A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR REMAKING OUR SCHOOLS FOR THE 21st Century
The Digital Revolution and the Remaking of Our Schools
A craving for connectivity among today’s population and especially among the youth is demonstrated throughout the social networks, through texting, tweeting and the internet. This fact is undeniable and understandable in this troubled world. There is very limited dialogue in the social networks about substantive matters outside of oneself, sincere but frequently trivial. In-depth discussion of a wider reality beyond oneself is demonstrably missing among a growing percentage of our children and young adults, even among many older adults.
The digital revolution has its disturbing after-effects. Illustrating the problem for education, nothing could be more graphic than witnessing a teacher up at the “smart-board” trying to teach some aspect of a subject while the students are “texting” their roommates, “emailing” their mothers, checking out some facts on the internet, and taking notes on their “IPad.” Multi-tasking is surely something more easily accomplished by the youth of today, raised on video games and “sesame-type” simulations of life.
In addition there is the problem of a pre-occupation with virtual reality. The need for escaping reality and engaging a virtual reality is a symptom of a much larger problem. Since our daily experiences with a wider view of important matters of the real world are so confusing and overwhelming, often disconnected from personal lives, it is understandable that many important matters are left out of routine connections. While multi-tasking is more commonplace today, its effects may well be distractions covering for the mundane and superficially engaged bits of disconnected information presented in the typical classroom.
Our educational systems must assume a major responsibility for the apparent need for their clients to escape reality and become engaged in distracting behavior. The school curriculum is composed of departmentalized, disconnected courses, out of sync with a meaningful existence in the life of each individual. As a result, very little excites or motivates independent investigation and learning for its own reward. Meanwhile, anyone who has learned/mastered some skill or body of knowledge knows it takes time and concentration to achieve mastery. Distractions during this process are not much appreciated.
The excitement of discovery can be restored through investigation into the elements of reality that we each face on a daily basis, if we approach learning and instruction by defining reality in terms of systems. An in-depth study of the local environmental system is an example that facilitates the organization of facts of the real world and allows meaningful transfer of important organizational principles and patterns adaptable to environments wherever and whenever they exist or existed.
Our schools are organized around teaching and telling about isolated bits of information, and studying pre-canned subjects often dealing with matters of little perceived relevance to the learner. Escaping into virtual reality makes sense in this context.
Most public schools disallow social media in the classroom and since college instruction is often remote from the students, this level of education, unlike the elementary and secondary schools, is having to accept what the students bring with them to class, even when it is obviously viewed as a distraction. Finding a way to effectively utilize the extraordinary capabilities of digital technologies in the processes of learning is a formidable challenge.
Systemic change is what is called for and its first step involves the installation of more effective and authentic assessment measures and validated evaluation criteria. This treatise introduces a possible approach for wide review.
Alfred North Whitehead explained many years ago, what is needed is an eye for the whole chessboard, for the bearing of one set of ideas on another. This is not happening in our schools. Instead there is a process in place for students to take isolated bits of information into the mind without modifying or putting them into fresh combinations. As Whitehead warned us, this process is not only useless, it is harmful.
The legitimate “Core Curriculum” for our schools is “Life in all its Manifestations” (Whitehead), to be understood as an integrated whole, not a bunch of isolated “facts” to be memorized and retained long enough to be recalled to answer correctly, questions on standardized tests.
Life occurs in the real world. Life has a past, a present and a future. The past has already occurred, for better or worse. Whatever happened is whatever happened. We can learn from our past, but life occurs in the present. The future is speculation; its predictability in each of our lives is quite limited.
Those whose lives are governed by perceptions of the past or the future are considered out of touch with reality, existing in varying degrees of insanity. When life is given meaning from a focus on the past or the future, the present, where life is occurring, is either neglected or re-defined.
