CBS' 60 Minutes recently reported on the idea some parents are implementing of holding a child back one year or "Redshirting" kindergarten students. The approach is driven by desire to have that particular student be among the oldest, rather than the youngest, in their class when they started school. The hope is that by doing so the child would be further along developmentally, be more of a leader over time, do better in sports, and have an overall advantage over the other children in his/her … [Read more...]
Can a Military School Be Student-Centered?
As an institution, military education would seem to be something other than student-centered. Individuality may seem to be discouraged, with “service before self” being seen as the highest value. In other places along the continuum we have explored the role of the teacher and his or her capacity to be student-centered even in contexts that do not appear to have the individual learner as a central focus. Is it possible for an individual instructor or officer in a military school or for an entire … [Read more...]
The Value of Military Schools
The value of a military style education for some students is well established and recognized by most educators. The inculcation of discipline, the value of giving oneself to a greater cause, the development of a selfless world view, the push toward excellence and achievement at a high level, all of these have great appeal and may be shown to be highly effective when paired with a population of students who are well equipped for this style of learning.Attempts have even been made to adopt … [Read more...]
The Value of Religious Schools
In religious schools, we may expect to encounter a very different conception of the role of education in a student’s life. Because there is often an essential and openly professed drive towards uniformity and the cultivation of religious values, the individual may appear to be secondary to the mission.However, a statement of purpose for one such school, the Covenant School in Arlington, MA, reflects the synergy between values formation and acquisition of knowledge (or wisdom): "We believe … [Read more...]
Lady Gaga’s Foundation – Preventing Bullying Begins With Us
Dr. Richard Weissbourd, a member of the Dearborn Academy Professional Advisory Board, was featured in yesterday's Huff Post commenting on the importance of constructively addressing the problem of bullying.The article's focus moves from simply blaming the bully or inoculating our own children to withstand bullying or harassment. Weissbourd recommends teaching our children to go outside of themselves by finding ways to care for and about each other.Dearborn Academy's Human Dignity Program … [Read more...]
Cognitive, Emotional and Developmental Differences in the Classroom
There is variety among students, including those that are outside the mainstream student population, and we know that each learner is unique in his or her manner of learning and of expressing what he knows. However, there are reasonable limits to the degree and types of variance that any teacher can be expected to manage effectively. There are cognitive, emotional, and developmental differences that stretch beyond the capacities of any single classroom.Consider developmental differences. These … [Read more...]
Accepting Alternative Education Practices
There is tremendous variety in the many types of schools that are not in the mainstream of public education, but represent variations on traditional educational methods and models. A wide range of private schools, vocational schools, and exam schools offer programs geared towards students with particular interests and talents or parents who desire a different learning environment for their children.While many of these schools differ from the mainstream in the focus of their curriculum, the … [Read more...]
How The Political Climate Is Not Promoting Student-Centered Education
Demonstrated dramatically in the case of an Atlanta school scandal, in which teachers admitted to changing test scores in order to meet the demands of the school superintendent, No Child Left Behind puts the focus in the wrong place. In the words of Dianne Ravitch, former Assistant Secretary of Education under President George H. W. Bush, the “simple minded and singular focus on test scores distorts and degrades the meaning and practice of education.”Well-formulated standards are of great use … [Read more...]
No Child Left Behind, Leaving Kids Behind
The pressure to raise test scores and to compete with other countries generated bythe 1983 publication of A Nation at Riskhas led us in directions that decidedly do not keep students at the center inour focus. In particular, the recent wave of school reform enacted as law in theUSin 2001 under the mantle of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), mandates that allpublic schools make Adequate Yearly Progress demonstrated by raising scores onstandardized tests.At the core of this reform is the basic … [Read more...]
A History of Assembly Line Education
Despite the work of Sugata Mitra, Maria Montessori, and those student-centered educators in traditional classrooms who were keeping the child and the learning process at the center of their thinking, it is ironic the vast energy in public education in the 20th century was moving completely in the opposite direction. At this time there was a drive towards educational models based on the principal of mass production assembly lines, where efficiency and cost control are essential to doing business … [Read more...]
