The School We'd Like
What would the
kids say if we asked them what kind of school they'd like? That's
what England's Guardian newspaper did in June when they reprised a
public competition first conducted in 1967, in which kids across England
wrote essays about "The school that I'd like" (edited by
Edward Blishen, Penguin Education Special, England, 1969). One 15-year
old girl summed up school at that time as "institutions of today
run on the principles of yesterday". Has anything changed?
In the summer
of 2000, the Guardian conducted a six-month
competition, now extracted in a new book by Catherine
Burke and Ian Grosvenor,"The
School I'd Like: Children and Young People's Reflections on an Education
for the 21st Century". Here's what the kids in England
wrote:
The
school we'd like is:
- A beautiful
school with glass dome roofs to let in the light, uncluttered
classrooms and brightly coloured walls.
- A safe
school with swipe cards for the school gate, anti-bully alarms,
first aid classes, and someone to talk to about our problems.
- A listening
school with children on the governing body, class representatives
and the chance to vote for the teachers.
- A flexible
school without rigid timetables or exams, without compulsory
homework, without a one-size-fits-all curriculum, so we can follow
our own interests and spend more time on what we enjoy.
- A relevant
school where we learn through experience, experiments and
exploration, with trips to historic sites and teachers who have
practical experience of what they teach.
- A respectful
school where we are not treated as empty vessels to be filled
with information, where teachers treat us as individuals, where
children and adults can talk freely to each other, and our opinion
matters.
- A school
without walls so we can go outside to learn, with animals
to look after and wild gardens to explore.
- A school
for everybody with boys and girls from all backgrounds and
abilities, with no grading, so we don't compete against each other,
but just do our best.
The English
kids are not alone in their thinking. The International
Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) also asked the kids
at a special Student Technology Leadership Symposium, June 23-24,
2001, held in conjunction with NECC. As reported by student Pooja
Agarwal in "If I Could Make a School" (Learning and Leading
with Technology, November 2001), the U.S. student leaders want schools
that :
- Are Fun
- End lecturing
from a textbook
- Institute
problem-based, discovery-based, and inquiry-based curricula
- Implement
"real life" situations and hands-on learning
- Shape the
curriculum with student internship experiences
- Build relationships
and "animated mutual learning" between adults and students
- Provide an
"inviting" physical environment
- Provide the
technology tools for students and teachers to do their work.
2011 update:
The Guardian
recently launched a 2011
School I'd Like campaign: "In 2001 we launched a competition
asking children to dream up their perfect school. In 2011, we are
once again asking pupils for their views, which we will compile
into a Children's Manifesto", writes the Guardian." The
2011 campaign is a consultation seeking student input instead of
a competition.
|
