I have been thinking a lot about the public school system in Ohio and in the United States in general. I am currently putting together a tutor poster for the America Reads program. This poster will be hung in the hallway of Prospect Elementary School so that the students, teachers, staff, and parents can see and read about the America Reads tutors who come into the school to tutor. As I was writing down the tutors' information in a Word document, I asked myself what I thought the kids would think of when they read "major?" Would this get them excited as they thought about what field or fields they wanted to be experts in when they got older? Would it be inspiring? And then I asked myself, "What kind of learning do kids get excited about either at that moment or for their future?" And then the question flipped to me: what fields of learning was I excited about?
I want to pose a question that I have been asked during an America Reads workshop in previous years: What is your ideal school? This includes structure, who runs it, how long is it, who attends, what are the values or mission of the school?
This question ties into Patience's post from two weeks ago as well...thinking about what we focus on in school and how to incorporate other important aspects of learning.
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My ideal school would less structured than most schools are today. They are so structured that they prevent students from expressing their true potential. Most schools don't encourage students to be creative, so their talents remain hidden and instead they end up doing things which they are not as productive or efficient in. In my ideal school there would be extra time set aside in which students would be allowed to create projects of their own choosing. The values of my ideal school would be to develop students natural talent and encourage them to succeed in what they enjoy doing.
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