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Bruce Smith
Denver, CO
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Bruce commented on the article |
Thanks, Clay. As for getting from here to there, I hear ya loud and clear. All I can think is that sharing perspectives like these, in forums like this one, is the best place to start. Show (not simply tell) as many people as possible the contradictions and issues in the system, and person by person, we'll inch ever closer to a tipping point.
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Bruce commented on the article |
...especially if you remember that Change.org's system integrates punctuation following URLs into the address, thereby messing up the link. Let's try this again: http://www.ait.net/technos/tq_10/1greenberg.php .
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Bruce commented on the article |
Way, way back in 2001 (gasp! :), Daniel Greenberg wrote an article in Technos Quarterly on how Information Age technology was poised to become the Trojan Horse of education: http://www.ait.net/technos/tq_10/1greenberg.php. Definitely worth a read.
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Bruce commented on the article |Clay, that's fabulous! Thanks for sharing.
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Bruce commented on the article |I haven't heard of anything similar, Clay. However, even if there were schools experimenting with student-led mediation, let's say -- and even if this gave students more experience with conflict resolution -- I think two critical factors would be missing: holding students and teachers equally accountable, and operating under a rule of law (i.e., written rules democratically passed and enforced with due process).
In the traditional schools I knew, the "rules" were unwritten and arbitrary, with as many variations as there were teachers and principals (and their whims/feelings at a given moment). For that matter, how many teachers can, when their actions are criticized, count on a jury of their peers interpreting a set of rules they all helped create?
What I wonder is why these bedrock democratic principles are not practiced in so many schools -- and why we citizens put up with this. -
Bruce commented on the article |Thanks, Sue! I'm psyched to have Danny's article linked here. It's a great -- and concrete -- example of how Sudbury learning works.
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Bruce commented on the article |
I agree that working together shouldn't be considered cheating, and that discovery and making things are great ways to learn.
As for your questions...
I am suggesting that you teach them the essential software freedoms of the Free Software and Open Source movements, and the media freedoms of Creative Commons. How much of this are you doing?
The teaching that goes on at a Sudbury school is more spontaneous than this comment seems to suggest. That is, I could see it coming up in conversation if one of us knows about the movements you describe and finds them relevant; or a student might find out about them and ask someone to tell them more.
So to answer your question, I don't know how often and in what depth these things come up in various Sudbury schools. We trust in freedom, responsibility, and the random way in which people encounter and explore what's important.
My organization, Earth Treasury, has a plan for the systematic creation of Free Digital Learning materials on every subject, for every age, and in as many languages as we can manage. Would your teachers, students, parents, etc. be interested in gettin involved?
They may very well be. Have you considered contacting individual schools and asking? -
Bruce commented on the article |
the example of teens being more well-adjusted than 20 - 30 year olds. Really??
Yeah, really. I'm not saying teens who come to Sudbury schools from other environments are instantly and magically transformed. But given enough time in a Sudbury environment, most become self-aware and socially adept to a degree I it takes many of us many more years to attain. -
Bruce commented on the article |
Once again, the automatic link-builder added punctuation to my link and rendered it invalid. So here's a better version (I hope): http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2004/nov/20041121comm007.asp .
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Bruce commented on the article |
Jennifer, I really appreciate your comment. To some extent, this is an issue of space and development. Regarding the former, it's awfully hard to include a reasonably well-rounded argument *and* ample evidence in a blog post. And while I'm planning future posts that reverse the ratio of claims-to-support, I think it's useful to lay out the basic arguments first -- that's why my preliminary posts have leaned toward the editorial.
Your comment touches on a weightier issue, though: the nature of evidence for educational claims. It's been a challenge for me as a Sudbury educator speaking to broader audiences, given my skepticism regarding external, quantitative measurements of learning. I think we're fooling ourselves if we believe grades and test scores tell us much of significance about someone's capacity for real-life success. (A few years back I wrote an op-ed piece in which I touch on this point: http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2004/nov/20041121comm007.asp.)
What constitutes evidence of educational success involves so much more than crunching numbers. Understanding the desire to have claims substantiated, I find "data vs. anecdotes" a false dichotomy. It's all data, really, and I strongly believe that in this realm, stories carry more weight than numbers. That might have something to do with my background as a writer, but still, I prefer 'customer satisfaction' above things like test scores and graduation rates. Tell me that someone values their schooling, not how they performed on some assessment that may have nothing to do with their success in life itself.
In terms of the amount of evidence, how much constitutes statistical significance? Dozens of success stories? Hundreds or thousands? All I know is that, comparing my years of experience in conventional and Sudbury schools, the transformations -- the empowerment and maturation -- I've witnessed so heavily favors a Sudbury setting as to nearly defy belief. And I know I'm far from alone in this observation.
I hope you and others will stick around for future posts, to give me and others the chance to describe more concretely these benefits I've been preaching.
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