SOMETIMES it is important to put aside the research journals, political commentaries, and popular news about the state of education and stop long enough to listen to the voice of a 9-year-old. This past year, my daughter began writing letters to me about her fourth-grade classroom experiences. As a teacher educator who is caught up in educational research, theory, and current issues, I appreciated being granted access to this unique perspective, which, unfortunately, is not often considered in my work. In this age of accountability, standards, and policies handed down from administrators and politicians, perhaps the honesty of a child is our best lens for examining what is really going on in schools. As I began sharing these letters with college students preparing to become teachers, they were struck by the candidness of a fourth-grader's words about what matters most. Although these letters come from only one child's school experiences, the concepts they highlight are not new and have been researched substantially for many years. Yet, in this stressful time of increased demands from standards and testing, what once were considered the best teaching strategies often end up being summarily brushed aside. Lina's letters give us an opportunity to revisit our thinking about what makes a successful learning environment. Before I share a fourth-grader's top picks for the elements of a good school, it might be helpful to give a quick summary of Lina's schooling experiences. Lina began by attending a traditional public school in a north-west Indiana suburban district that boasted of high test scores and strict discipline. She performed well academically, since she carefully completed all her work and was above average in almost all areas. She was quiet in the classroom and complied with instructions. As Lina began moving through the primary grades, however, I noticed that school was starting to wear her down. There were many times when the workload was too much and frustrations mounted. Lina wasn't particularly speedy in recalling her math facts and began receiving poor grades on her daily timed math-facts tests. For the first time, she found herself not enjoying school and began making statements about how she wasn't good in math and not very smart. A variety of circumstances provided an opportunity for Lina to attend a charter school. This is when she began writing letters, primarily comparing and contrasting her experiences of these two different school environments. After receiving two unsolicited letters regarding Lina's classroom experiences, I gave her a single prompt: Write to me about what happened in school today. In the excerpts from her letters that follow, I have taken care to quote her writing directly, so as to capture the exact nature of the content, ignoring problems with grammar. I have corrected some spelling to help with readability. Building a Community One of the first letters I received from Lina indicated that she had experienced a huge shift in philosophy when she transferred into her new school. It appeared that one of the school's priorities during the first weeks of classes was to establish a sense of community among all learners. School is so GREAT! At the beginning of the day the 4th-7th grade classes combine until nine o'clock. We play games to get to know each other better. Recesses and lunches were also times when students of different grade levels could interact with one another. This arrangement seemed to promote an environment that was inclusive and helped the students build relationships with schoolmates of different ages. Lina was able to make several friends outside her class and grade level. The school also had a Lunch Buddy program, which assigned a younger student to an older one. Lina described this opportunity positively in her letters as well. Many of the activities the school used came from the Tribes Learning Communities philosophy. …
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Apr 1, 2014
Lisa D Travis 
Open Access