We have all witnessed the behavior of those who are stuck in the past, with a willingness to ignore the changing reality of the present. A noted psychiatrist, Lawrence Kubie, MD, described this behavior as neurotic or rigid in its orientation. This orientation to life, according to Kubie, leads to “neurotic distortions of the creative process” (The title of his book on the subject). These neurotic distortions are imposed on the present; they define or re-define the present to comply with the rigid interpretations that are often not credible in the present reality. The distortion of the creative process prevents a dynamic relationship with the changing world in which we live. Creativity is required to achieve an adaptation with our changing world, necessary for survival.
The same rigid orientations are found with those who govern life’s decisions on an absolute interpretation of the imagined future. In either case, the responses in the present are diminished, if not prevented from happening.
These orientations toward the past or the future at the expense of the present can be adopted by individuals either voluntarily or involuntarily. In today’s world of greed, the likelihood of a voluntary choice is most likely.
A perfect example of the results of rigid interpretations that deny credible evidences regarding effective processes of education can be found in the efforts to impose a standardized core curriculum across our country. Standardizing the core information to be tested will make standardized test questions easier to construct. It will fulfill a negative interpretation of teachers and teaching that determines their value on the basis of student’s answers on these standardized tests. All this will fulfill a falsely claimed result, improved education.
How can thousands of adults, congressman, senators, governors, presidents, school superintendents, chancellors, commissioners, assistant commissioners, the Secretary of Education and members of the public who support the standardization movement be so wrong? It can be easily explained. If they begin their deliberations from a set of invalid assumptions, their conclusions will be wrong.
For instance, everyone knows there are no two people alike in this world, not their genetics, not their experiences nor what they have done with their experiences. Yet, all these people are willing to discard this truth that is understood in the present and impose on the innocent public, on parents and their children, their rigid interpretations that support standardization. This is a prescription for exacerbating an already steady deterioration in the ability to solve problems within our society. The result is a loss of interest in the vital pursuit of adaptations that give each of us hope for survival in a troubled country and world.
This is the world in which we live in the present; it has a past that we can learn from and a future that appears more ominous every day:
The Digital Revolution and the Remaking of Our Schools
A craving for connectivity among today’s population and especially among the youth is demonstrated throughout the social networks, through texting, tweeting and the internet. This fact is undeniable and understandable in this troubled world. There is very limited dialogue in the social networks about substantive matters outside of oneself, sincere but frequently trivial. In-depth discussion of a wider reality beyond oneself is demonstrably missing among a growing percentage of our children and young adults, even among many older adults.
The digital revolution has its disturbing after-effects. Illustrating the problem for education, nothing could be more graphic than witnessing a teacher up at the “smart-board” trying to teach some aspect of a subject while the students are “texting” their roommates, “emailing” their mothers, checking out some facts on the internet, and taking notes on their “IPad.” Multi-tasking is surely something more easily accomplished by the youth of today, raised on video games and “sesame-type” simulations of life.
In addition there is the problem of a pre-occupation with virtual reality. The need for escaping reality and engaging a virtual reality is a symptom of a much larger problem. Since our daily experiences with a wider view of important matters of the real world are so confusing and overwhelming, often disconnected from personal lives, it is understandable that many important matters are left out of routine connections. While multi-tasking is more commonplace today, its effects may well be distractions covering for the mundane and superficially engaged bits of disconnected information presented in the typical classroom.
Our educational systems must assume a major responsibility for the apparent need for their clients to escape reality and become engaged in distracting behavior. The school curriculum is composed of departmentalized, disconnected courses, out of sync with a meaningful existence in the life of each individual. As a result, very little excites or motivates independent investigation and learning for its own reward. Meanwhile, anyone who has learned/mastered some skill or body of knowledge knows it takes time and concentration to achieve mastery. Distractions during this process are not much appreciated.
The excitement of discovery can be restored through investigation into the elements of reality that we each face on a daily basis, if we approach learning and instruction by defining reality in terms of systems. An in-depth study of the local environmental system is an example that facilitates the organization of facts of the real world and allows meaningful transfer of important organizational principles and patterns adaptable to environments wherever and whenever they exist or existed.
Our schools are organized around teaching and telling about isolated bits of information, and studying pre-canned subjects often dealing with matters of little perceived relevance to the learner. Escaping into virtual reality makes sense in this context.
