Put Me in Charge of the U.S. Education System!
It is in desperate need of a serious overhaul. Now seems like a good time.
I may not be considered an expert on education. The degrees I hold are not focused on education. I have, however, focused my attention on my children’s education for nineteen years and counting. I homeschooled them for eleven years, using a combination of self-directed learning and structured curriculum. When my children were five, seven and fourteen, I sent them to public schools so that I could finish a degree and find gainful employment.
The U.S. education system was terribly disheartening. I watched as the flickers of excitement and curiosity I had seen in their eyes gave way to the dull stare of exhaustion and stress.
My youngest was labeled as “bad” in Kindergarten because he couldn’t sit still as long as the teacher wanted him to. He would often fidget in his seat or spin in circles when he was supposed to be waiting in a straight line. The teachers would often isolate him from his classmates saying he bothered the other students. When I asked his teachers to fill out an assessment form at his doctor’s request, it became clear to me that the physical education teacher hated him. His responses indicated that my son didn’t follow his directions and could not pay attention to him for any length of time. When I asked my son if anything bad had happened in PE, he told me that the teacher regularly grabbed him by the arm and sat him down against the wall.
We now know my son has Autism, to the credit of one wonderful school counselor after we changed schools. None of the “education professionals” at the previous school had any other assessment of my son other than “bad.” Maybe they meant “different” or “he doesn’t learn the way the rest of us do.”
How could our schools, in one of the wealthiest and advanced nations in the world, be so lagging that they are ignorant of the clues for a childhood condition that has been on the rise?
That is only one item on my long list of grievances with the public school system. I am trying to keep this article short and to the point, but I feel as though I could let loose and write an entire book. Let’s start with incorporating all thinking and learning styles, shall we?
Incorporating All Thinking and Learning Styles
Children and adults with Autism are quite simply people whose minds operate in a different manner than mainstream schools and society are designed for. Some see the details first and build it into the larger picture rather than learning a concept and breaking it down into smaller pieces. Some take every statement very literally. Some think in patterns and pictures rather than words. Few people truly learn best in a typical classroom environment.
I was glad for the new school’s recognition of my son’s condition and assistance in finding the appropriate professionals to help with it. I was not pleased that the school’s only solution to my son’s different way of thinking was to give him more time for testing and completing the same tasks and in the same manner. It doesn’t seem like an innovative solution. The message received was, “We know you think and learn differently, but you must conform to our methods of thinking and learning. We will not change to incorporate your ways. You must conform to our ways.”
Our education system is just beginning to teach children to celebrate cultural and personal identity differences. Why not celebrate differences in the way our minds work?
Shouldn’t schools incorporate these thinkers rather than shun them as unfit for those coveted places in society? Shouldn’t their perspectives be learned from and built upon?
My children now attend a private Sudbury model school. They learn and explore with other children of all ages, forming a community and participating in their own student-led democracy. They take responsibility for their education. It may be less structured than many have an appetite for but, it also addresses several other items on my list of grievances.
Physical and Mental Health Issues
I had two other children in public school, coming home looking defeated but burdened with additional work for the evening. Even if I wanted to engage them in some form of exercise, there was little time.
In sixth grade (middle school is the worst!), my timid son had been pinned to the floor by an older student. The impression of his glasses onto his nose was still visible when I arrive an hour and a half later. No teacher had come to my son’s aid and no teacher had witnessed how the incident began. To defend himself, my son had taken a pencil and pricked the other boy’s arm with its point.
The boy pinning him down was suspended.
My son was suspended also.
What was my son expected to do while pinned to the ground with no one coming to help him? Not defend himself? Lay there immobilized and threatened until a teacher showed up?
The school’s response left my son feeling embarrassed, marred, belittled and completely unsure of what to do in the future if he was attacked or threatened. Would he be punished if he chose to defend himself? Should he instead leave himself open to further harm to avoid punishment?
That year I paid for counseling services for anxiety for three children. I probably could have used a few sessions myself. My son asked to be enrolled in Tae Kwon Do classes. I agreed to it and it did help him regain some confidence and get some physical exercise.
Even children who seem to excel (as measured by test scores and not by the physical and mental cost of those scores) in the mainstream curriculum face childhood obesity, bullying, mental health issues (especially anxiety), social development issues and a severe lack of physical activity.
In a pathetic attempt to address the lack of physical activity, the CDC implemented a SHAPE America policy in 2016 requiring a minimum of 20 minutes per day of recess during a six-hour (or more) school day. It’s not enough.
As an adult employee, I am entitled to a fifteen-minute break every four hours. It is not enough.
Unstructured Outdoor Play
A vital component of childhood development is unstructured outdoor play. And no, school recess (as currently conducted with adult-supervised play on commercially manufactured equipment designed and allocated for specific tasks) does not count.
