Why the 21st-century classroom is still a failure
a word from a 21st-century student.
*WARNING* — THIS STORY IS BASED ON TRUE EVENTS
7th period; 2:43pm
My eyes are growing heavy.
I feel my head starting to lull into a deep-
into a deep-
ZZZzzzzZZzzz… Huh? Oh sorry. *wipes drool*
*opens laptop*
This is me, the 21st-century student. I’m not very good at first impressions (as you can tell) but don’t get me wrong, I’m not lazy, careless, or stupid. Quite the opposite actually. I study hard, do my homework, get extra help, work for extra credit — the “formula for success” as my dad calls it. But no matter how hard I work and no matter how hard my peers work, the 21st-century classroom is still a failure.
Here’s why.
Back when the traditional classroom was designed, it was structured in a way that facilitated the booming Industrial Age. Students sat in rows, raised their hand and waited to be asked to speak, followed bells (and other organizational cues), weren't allowed to step out of line and wore a uniform. They designed what is known today as the “factory model school” — a structured facility “designed to create docile subjects and factory workers”.
This was not some ‘educational genocide’ that was put in to place to destroy the educational system. It was actually a practical step made by the government in order to support the demand of the Industrial Revolution. These schools produced generations of factory workers, already conformed to “factory life”.
But times have changed, and many schools have been very slow transitioning into the “brand new, revised 21-century classroom model” filled with creative spaces, dynamic seating plans, and active learning models. Much of what was found in the linear, “factory model school” is still reminiscent in today’s classrooms.
There is no doubt in my mind that the classroom should be a space that promotes active learning and collaboration but, for most (including me sometimes) all it does is promote sleep.
Countless studies in the past decades have arisen to support later start times for schools. Alpert Medical School took around two hundred boarding students and gave them a modest twenty-five-minute delay in school start times. Here were the results:
Daytime sleepiness, depressed mood, and caffeine use were all significantly reduced after the delay in school start time
The percentage of students receiving 8 or more hours of sleep on a school night increased to more than double, from 18% to 44%
Having 8 or more hours of sleep has proven benefits such as increased energy, mood, and cognitive abilities. A study in the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory suggests that sleeping for at least eight hours can help improve memory cognition. Jeanne F Duffy, an associate neuroscientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) says, “Sleep is important for learning new information”. In order for students to actually get something out of their day, they need to frequently meet this sleep requirement. Part of achieving this goal means reducing a key factor in the student sleep equation — homework. On average, high school students (taking five courses) are assigned 3.5 hours of homework per weeknight. That’s 17.5 hours a week.
Homework is a means for academic excellence. I am not here to deny that, having experienced the benefits of it first hand. But, you don’t have to remove homework completely for students to get more sleep. A new style of learning has arisen to “flip” the nature of classrooms as we know it — appropriately named the “flipped classroom” method. This structure involves students watching a lecture at home online (15–20 min) and classroom time is used to answer any questions from the lecture and to finish homework under the teacher’s guidance. Fifteen minutes per class, multiplied by five classes, equals an hour and fifteen minutes of homework versus the three and a half given today.
Personally, having experienced the “flipped classroom” method first hand in my last year’s Functions class, I began to feel less homework pressure from the course and was able to be more productive with class time; having the teacher there to assist and guide me. It allowed me to move at my own pace, something I struggled to do being heavily involved in extra-circulars. I didn't have to sacrifice my passions for sports, volunteering, and student government — all things that make me a well-rounded student — with the worry that I might miss a lesson in class. I also noticed one more thing. I started to enjoy math class. It turned from an hour of boring lecture to a time where I could collaborate and be inquisitive with others. With 7,000 students dropping out of high-school a day in the U.S., we need to make school more fun. School fun? I know, that’s a contradiction of terms.
Part of keeping school “fun” is keeping students engaged. I recognize that I am lucky; the cycle of making notes, memorizing them and reciting that information on tests works for me (most of the time). However, not everybody functions that same way I do. In 2014, my brother was diagnosed with ADHD after years of struggling within the school system. It just didn’t seem to click for him and it reflected in his marks. After his diagnosis, he started to get help from the school and things started to change.
I strongly stand behind the equity concept in school. Equity is giving everyone what they need to be successful and for him, our school had the recourses to accommodate his learning styles. But not everybody is that privileged.
In the United States, 6.4 million children ages 4–17 have ADHD and in the last six years the rate of diagnosis of ADHD has jumped 15% (according to the CDC). This increase comes without warrant, and part of it has to do with the fact children are spending less time outside and more time on their phones. But the damage is done. So now the school system needs to accommodate these students so that they have the right tools to succeed in a school environment not designed for them. Longer recess times (even in high school) or more frequent breaks, oral testing, and offer specialized support and guidance for these students. These small changes in their everyday routines can set them on the right path to success.
Obviously, all the points mentioned in this article cannot be implemented at once, as I do recognize the implications of such a feat. But if the schools, can pull certain aspects of it, they can slowly contribute to making the 21st-century classroom less of a failure and more of a success.
*closes laptop*
*proceeds to fall asleep*
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This article was originally posted on Mighty Words!