Most public schools disallow social media in the classroom and since college instruction is often remote from the students, this level of education, unlike the elementary and secondary schools, is having to accept what the students bring with them to class, even when it is obviously viewed as a distraction. Finding a way to effectively utilize the extraordinary capabilities of digital technologies in the processes of learning is a formidable challenge.
Systemic change is what is called for and its first step involves the installation of more effective and authentic assessment measures and validated evaluation criteria. This treatise introduces a possible approach for wide review.
Alfred North Whitehead explained many years ago, what is needed is an eye for the whole chessboard, for the bearing of one set of ideas on another. This is not happening in our schools. Instead there is a process in place for students to take isolated bits of information into the mind without modifying or putting them into fresh combinations. As Whitehead warned us, this process is not only useless, it is harmful.
The legitimate “Core Curriculum” for our schools is “Life in all its Manifestations” (Whitehead), to be understood as an integrated whole, not a bunch of isolated “facts” to be memorized and retained long enough to be recalled to answer correctly, questions on standardized tests.
Life occurs in the real world. Life has a past, a present and a future. The past has already occurred, for better or worse. Whatever happened is whatever happened. We can learn from our past, but life occurs in the present. The future is speculation; its predictability in each of our lives is quite limited.
Those whose lives are governed by perceptions of the past or the future are considered out of touch with reality, existing in varying degrees of insanity. When life is given meaning from a focus on the past or the future, the present, where life is occurring, is either neglected or re-defined.
We have all witnessed the behavior of those who are stuck in the past, with a willingness to ignore the changing reality of the present. A noted psychiatrist, Lawrence Kubie, MD, described this behavior as neurotic or rigid in its orientation. This orientation to life, according to Kubie, leads to “neurotic distortions of the creative process” (The title of his book on the subject). These neurotic distortions are imposed on the present; they define or re-define the present to comply with the rigid interpretations that are often not credible in the present reality. The distortion of the creative process prevents a dynamic relationship with the changing world in which we live. Creativity is required to achieve an adaptation with our changing world, necessary for survival.
The same rigid orientations are found with those who govern life’s decisions on an absolute interpretation of the imagined future. In either case, the responses in the present are diminished, if not prevented from happening.
These orientations toward the past or the future at the expense of the present can be adopted by individuals either voluntarily or involuntarily. In today’s world of greed, the likelihood of a voluntary choice is most likely.
A perfect example of the results of rigid interpretations that deny credible evidences regarding effective processes of education can be found in the efforts to impose a standardized core curriculum across our country. Standardizing the core information to be tested will make standardized test questions easier to construct. It will fulfill a negative interpretation of teachers and teaching that determines their value on the basis of student’s answers on these standardized tests. All this will fulfill a falsely claimed result, improved education.
How can thousands of adults, congressman, senators, governors, presidents, school superintendents, chancellors, commissioners, assistant commissioners, the Secretary of Education and members of the public who support the standardization movement be so wrong? It can be easily explained. If they begin their deliberations from a set of invalid assumptions, their conclusions will be wrong.
For instance, everyone knows there are no two people alike in this world, not their genetics, not their experiences nor what they have done with their experiences. Yet, all these people are willing to discard this truth that is understood in the present and impose on the innocent public, on parents and their children, their rigid interpretations that support standardization. This is a prescription for exacerbating an already steady deterioration in the ability to solve problems within our society. The result is a loss of interest in the vital pursuit of adaptations that give each of us hope for survival in a troubled country and world.
This is the world in which we live in the present; it has a past that we can learn from and a future that appears more ominous every day:
The excitement of discovery through investigation into the elements of reality that we each face on a daily basis can be restored if we approach learning and instruction by defining reality in terms of systems.
To develop a comprehensive system, investigations must be initially experienced in early childhood, and continued throughout life, eventually reaching a high level of mastery as a result of accumulated experiences over the years. Constructing this system must begin with a focus on the local environment which offers easy access to direct experiences and an opportunity to personally verify one’s interpretations of those experiences. This local system includes the natural/physical characteristics, and the social, economic and political activities, a focus on “Life in all its manifestations.”
