Stop the Insanity!

Abstract

Who says always has to be drudgery? Sarah Butzin, the founder of the Institute for School Innovation, proposes learning as a way to give children time to play and develop, even as they pursue high standards. WHAT HAS happened to common sense in this era of No Child Left Behind? What makes anyone believe that talking louder makes a deaf man hear? Albert Einstein reputedly defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Yet that is what I see happening in elementary schools today. In response to high-stakes testing and higher standards for even the most challenging students, schools have responded by talking louder. They haven't changed the way they teach. Instead, they push more papers in front of the kids, keep them off the playground, and take away music and art. Here in Florida, they make kids repeat third grade if they can't keep up (an estimated 43,000 failed in 2003) and send them to summer reading camps to cram in a little more knowledge. Everything we know about human nature and child development should tell us to pause. Children need time to play and time to develop at a natural pace. Every parent knows that not all infants learn to walk by age 1 and talk by age 2. Neither do all first-graders learn to read at the stroke of midnight on their sixth birthday. Young children need security and encouragement, not pressure and humiliation if they can't keep up. Yet at the same time, there is a legitimate need for rigorous academic standards, high expectations, and reliable assessments to gauge each child's progress so that he or she is not left behind. The stakes are indeed high. Children of the 21st century absolutely need much higher literacy and mathematical skills than their grandparents. The world has been transformed through technology and global competition. So how do you lay a foundation for solid academic skills without killing childhood? One thing is certain. One teacher working solo with a classroom of 20 to 30 children cannot do it in one year -- actually 180 school days. And when you subtract all the non-instructional school time, including getting to know the children and playing catch-up from the previous grade, that 180 days really translates to about 100 days. In essence, one teacher has a little over three months to teach to high standards in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. What's the solution? Add more days to the school year? Reduce class size? Buy more computers and newer textbooks? Pay for after-school tutors and summer reading camps? Nope, those ideas have all been tried, and they don't work. Plus, they are very expensive remedies. There is another option, which I call learning. It takes a team approach to instruction and gives teachers the time and techniques to meet higher standards without stifling young children's natural desire to play and explore. Children can work at their own pace in diversified classrooms, using a variety of modes that best meet their individual styles. They can be challenged without being coerced. And there are benefits for teachers as well. They become less isolated and stop taking the blame for the failure of the system. It's not their fault. Teachers are being asked to do the impossible -- meet higher standards using the old grade school system in which one teacher is expected to do it all and pass the kids along through first grade, second grade, third grade, and so on. By the time children reach fifth grade, it's not surprising that large numbers of them have fallen by the wayside, especially if they lack a support system at home. For the past 15 years, I've been working on developing a triangulated system that incorporates best practices from the past along with newer innovations such as computers and the Internet. It's really a system of retro-techno teaching. …