essential schools

Reflections on the CES Fall Forum, held November 2009 in New Orleans

Ted Sizer had a vision — that schools would be a place for students to reflect, to interact, to question, and to create. Is that revolutionary? I wouldn’t think so, but when I read now about education in the popular media, I am particularly struck by the absence of words like that. This is why we need the Coalition of Essential Schools.

Maybe we have lost the connection between education as a national effort and education as a child’s daily experience. The national view seems far more concerned with obstacles and measurements, while the personal view is mainly occupied with the next fascinating possibility. I think this is what the Coalition is for: to remind us that each mote in the sea of statistics is the life of an individual whose goals are unique, pressing, and often misunderstood.

The Coalition of Essential Schools is asking not just how students should learn and teachers should teach, but how the whole environment can be organized to produce thoughtful inquiry and enjoyable interactions. “School culture… often shapes what people think and how they act.” These words are quoted from Stephen Stolp in the recent CES publication Small Schools, Big Ideas. One Coalition principle is to create “a tone of decency and trust,” presumably so that students will learn to value these qualities.

Where is “decency and trust” in the educational debate? How much are we willing to sacrifice them in the name of control?

Tags: books, reform, school culture