The number of variables within this system defines the contents of a curriculum of life in all its manifestations. These variables may change as investigations proceed and new classifications are developed. The same criteria for judging excellence are applied beginning with learners of the early stage of development - pre-operations - and continued throughout the later stages of development and learning.
The “Constructive Assessment, Recordkeeping and Evaluation System” can be employed from the earliest possible times in the life of each learner, continued at least throughout the period of formal education, and for adults attempting to create productive lives.
Mastery of the variables (parts) of the system and the integration of those parts into a holistic framework is constructed starting from the earth’s sub-structure and moving upward to the outer-reaches of space. These variables of reality are identified, individually constructed and filed in computerized folders arranged to provide storage of the accounts of experiences with each variable and the reactions to those experiences. The end product is the fulfillment of the goal to differentiate the meaningful distinctions of each variable and construction of an integration of these parts of the system to form a whole conceptual framework for understanding reality.
The range of experiences and reactions to those experiences at earlier developmental stages necessarily would be entered into the learner’s record with the assistance of adults. As this record is kept, learners will gradually develop the capabilities for logical analysis and personal records management. The record is further enriched when learners are capable of constructing more elaborate, abstract and hypothetical propositions.
The skills required for investigation, organization and communication from each learner’s engagement with reality must be developed in context as investigations are occurring. These skills embrace all language forms including mathematics and digital/computer languages.
The following outline of variables identified as parts of this environmental system define the general education curriculum for the school.
File : Natural/physical features
#1. Rocks and minerals (Each variable is recorded in computer folders)
#2. Relief features
#3. Soils
#4. Drainage patterns
#5. Vegetation
#6. Animals/biological creatures
#7. Weather
#8. Climate
#9. Location and man made objects and alterations
#10. Other
File: Social/Cultural activities
#1. Social networks/communications methodology/language
# 2.Customs and manners
#3. Arts/architecture, literature - fiction and non-fiction
#4. Recreation
#5. Education
#6. Religion
#7. Family structures/heritage
#8. Other
File: Economic activities
#1. Money/checking/credit cards
#2. Banks, banking and accounting
#3. Employment/management/employees, Unions
#4. Agriculture and industry
#5. Business/corporations /Insurance
#6. Profit/loss
#7. Investment/dividends
#8. Savings/interest
#9. Federal Reserve/currency
#10.Credit/mortgages/contracts
#11. Stocks/bonds
#12. Other
File: Political activities
#1. Boundaries/local/state/national
#2. Laws, courts/local/state/national
#3. Constitution/state/federal
#4. Government/local/state/national
#5. Political parties/voting
#6. Other
A listing of similar folders/files can be identified pertaining to other locations and time periods. Important sub-systems, such as the human organism, the field of mathematics, specific areas of study such as chemistry and physics, along with all other sub-systems are pursued in the context of developing a detailed view of the entire environmental system.
In general, there are six steps in the process of constructing a validated system. (1) Defining/re-defining a listing of parts of the system to be mastered. (2) Accumulating experiences and translating/conceptualizing the parts and inserting experiential evidence into a computerized record (a folder). (3) Model building by organizing and re-organizing the findings stored in the record. (4) Synthesis and critical/creative evaluation formulated into communications of the levels of achieved mastery. (5) Verification through comparing and contrasting one’s findings with others. (6) Identification of a new system that grows out of the prior constructions.
A completed record contains computer files/folders representing each variable/parts of the system to be mastered. “Mastery is defined as the ability to: (a) differentiate/conceptualize the parts of a system, (b) create an integration or synthesis of the parts, (c) illustrate the synthesis by constructing models – iconic, which resemble the objects, events and processes they represent, symbolic, which do not resemble the content but are stated in symbolic language forms including those of mathematics, or analogies that are either iconic or symbolic using familiar ideas to better understand that which is not readily observable, (d) anticipate the consequences of change within the newly constructed system, (e) freely compare and contrast the system with formulations created by others, and (f) modify and utilize the system to interpret and solve problems.
