It lacks arguments and hence there is the club (administrative disconnect and overreach), the prison (strict conformance to intellectual product expectations and standardization), the concentration camp (age-based leveling), and insane asylums (complete absence of time devoted to peace and quiet) with forced confinement (inflexible bell schedules).
Lest we forget, it's not getting better.
The answer:
- Teachers should cultivate a culture that allows them to develop human, not just academic, relationships with kids. Nothing is more important; not grading, not curriculum, not planning.
- Teachers should invite government leaders, school board members, school district administrators, even parents, to spend regular, purposeful time in their classrooms, beyond routine, truly observing and participating in its culture.
- Students MUST be given choices in the direction their education takes. They are the highest stakeholders, yet have the least say in its direction.
- Too often public education makes and connects expectations of ability based on physical maturity. This isn't little league. See Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers.
- The "woo-woo" connotations of mindfulness are unfortunate. For millennia, poets, philosophers, artists, and entrepreneurs have point to the importance of silence and stillness and its role in physical, mental, and spiritual life. Timed allowed for this pays off exponentially in school. So much time is wasted by doing something instead of the time well-spent in just sitting there.
- Schools should adopt of a workshop model. Studies have shown this to have positive outcomes in student engagement, depth of understanding, and independence.
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