Unstructured play provides natural play spaces allowing children to repurpose items and utilize their minds in different ways. Think about how a child might use a stick as a gun, a writing utensil to draw in the dirt or build a fort. No object in a natural play space has an assigned use. Imagination, creativity and cooperation are necessary, not optional in these environments.
The average American child spends just four to seven minutes a day in unstructured outdoor play. Although it has not been recognized by medical manuals, a growing body of scientific evidence supports the theory of Nature Deficit Disorder, describing the “human costs of alienation from nature as …diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, conditions of obesity, and higher rates of emotional and physical illnesses.”
Schools in Canada and the United Kingdom are celebrating the benefits reaped from initiatives in Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL). The use of the natural environment and “loose parts” promotes enhanced cognitive and social skills and improves physical and mental strength and resilience.
According to Michael Patte, Ph.D., a twenty-year veteran in education, Professor of Education and co-editor of the International Journal of Play, lists the benefits of unstructured outdoor play as:
● Providing opportunities for children to master elements of the world on their terms.
● Developing self-determination, self-esteem, and the ability to self-regulate — all vital elements of emotional development.
● Fostering social competence, respect for rules, self-discipline, aggression control, problem-solving skills, leadership development, conflict resolution, and playing by the rules.
● Stimulating the senses and allowing children to discover the different textures and elements in the world.
● Providing fertile ground to cultivate creativity and imagination.
● Enhancing cognitive understandings.
● Building strength, coordination and cardiovascular fitness and to moderate childhood obesity and its associated health complications.
● Viewing boredom as a vehicle for children to create happiness, enhance inventiveness, and develop self-reliance.
Increased unstructured outdoor play would grant extensive (and very inexpensive) strides forward in improving the physical and mental health issues we are faced with now. Such play and interaction would also promote other characteristics we want to see in our children; compassion, leadership, empathy, competence and cooperation.
I would add to Dr. Patte’s list that outdoor play and learning would build a greater connection to the natural world, experiencing the seasons firsthand and regularly, observing changes in the natural environment on a daily basis and sighting animals of their region.
Most children can’t name the five most common plants or flowers in their backyard.
Schools or students could initiate the establishment of gardens to foster an understanding of where their food comes from and why it matters how we grow the food we eat.
“You keep saying ‘outdoor play and learning.” How can children possibly learn just by playing?”
You may ask.
There are so many answers.
Learning through play extends to all ages, not just early childhood.
Just spending time outdoors can affect your perception of time.
Children have a natural affinity for learning and a curiosity towards life and the world. Teachers’ roles can evolve to engage in a new role as guides along life’s intricate journeys rather than taskmasters “teaching to the test.”
Our entire model is wrong.
We focus on standardized testing which does more to create problems in the education system than to provide any measure of what one might call success. We need to ditch standardized testing for a more flexible and inclusive model (like the learning stages I will describe further). It erects a wall between that natural curiosity and makes learning monotonous and boring. The classroom is an authoritarian environment in which good students “do as they are told.”
One study revealed that while children between the ages of fourteen months and five years ask an average of 107 questions per hour, elementary school students refrain from asking questions but two to five times in a two hour period. By middle school, students failed to ask any questions at all in a two hour period. We are killing our children’s curiosity.
What if we allowed a child’s curiosity to drive their education? What if we taught them what they were hungry to know?
Autonomy and Risk-Taking
When my youngest left public school to start at the Sudbury school, his classmates gave him a stapled together book. Each student wrote a note on each page. At least half were statements similar to this one:
“You are going to do so well at your new school. You are a good student because you always do as you are told.”
I felt confident I had made the right decision for my kids. I want them to be independent thinkers and discover new ideas, not “do as they are told.” I do not want them to equate success with submissiveness.
The money I had been spending on counseling and after school exercise endeavors could be applied to this new school where independent thinking was encouraged and part of their school day could include riding bikes and climbing trees, if they chose to do so.
Sounds risky? Good! A bit of risky behavior is an imperative learning tool. Over-protection tends to result in sedentary behavior, phobias and anxiety.
Our children need to experience autonomy and risk-taking to enhance critical thinking, confidence and self-esteem.
Age Mixing
As currently structured, our schools pack roughly thirty children of the same age into a classroom and expect them to learn the same material at generally the same pace.
What if we did not limit our children’s minds and social experiences based on their ages but instead on their capabilities, strengths and interests?
A mixed-age environment provides a more comprehensive learning experience, offering less of a sense of competition and more a sense of community. Children learn from each other and help one another, offering opportunities in leadership and a growth mindset. Some older children are naturally stronger and have a protective nature. Comradery among peers is an effective tool against bullying. My son could have used an older advocate in middle school.
Preparation for success in the real world should include interactions with people of all ages and walks of life. Some of the most impactful interactions of my life have been with persons outside of my age range. In my childhood, it was a friend’s older sister and brother, my grandmother or that middle-aged woman from church who took me under her wing. I, in turn, have often been a mentor to younger ones.