The following criteria are applied to the emerging, individualized recordings of learners with developmental capabilities at or above concrete/logical operations (Piaget). These same criteria are applied by adults when facilitating the construction of records specifically for the early learners, but are also applied throughout the encounters with other learners.
Evaluative Criteria:
#1. Organization: The record and all of its sub-parts must be logically arranged with a brief explanation of the basis for the particular organization, with definitions for each folder or classification.
#2. Clarity: Written statements and visual representations (example – charts, graphs, models, etc.) must be error-free with regard to formal language usage – spelling, grammar, sentence structure, etc.
#3. Comprehensiveness: Inclusion of materials must be representative of the total possible items that fall within the scope of each system.
#4. Accuracy or Plausibility: Explanations, whether they come from each learner or from authors on the internet, must be verified as accurate, or at the very least, plausible as determined through logical analysis.
#5. Support from Personal Experience: All explanations and statements of beliefs must be supported by and/or derived from personal experience.
#6. Support from Others’ Experiences: Support for personal beliefs wherever possible ideally includes support by others, especially those of experts drawn from literature.
#7. Intra-File Consistency: Each file must contain ideas, propositions, etc. that are found to be internally consistent (non-contradictory). Any possible inconsistencies must be identified and adjustments sought.
#8. Inter-File Consistency: Materials contained in each folder/files should not be conflicting with the contents of other folders/files without identifying these possible conflicts that inhibit integration.
#9. Generativity: Hypotheses untested, ideas in process, and creative solutions must be identified.
Expected Outcomes:
(1) This system will utilize the unique, cumulative learning opportunities of every individual, inside and outside of school.
(2) Continuity in learning will occur; one episode building upon another.
(3) A system’s orientation will reduce complexities to manageable elements, enabling individuals to make sense out of and control over a booming, buzzing world and universe.
(4) Integration and construction of meaningful relationships between sets of ideas and subject matter.
(5) Personally developed and validated frameworks for understanding elements of the universe in which we live.
(6) A continuous search for meaning in life’s experiences that personalizes any formal schooling experiences.
(7) The process of gaining self-direction and personal-competency, with open sharing of ideas and validation through comparisons with the lives of others, will lead to far more productive citizens, more productive human communication and yes indeed, more sensible and productive governing processes.
How Can Change Be Accomplished?
There are three essential elements in the process of reform that will lead to the development of a vastly improved system of education at all levels of engagement. These elements, considered together, will lead to systemic changes - a comprehensive rather than a piecemeal approach. But, unless the hierarchical organization is changed this process will not happen.
If it were not for systems theory, we would never have landed on the moon or have a space station, computers and digital technologies would not have emerged, portable communications devices would be still on the drawing board and so on and on. Systems concepts applied to educational processes and structures portend the same kind of breakthroughs we have witnessed in this age of the digital/electronics revolution.
The first element of change can be affected immediately without huge expenditures and without extensive teacher training. This involves system’s oriented assessment, recordkeeping, evaluation and reporting procedures. This change can be underway with just a commitment to engage its system; a system guided by a validated set of assumptions and beliefs about how humans learn and develop alone and in groups and institutions. This change will set in motion a process that will build, with each generation of learners, a readiness to accept the broader premises of an effective, sustainable educational system for the 21st century and beyond.
The CARES model (the Constructive, Assessment, Recordkeeping and Evaluation System) will provide the beginning structure for this change.
Changing the assessment and evaluation system in our public schools will ultimately change the educational structures, materials and procedures, designed to result in a dramatic increase in personal competency and improved mental health within our society. Each learner will need continuous access to a personally assigned computer software and storage capacity to accommodate entries that contain the descriptions of personal experiences and the analysis of those experiences from a systems point of view. Utilization of the CARES model will reveal to others, as I have discovered, a shifting of intellectual power from the few, to each and every learner, the likes of which few have ever seen before. This shift will replace the standardization mentality of today’s ill-conceived and narrowly defined efforts to reform education that dominate the learning activities offered by the school.
