There was an article in this week’s Newsweek Magazine titled, The New First Grade: Too Much Too Soon? which raised questions about what schools are doing to young students in the name of education. There is an add on television about one of the Internet service providers that uses the Slowski’s (two turtles) who complain about the speed with which information flows from these high speed Internet providers. The Slowski’s prefer to use the slower dial-up system. There may be a lesson here for schooling, and the attitude that is perpetuated in our schools today. The Chattanooga School for Arts and Sciences, a K-12 magnet actually uses a “slowed-down approach to education. After looking into the school, and its philosophy, it does appear to honor this approach, and at the same time give a greater commitment to hands-on learning and thinking (as evidenced by the high school’s adoption of Paideia, which emphasizes thinking and communication.

The article shows distressed students in that there is an enormous rush to push kids as hard as possible, resulting in great frustration. One principal was quoted as saying, “I worry that we are creating school environments that are less friendly to kids who aren’t ready…around third grade, sometimes even the most precocious kids begin to burn out.”

One of the forces at work that has created this malaise is over emphasis on testing, and more testing. The
No Child Left Behind Law is the prime mover in the new testing movement, and it has resulted in an increased amount of time devoted to testing kids.

I’ve been an advocate as well as a practitioner of inquiry-based and hands-on learning. One of the issues that always comes up when people talk about the virtues or issues with this kind of approach is how can time be allocated to build in these kinds of experiences. And of course it usually comes down to the idea that we need to sue the time to “cover” the content, or learn the skill that will be tested. That’s always been a part of schools. What has happened is that the slogan, “No Child Left Behind” has created a new set of anxieties, not just for students who attend school, but for parents, teachers and administrators. Fear is built into this approach in that administrators fear that their school will not meet the testing standard, and be put on a public list of failed schools. Parents fear that the school they are sending their child to is not up to snuff. And teachers are caught in the middle being forced into testing standards that take away from creative and innovative teaching.

There is a disjointedness that exists in our approach to education today. At a time when real progress is being made with the development of innovative approaches to curriculum development, Federal and State level administrators (who really have no clue what it is like inside an American classroom) control the purse strings, and limit innovation.

I am not sure when the tide will turn—it does and it will. Our culture represents hope that innovative ideas developed by creative teachers and researchers, will supplant the stale ideas of the present in a tectonic way.