If we want to change the education system for the better, we need to find initiatives that are working and roll them out on a larger scale says Jessicah Lahitou.
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One of the more frustrating aspects of working in education is the glacier pace of change. When new research is published—whether on the benefits of starting the school day later to how test taking actually helps students learn-–one often feels trapped in a time capsule of the bureaucracy’s making. There is often talk—at district conferences and school meetings—of improving standards, implementing rigor, engaging students… but there is little will to upend the comfortable ruts in order to accomplish real improvement.
So hats off to the three groups highlighted below, for boldly going where few dare to tread. Read: bringing innovative ideas into reality.
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- Preschool in a Nursing Home
Nursing homes in the Netherlands recently made headlines by opening up their vacant rooms to college students. The idea seems odd, until you think about it for more than five seconds. Then, it seems perfectly obvious and potentially wonderful, for the elderly and young adults alike.
Same goes for the Intergenerational Learning Center in Seattle. The preschool is held on the Mount Vernon Nursing Home grounds, and incorporates residents into the children’s daytime routines. Reading, making sandwiches, dancing, art projects. Filmmaker Evan Briggs has a documentary on the school called Present Perfect, which you can learn more about here.
If we want to make preschool universally available, we’re looking at a hefty pricetag. From an economic standpoint, using already-built facilities makes financial sense.
But the human component is the major selling point. The children learn about aging, how to recognize the value in the elderly, and gain from the wisdom acquired over a long life. The elderly residents are given a break from the loneliness and isolation that 45% report experiencing once they move into a nursing home.
You can see it for yourself by visiting the link above. I’d especially recommend doing so if you’re looking for a pick-me-up.
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- High Tech High – No Bells, Lots of Teamwork
The new documentary Most Likely to Succeed is creating quite a buzz. The film appears to call into question the entire premise on which modern high school is based. Bells, for instance. Who needs them? Breaking up subjects into separate, unrelated entities does everyone a disservice by encouraging students to think history and science, for example, have nothing to say to each other.
Which brings us to High Tech High, a San Diego school on the receiving end of much praise for its unconventional approach. Students do not go to set classes, but instead work on group projects, centered around a major question. They build a display to showcase their answer, then present it to a large audience of teachers, parents, peers, community members.
The foundational complaint is not new. In education circles, the idea that our “bell system” may not be the best way to educate has been around nearly as long as the bells themselves. And I’m all for collaborative projects, in most cases. They are especially well-suited to the motivated student.
However, there are doubts about the rightness of this approach for everyone. I taught several students over the years who regularly dreaded any assignment involving the word “group,” as they knew they would either a) foot the work of others or b) be deemed incapable of reaching the standards of other group members, in which case, refer back to a.
Still, the students in the film look genuinely boisterous with learning love. And as American schools continue their downward trend in international rankings, I’ll send a shoutout to anyone attempting a novel approach to engage high schoolers.
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- The Bard Prison Initiative
While a program that began nearly fifteen years ago can hardly be called new, the idea still qualifies as innovative: give prison inmates access to a high-quality, recognized college degree and watch the recidivism rate plummet.
That’s exactly what Bard’s program has done. On the national level, 68% of those incarcerated eventually return to prison, Bard graduates boast a mere 2% rate of recidivism.
The Bard Prison Initiative recently made headlines when its debaters beat out the lauded Harvard team. This is a powerful rebuttal of the idea that prisoners are irredeemable or unworthy of rehabilitation.
But it is also irrefutable proof of the tremendous difference one’s level of investment makes in determining learning outcomes. The students enrolled in Bard Prison Initiative are highly motivated. For every one spot that opens, there are ten applicants.
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