The second element in the process of change to a more effective system of education involves the identification and organization of information to be made available to local learning groups. Local primary historical and geographical data have not been made available to schools since their reproduction costs cannot be supported by a limited market potential.
Primary source documents are essential to the process of development and validation of an in-depth understanding of the variables and their interrelatedness found in each local community and in other communities throughout the world. A frame of reference is developed from an in-depth study of the local community that enables a meaningful transfer of insights about the immediate world of the learner to the understanding of other places and times. Without this frame of reference, effective transfer is nearly impossible.
Fulfilling this need will require outside resources - foundations, the federal government or business and industry - to enlist the involvement of local historians and geographers in the identification and reproduction of the raw data required of this constructive approach to learning. Every township and county in this country has people who could be put to work on this invaluable element in the change process. Without available primary sources of information, to be processed by learners, development of personally verified frames of reference for understanding and remembering the dynamics of the local community, the state and nation and other places and times in the world will be seriously hampered. Countering the ignorance reported throughout our society, even after college graduation, will be the result of this effort.
The third element in the process of reform will involve intensive workshops aimed at current elementary, middle and secondary school personnel, pre-service educators, parents and higher education faculty. The purpose of these workshops will be to establish the foundation knowledge base – the development of a shared set of assumptions and beliefs about how individuals learn and develop, alone and in groups and institutions. This shared knowledge base will provide guidance in the development of programs that meet the needs of individual learners.
Preparation for the conduct of these workshops will require training a cadre of persons willing and able to grasp the significant concepts of the knowledge base, with the necessary skills to effectively conduct adult learning groups.
The essential components of the knowledge base are illustrated in the following “Framework Model for Teacher Education.” Viewed from a systems orientation, the five components at the core of the model identify the broad categories that make up the system to be mastered. In each of the sub-components the major sub-categories are identified with references to major contributors drawn from reputable literature and research. Mastery of this system involves experiencing and conceptualizing the parts, entering into the record a description of the experiences and what was concluded from those experiences, integrating the conclusions with an eye for the bearing of one set of ideas on another, displaying the results of the constructions in appropriate language forms/models and sharing and defending the models among peers and others.
These workshops will further refine the procedures for implementation of the constructive learning modes of each academic discipline across all six “realms of meaning.” (Phenix) Models were developed under a Goals 2000 project that defined the parts of systems to be constructed within each discipline.
A model developed by experts in the field of cell biology illustrates one example of what is required to move forward in all disciplines. The learner uses these models as advance organizers (Ausubel) to identify the tentative listing of the parts of a system to be investigated and integrated by each learner, keeping a complete record of activities and thoughts that eventually result in a high level of mastery of the system for each discipline and the interrelationships between these disciplines.
Personal Responsibility and its Role in Educational Reform
Maintaining a democratic society requires a committed sense of responsibility among all its citizens. According to Webster, to be responsible is to be accountable, as for something within one’s power, control, or management - having a capacity for moral decisions, therefore accountable.
One of the goals of public education is to develop a sense of responsibility. However, it faces conventions that make the achievement of this goal difficult.
The first potentially-detracting force involves liability insurance that, in effect, absolves individuals of responsibility for their personal actions. Secondly, corporate board members seek the protection of a legal entity making it very difficult to hold them personally responsible, even in cases where there are devastating consequences from their actions.
Thirdly, since the conventional public school is organized hierarchically, often referred to as an authoritarian system, it has a built in deterrent to the development of personal responsibility.
The head of each school system is an appointed leader who can yield power over all subordinates, with legal authorization from an elected group of lay persons (the school board members) who generally have very limited educational background, other than their personal experience in the school. If it were not for active union membership, these administrators acting on behalf of school boards would have full rein over teachers and other workers in the system.
Rensis Likert described four types of leadership important to an understanding of the behaviors of administrators. The leader who is on his or her way up the ladder of the hierarchical organization, with little regard for the negative consequences of personal actions, is called an "exploitative authoritarian." This leader will "use" subordinates to contribute to his or her advancement toward obtaining higher pay, more authority and control.
