanctions—like being put in special classes for failing students-instead of developing the intrinsic love and motivation to learn.  This competitive system pits one student against another, makes people anxious, extolling so called-winners which both can harmfully inflate or burden the so-called winner as well as make others feel less than.

Teaching math, literature, history and science in disconnected ways supports looking at the world in broken pieces, where we not only miss the whole view, but the critical wisdom that can only come from seeing the inter-connections between things.  We cram this crazy menu of learning with so much required content that it guarantees most of the facts we learn will be forgotten. Moreover, dumping data into already crammed minds keeps us from studying and analyzing subjects in depth so that we learn how to think deeply and what depth is. Treating students like empty vessels to be filled with so-called useful knowledge denies the value of young people’s own deeper questions, interests and innate wisdom. No wonder youth in modern societies so quickly lose that sparkle, wonder and genius that all children are born with.

This is how the conventional school in the USA and around the world is not meeting the most important needs of the person and, therefore, of communities and societies as a whole. I don’t mean to suggest we do away with math, science, reading, writing, the arts and all the other subjects. On the contrary, the content of education is extremely important, not only for its own sake, but as a means through which the human dimension of education I talked about can be realized.  We need to change the purposes of education so that they are person-centered, and not externally oriented to some goal like a strong economy, or “academic achievement”—a peculiarly opaque phrase which  has something to do with “getting ahead,” but toward what? 

So, it’s not an either/or, as some critics like to complain: either human development or academic knowledge.  It’s both and. And yes, this dual mission of education is possible and being done in varying degrees and different ways in many public and private schools around the USA and the world.

How Did We Get Here

I’ve often used the metaphor of a train on a set of tracks to describe modern schooling and why conventional schools have changed little over the last half century despite numerous reform efforts.  Think of the train as the school building full of its passengers—students—and teachers who are the conductors and those who run the train.  The tracks represent the system of expectations and goals of the school (where it’s supposed to go), how school is set up by grade, classes, periods, with kids going from one class to another when the bell rings, and so forth. The tracks also include ideas of who runs what, level of student choice, what subjects are decided on as important, mandates from district, state and federal levels etc.

Well, one thing we know about railroads is that the tracks are meant to keep the train in place safely going where it is intended to go. We want real trains stay on track, otherwise people would get hurt.  But the fact is that the tracks are very rigid, and to change how the train runs is nearly impossible without derailing the train or figuring out a whole new, more flexible system unlike railroads to get some place.

The system of schooling today is a rigid like railroad tracks because of the conditions, motivations and attitudes under which education was, literally, engineered from about the late 1800’s on. At that time, America was in a huge population and industrial growth phase, continuing from the post-Civil War, and then post World War I as America was emerging as a world leader among nations. We needed a system to assimilate and make productive millions of immigrants who would become the backbone workforce of this very hungry economic behemoth of the USA.  So, people like Friedrich Taylor become spokesmen for bringing the “efficiency movement” from industry to education, by designing schools to be as productive as factories.  One historian who was influential on education policy was Elwood Cubberly. He said that schools should be like factories, and teachers like factory workers turning out the raw material of students to fill the nation’s factories--and we presume to make America great as well as the rich factory owners richer. Following in America and Europe’s footsteps, much of the rest of the world has gladly adopted what they see as the way to be economically successful like these developed nations, by adopting their systems of education.

I doubt there is a teacher or administrator alive today who would say anything like what Taylor and Cubberly said back in the 1920’s. We’ve come a long way in our view of what school should be like. Nonetheless, the tracks laid down at that time still guide most of what we do in school today. So in spite of the best wishes of teachers, principals and school boards, we can’t easily get off the tracks. The train ride gradually accustoms those on board to the way things are—to the point that we lose our ability to imagine how or if it could be any different. And the problem is compounded by the fact that parents and others in the community whose views affect local school decision-making don’t have any other picture than those in school today, because they were reared in the same kind of system.

Educating for Humanity: Some Solutions

The problems of modern schooling are so pervasive, one wonders if a more human, personalized form of education is possible.  I’m happy to say that there are wonderful schools that educate the whole person in a caring, democratic, community and earth-connected ways and that empower young people to be all they can be in service to their own vision and the needs of the world about them. We’ll take a look at some of the more important national and international trends in education, and will discuss a few exceptional public and schools which are part of those trends.

Smaller Schools: More Intimate & Caring communities

Small Schools Project (funded by the Gates Foundation)        http://www.smallschoolsproject.org/                                                                                    Charter Schools                                    http://www.uscharterschools.org/pub/uscs_docs/index.htm

Although being small doesn’t guarantee better student learning, a human-scale school is a critical first step in supporting a sense of community, closeness and trust among students and teachers. In well-run small schools, academic progress and human development are much easier to come by. The small schools project funded by the Gates Foundation recognized the value of smaller learning communities and helped many existing high and middle schools to convert to smaller schools, many with a great deal of success.  There has also been a huge growth in charter schools across the USA, numbering over 3000 today, most of which are smaller.