Learning Stages
While it is widely known that certain milestones are generally parallel with certain ages, we should also recognize that all minds are differentand learn at their own pace. Some are auditory learners, some are visual. Some are gifted in mathematics and others in language. If we provide each mind with room to expand, I think their minds will blow ours away.
I propose a learning stages system in which students can learn at their own pace. For instance, students could start at “Math Stage One,” learning to count, add and subtract. Paper models, manipulatives(which were absolutely instrumental in teaching my own children math), loose items, videos and songs would all be available to cover the topic, allowing teachers with strengths in teaching using a particular method to focus on their teaching strengths. Students reap the benefit of being exposed to various learning styles and methods, allowing them to discover which are most effective for them and request those methods as they progress forward.
Once any teacher has determined a student has mastered the objectives for, perhaps, “Math Stage One” and is ready to move on to “Math Stage Two,” they may do so, regardless of age or time spent on the previous learning stage.
A Typical School Day
To pull together the ideas I have mentioned so far, let’s take a quick look at what I envision a typical age-mixed (K-12) school day would look like.
One student could be engaged in learning:
Math Stage Two, Reading Stage Five, Science Stage Three, Social Studies Stage Six and an elective of choice (art, music, philosophy, jewelry making, woodworking or gardening, as a few examples).
Each learning stage includes 30–40 minutes of daily instructional time. Structured learning only accounts for just under half of an eight hour school day. When the weather is reasonable, classes can be held in sheltered outdoor areas. The other half is spent engaging in free play, conversation, exploration, and discovery in a natural, unstructured environment with “loose parts” for play rather than manufactured equipment. Schools already implementing the Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) system incorporate “clothing libraries” for children who either have forgotten or do not own climate-appropriate clothes so that outdoor play and learning continues, even through Canadian winters.
A typical school day may look something like this:
9–9:30 Arrival and Unstructured Outdoor Play
9:30–10:10 Structured Learning Stage Instruction
10:15–10:45 Structured Learning Stage Instruction
10:45- 12:30 Lunch and Unstructured Outdoor Play
12:30–1:00 Structured Learning Stage Instruction
1:00–1:30 Structured Learning Stage Instruction
1:30–3:00 Unstructured Outdoor Play
3:00–3:40 Structured Learning Stage Instruction
3:40–5:00 Unstructured Outdoor Play (or student organized and led activities such as sport or theater)
If a student completes all learning stages in one subject, they may use the time that would have been dedicated to that subject to engage in more electives (possibly advanced levels in the subject leading to college credit), become an assistant teacher in the subject or take leadership of an initiative they find purpose in (direct a play, establish a garden, teach an elective or write for a newspaper).
Alleviating “Summer Slump,” First Day of School Anxiety, Transportation, Sleep Deprivation and Extended Care Issues
With an age-mixing model and no delineation of “grade” throughout the K-12 school years, the teachers and students will form a community. No more adjusting to new teachers and classmates every year; students simply re-enter the community, possibly with a few new members and begin their learning stages once again. This model could incorporate year-round learning with a one or two week break every season rather than the entire summer off, eliminating the “summer slump” and engaging students throughout the year.
K-12 age-mixing allows all children to have the same start and end time for school, alleviating parents’ burdens when their children are in multiple schools with multiple start and end times. A later start time can alleviate the concerns for lack of sleep during high school years.
Longer School Day Benefits
The longer school day, with much play and interaction incorporated, is much more manageable for children and adults alike. Teachers become guides — rather than classroom managers — engaging in more meaningful interactions with students. Not all lessons can be outlined in a prescribed curriculum or planned for. Life offers us “teachable moments” if we allow life the time to do so. Our packed schedules currently don’t allow for teachable moments. Teachers would receive training in talking students through social conflicts, not by decreeing a punishment or solution, but by asking each student questions about why they feel they way they do, why they reacted the way they did and what risk their behavior may have caused to others.
Increased unstructured play and time spent outdoors affects cognitive functioning, emotional well-being, and other dimensions of mental health for students and teachers alike.
In a separate manifesto, I propose changes to the current workday model for the entire workforce, reducing the standard workweek to 30 hours (let’s be honest, would productivity really suffer all that much?). School would be extended to eight hours per day, five days per week. Parents would be able to fulfill a complete workday without the need for before or after school care. Parents can drop off and pick up their children at one time and one place, regardless of age.
Parents with flexible schedules could also have one day a week (or maybe half a day) to complete tasks without children in tow. C’mon parents! You know you NEED this!!
This might sound like a luxury, but the intent is to promote a safe and stress-free home for the well-being of the children. Working parents everywhere are hearing an angelic choir off in the distance as their eyes become misty just thinking about one glorious day every week to get $@!# done!
And yes, I do have a plan for teachers who are also parents to be afforded the same luxury: a rotational schedule.
Did I mention that increased unstructured outdoor play and decreased crowded indoor instruction will also reduce the spread of disease and viruses?
So who is with me? Can I be the next Secretary of Education?