A leader who is authoritarian, but is kind and appreciative of the needs of those who are favored, is referred to as a "benevolent authoritarian." This type of leader can and will withdraw support whenever it is felt that the wishes of the subordinate are contrary to the wishes of this leader.
The "consultative leader" is probably the most dishonest of all the leadership types – an authoritarian in disguise. These leaders appear to be democratic except when there is a need to move in a direction of their preference. This type of leader consults with the staff and then does whatever he or she decides or has already decided to do.
The most rare leadership type is called "participative." Since authoritarian leaders are so common in today’s world, many people mistakenly view a participative leader to be weak and ineffective. People have become so dependent on authority figures they feel this is the only alternative, otherwise chaos will likely develop. This is a major deterrent in the efforts to reform and improve the educational system.
Authoritarian leadership has at its disposal what Rory O’Day revealed in the 70’s as "Rituals of Intimidation" which are used to control any subordinate from recruiting support for change, while exercising control so as to absolve themselves of any appearance of wrongdoing in the matter. O’Day identified two phases of intimidation – "Indirect Intimidation, which has two steps, nullification and isolation; and Direct Intimidation, which also comprises two steps, defamation and expulsion." ("Intimidation Rituals: Reactions to Reform" in The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science)
I personally experienced those rituals throughout my active teaching career. An attempt at "expulsion" was made continuously, beginning before I received tenure. If I had not been savvy about political influence, I would not have received tenure. Without tenure, my expulsion would have been inevitable.
But that did not deter the use of indirect intimidation including an attempt to isolate me from my colleagues through defamation. I charged the university with harassment and won the case before the Human Rights Commission.
This gave me time to develop a research institute on campus. After ten years of a successful existence, while I was off campus working with a local school district, I came back to campus only to find my telephone disconnected, my office locked, personal belongings were found in a heap out in the hallway and the signage for the Institute had been taken down. If you think this is an isolated exaggeration, check out experiences that parallel mine in MAX & ME- The Abuse of Power in Florida Community Colleges, a case study © 1994 by Marion Brady.
Most teachers are dependent subordinates who take their direction from their authoritarian leaders. If they refuse to be subordinate, they are probably now in some other profession or in the minority among their fellow colleagues.
Individual teachers who remain on the job are collectively absolved of much of the responsibility for maintaining a viable school system. Teachers in isolated and departmentalized programs can be observed coming to work, performing their duties as outlined by others, more or less effectively, and exiting the school as soon as the bell rings, soon after the students leave.
Under participative leadership, all staff members are expected to take responsibility for the successes of the organization, which means they will place a high priority on improving and maintaining an effective educational system. Leadership in a participative group will be matched to the tasks identified by the group, and leaders will emerge with sanction from the group.
Today, all levels of education in this country are primarily about teaching with little recognition of what is required to develop a highly functional group, at the level of consensual validation. (Bennis) Students have little input into what is to be taught. Students wait to be told what to do and how to do it. Teaching, authorized by the authorities, places the student in a dependent relationship with the teacher. Fortunately we have some good teachers who encourage and facilitate learning, but we have mostly teachers who teach or "tell" their students what has been arbitrarily decided they need to learn.
Emphasizing teaching over learning tends to absolve the individual student of the personal responsibility required of learning. Teachers are loath to define learning as simply remembering enough of what was taught to pass a written test. This process creates in most students an unhealthy dependency relationship with their teachers. Such dependency accounts for much of the incompetence encountered throughout our society today.
Lasting, constructive learning is a personal, individual matter that results from the practice and acceptance of personal responsibility. Learning that is constructive is a creative process essentially under the control of the individual, circumscribed by the developmental capabilities that emerge throughout the course of maturation and limited by the type and extent of experiences afforded the learner.
To learn well is to act upon one’s experiences and transform those experiences into meaningful patterns. Experiences that are direct and purposeful offer greater possibilities for learning than the abstract conveyance of information typical of classroom instruction.. (Dale)
Learning is effectively controlled by a genetic code especially in the early years of life. Gradually a capacity to take control of learning develops, not to passively accept or conform to what is taught, but to examine, to take apart and yes, to disagree when it is warranted. Learning is an individual matter with individual responsibilities. Teaching, as practiced by most teachers, is assuming the responsibility for the learning of others.