Schools with Focus & Purpose

The conventional neighborhood school is a building in the community young people go to because it’s in the neighborhood and gives a general education.  But this school as a rule does not “stand for” anything in particular, and can often suffer from a lack of vision, coherence and sense of purpose.  As a result, the whole atmosphere of education in that environment can feel undirected and uninspired, and is only sometimes rescued by an amazing and loving group of teachers and parents.  Sensing this void, there has been a growing number of schools which do “stand for” something and are able to help students and parents identify with that mission as something that has meaning for them.  There are many such schools in districts throughout the USA and the world.  Some focus on the arts (like the Center School in Seattle), others on global or international education, some on the environment. In many school districts they are called “choice schools,” or “schools of choice” denoting that their specialized features allow parents and kids to readily identify with them as a choice.  Almost all these schools of purpose are small, and a good number are charter schools.

Teaching as if the Earth Mattered

At one of the most momentous times in human history, when humankind is creating an environmental catastrophe, you would think that every school in the world would be racing to incorporate environmental education as a major focus in the curriculum.  But that is not the case, as educational bureaucracies and communities are slow and often resistant to recognizing the environmental dangers and the implications for lifestyle change that will bring to their own doorsteps. Fortunately, among the schools of choice are many with an environmental focus. Several where I live in the Northwest are the Environmental and Adventure School in Kirkland, Wa. (http://schools.lwsd.org/EAS/). Another great school that uses the environment as a context for learning is the Sunnyside Environmental School in Portland where their program statement is a good example of schools of purpose: “We are actively teaching a holistic, integrated curriculum. Exploring themes of our many overlapping environments, students develop academic knowledge and skills while demonstrating personal and social responsibility for all living things.”

Democratic Education

Democratizing education has been a core principle of democratic schools and other schools which—though not specifically democratic—nonetheless feel that empowering student choice and freedom in learning is central to real education and human development. It’s hard to argue that democracy, personal responsibility and intellectual freedom can’t be learned from textbooks and mandated curriculum, but must to some degree be lived.

A democratic school is a school that centers on democratic principles and participatory democracy with "full and equal" participation from both students and staff. These learning environments position youth voice as the central actor in the educative process by engaging students in every facet of school operations, including learning, teaching, and leadership. Adult staff support students by offering passive and active facilitation according to students' interest.

The second tenet of many democratic schools, which is related to, but does not necessarily proceed from, their democratic nature, is giving students the power to choose what to do with their time. In many democratic schools, there are no required classes, and sometimes no requirement to take classes at all. Students are free to choose an activity that they desire, or feel the need to do. They are free to continue activities for as long or short a time as they see fit. In this way they learn both self-discipline and self initiation. They also gain the advantage of the increases in both learning speed and learning retention that accompany engagement in an activity that one is passionate about. The students at these schools are responsible for and empowered to direct their own education from a very young age.

There are 173 democratic schools world-wide, according to the Alternative Education Resource Organization (http://www.educationrevolution.org/index.html) and a far larger number of other schools which adopt democratic principles as part of their commitment to a democratic and ethical society. One such district is Hudson Public Schools, in Hudson, Mass whose mission to “promote the intellectual, ethical, civic, and social development of students through a challenging instructional program and a caring classroom and school environment.”     is powerfully demonstrated in every school building I visited  http://www.hudson.k12.ma.us/.

Raising Caring, Ethical and Engaged Young People

Hudson Public Schools                                                              http://www.hudson.k12.ma.us/                                                                                         

Greenfield Center School                                                                   http://www.centerschool.net/

Teaching children and youth to be decent, caring, ethical and socially engaged human beings is a worthy goal of education. But these human-centered purposes you’ll rarely see alive and well in most schools, which is why I was so delighted to find some wonderful examples of this kind of education. And the link between this kind of social and emotional learning and intellectual development is well proven.  Probably the best known school of this kind is the Greenfield Center School in Greenfield, Mass. which for many years was operated as a laboratory school of the Northeast Foundation for Children (http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/) whose “Responsive Classroom” approach to education assures a practical approach to a safe, challenging and joyful learning environment. In this and similar schools, like Hudson Public Schools which also use the Responsive Classroom approach, there is an emphasis on healthy relationships and kindness between students as one foundation for learning.  Practices like “morning meeting” see kids begin each day in a circle greeting one another and making announcements.  Later on students might partner with one other and choose what they’ll work on that morning, and then perhaps there will be a 40 minute period of role playing various interpersonal scenarios to help kids learn socialization skills. In upper grades at Hudson, students may have a more intense focus on civics with such curriculums as Facing History and Ourselves, where they learn about ethical decision-making using the Nazi holocaust as the focus of study. I was amazed to see the level of student attention to each other and sense of peace in these schools, compared to what you experience in the typical middle and elementary school.

Child-Centered Education

 Waldorf Education                                                                                       http://www.awsna.org/                                                          Montessori Schools                                                                                    http://www.montessori.edu/

Many schools in the above categories are child-centered to varying degrees, but perhaps not as much as systems of education specifically designed for that purpose.  Montessori and Waldorf Schools, though different in some important ways, nonetheless demonstrate what a more child-centered education looks like compared to conventional public and private schools. Maria Montessori described the classroom as a place where children are free to move about the classroom at will, where the day is not divided between work periods and rest or play periods. The children are free to choose their own activities in the classroom. This protection of the child’s choice is a key element in the Montessori method. Developed by Rudolf Steiner in 1919, Waldorf education is based on a developmental approach that addresses the needs of the growing child and maturing adolescent. Waldorf teachers strive to transform education in to an art that educates the whole child—the heart and the hands, as well as the head. For more information, please go the Waldorf Education page.

Real World Learning

The Big Picture Company                                                                 http://www.bigpicture.org/