Sometimes I think the most important learning space a teacher can create is the one that comes first, in the teacher's mind, when s/he first allows for the possibility of what could happen when the children are given real responsibility. This occurred of necessity in Rosenwald schools, because the children played important roles in the actual running of the school. Boys brought in firewood and kept the stove going. Girls raked the yard and polished the floor. The older children were expected to help the younger children with their lessons, many of which involved recitations. So here we see an interesting juxtaposition of rote learning and the creative initiative the older students had to take to make sure their younger charges were on track.
Now our academic expectations are more complex and conceptual, but on the other hand I think our respect for the children's ability to make meaningful contributions has diminished. It is as if we are always saying, tomorrow there will be time for that. Next year will be the time when they are ready to practice adult roles and make real contributions. Yet, when next year comes, there is always some other reason to delay responsibility. For example: We just adopted the Common Core standards, and the teachers themselves have to get used to planning with the new objectives, so how could the students possibly help? It wouldn't be practical to have students help clean the school, and anyway parents would get angry. Grade levels are segregated, so older students don't intersect that often with younger students except for the occasional "Reading Buddy" program.
So the signs and practice of maturity are continually put off, until we arrive at the situation we have today, in which the majority of Americans polled believe that one is not an adult until at least age 25. To be fair to schools, our elongating concept of maturity must be mostly influenced by our life spans, which have increased by decades. But the situation of prolonged adolescence amazes many of my elderly friends, who in their teens were doing such things as working full-time and getting married and having children. (Not in a reality show, "Teen Mom" style, but actually establishing stable households of their own.)
Certainly I am not advocating that we all return to teen parenthood, but I do think that schools create more learning when students have real responsibility. This begins with a simple conviction on the part of teachers and administration that students are capable of making real contributions. Within the classroom, it means the students pitch in. Many times they will do so spontaneously, if we allow them. Sometimes I don't even know how a student might help until s/he has actually jumped out his/her seat, come over to where someone is struggling (for example, I might be having trouble with the LCD projector, or another student might have lost his/her place in the story) and fixed the situation. That is why I am slow to reprimand the children. Is he out of his seat so he can go bother someone else? Or is he out of his seat to help? I wait until I can see their intentions.
In order to have the potential benefit of children taking initiative, you have to be open to children making decisions, which inevitably will sometimes lead to chaos. However, I have found that the more trust I have in them, and the more I allow them to practice making small decisions, the better things go in the long run.
An example on a larger level: One year, there was an issue with students getting too boisterous at assemblies, to the point where the administrators suspended whole school (800+ students) assemblies. However, in the spring the student government wanted to have a pep rally in preparation for EOGs (End of Grade tests), and they wanted to include all the grade levels at once. The student government made a plan, persuaded the administration, and pulled it off. All of the students were well behaved; in fact, teachers remarked that they were almost subdued! To me, the fact that this assembly was planned by students and went better than the others was no coincidence.
Curriculum goals may differ from state to state or from school to school, but everyone gives lip service to the idea of having children grow as problem solvers. Yet many school environments undercut their decision-making in the name of discipline or of covering material. To me, however, the question is simple: If we don't allow them to make decisions now, then when? If we don't even trust them to help choose a lesson activity or decorate a classroom, how will they grow into adults who can vote and solve problems on a job?
In several Rosenwald Schools, there was only one teacher. The teacher taught the oldest students to peer teach others in their group that had a more difficult time understanding. There was a lot of group work and relying on used text books from the white school. No independent creative teaching from the teacher. You were correct in handling work chores and responsibilites.
ReplyDeleteI am in full agreement with your desire to give students more responsibility in the classroom. I think it begins with allowing them to be responsible for their own behavior and to use methods that encourage students to reflect on their own behavior and thus take responsibility for being good citizens without having to bribe them to do so. I spent so much money on positive behavior support rewards my first year of teaching I was concerned about how I would keep it up year after year. I have found most students will choose to do the right thing when given the opportunity to be in control of their own behavior and reflect upon how it affects them, their peers, their school and ultimately society as a whole. The Roswell schools were such a good example of students taking responsibility for not only their own learning but the learning of others. I applaud their commitment to better themselves and others. We can and have learned a lot from their experience. Thanks for bringing this to light.
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