The emphasis on teaching, rather than on learning, supported by the conventional school system, accounts for many if not most of our social and political ills in this country. The lack of motivation to learn, a loss of curiosity, lack of developed competency, failure to recall information, deficiencies in basic skills, lack of common sense decision making and increased social problems are likely byproducts of the practices aimed at directing and teaching passive students.
The emphasis on teaching in the conventional school requires as many teachers as there are specific topics to be taught. Students are presumed to be incapable of figuring things out for themselves without extensive outside direction. Teachers are perceived to require supervision by a myriad of administrative types, now often referred to euphemistically as deans.
Having to pay administrative salaries to supervise teachers is an expensive proposition. This is one item close to the heart of the rising costs of education at all levels.
Instead of one competent teacher with the time required to facilitate all facets of learning among a group of active learners, there are teachers for everything that curriculum organizers can imagine to be of importance, segregated into isolated compartments and taught by half-educated instructors. When more teachers are added, more administrators are required to ensure adequate compliance with the official, standardized curriculum.
Learning is an active process that can be guided by well-educated, well-trained facilitators who understand group/team development, who will help engage learners in their individual and collective pursuit of personal meanings. In this age of communication technologies, learners can be in touch with sources of information far more sophisticated than anything they can be offered by teachers in the conventional educational structures. Building expensive edifices that house subservient students and teachers will not be needed. Education will occur with learners in touch with themselves and the worlds around them using systems concepts to organize and demonstrate their constructions of meaning.
In years past, the one room school house, with one teacher working cooperatively with older students, offered this opportunity. We have since refined important processes that will expand and preserve the positive elements of facilitation of learning in groups of learners. Learners in mature groups will help each other and engage learning as a holistic endeavor, especially in the formative stages of their development.
Using creative methodologies drawn from all the academic disciplines, within all six realms of meaning (Phenix), learners can be actively engaged in successfully seeking mastery over manifestations of life in their world and those of others.
Think about it. One teacher/facilitator with the knowledge and skills for developing a team of learners, whose mission is to facilitate coming to know and sharing with others the creative products they construct, could replace teachers who are now hired to teach subjects to passive, reluctant learners. This would obviously require a much different preparation for these teachers than what is afforded fledgling teachers in existing teacher education programs.
Learners in effective learning groups will need brief encounters with individual scholars who have actively engaged their own processes of coming to know. This connection can be facilitated through electronic means. These scholars are not needed to teach learners; they can however provide important insights into how their learning has evolved and provide guidance important to the learning processes of younger learners.
Once their message about how to learn has been heard, these experts must refrain from telling the students what conclusions they need to remember. They will perform a very important role in critiquing the products generated by individual learners and in sharing their insights with them, once the learners have constructed the necessary background required to assimilate their messages.
The process of learning must be a constructive process that results in the creation of knowledge and the skills required to manipulate and act upon what has been learned. Learners as social beings are naturally motivated to communicate with others the results of personally important learning. Acting on this motivation, learners will develop the skills of communication with a minimum of instruction, in all forms of language, (both verbal and non-verbal) including mathematics, along with equally important expressions of insight through the arts.
A school system organized around group/team development and the facilitation of learning will not only surpass any achievements we have seen to date, but will cost far less money.
A support system for learning is required, including individualized assessment based on evidences inputted through, stored in, manipulated by individual learners and communicated to others through modern and emerging electronic technologies. Individualized record keeping, maintained by the learner under the watchful eye of a competent teacher/facilitator, that contains personalized statements about the full range of experiences encountered and the conclusions reached, will provide the evidences that will reveal the level of competence achieved in the mastery of systems. This will essentially replace the narrowly defined standardized test.
The need for adding additional teachers as each new subject emerges that is considered of importance will be abandoned. New subjects will be absorbed into the constructive learning processes. Thus, the potential savings for education can be very significant and the quality of education to be expected of every learner will exceed anything we have ever seen.
