Ditchbook, Unschooling & Words on a Page

One of the best ways to get kids to own their education is to hand it over to them.  They know what they want to learn.  They know what interests them.  .  .  . That said, the transition to student-led learning isn’t smooth or easy .  .  . I’m convinced that the only reason we don’t hand over control is because it’s easier to hang on to the comfort of the status quo.  But that approach will never yield the benefits we want for our students.” from Ditch that Textbook by Matt Miller

This is my dream.  About eight years ago in my fifth year of teaching and second year of teaching second grade, I had this great ah-ha moment, well, it was really more like a small surmising that has since grown and blossomed into a great ah-ha and led me to everything I’m reading and trying to accomplish.  The surmising occurred as I led a small group of second graders through our Reader’s Workshop time.  “I bet with or without me these students will grow.  I’m just kind of providing the right environment and helping them along.”

For what we call the on-level and above-level students, this was great.  For the below-level students, this was torturous and to me detrimental.  The system encouraged me to work more with these students.  To prod, poke, cajole, encourage in any way possible.  The system encouraged us to label these below-level students.  (Warning of Rant ahead) But isn’t the idea of labels and being able to do a certain thing at a certain point kind of arbitrary?  Not all kids are the same and just because one kid isn’t where his peers are doesn’t mean he’s less than – -but isn’t that the message we end up sending?

My Own Humble Beginnings

I had the great privilege of starting my elementary teaching career in a district that did not encourage textbooks.  We had them and used them on occasion if it fit our lesson but we held Reader’s & Writer’s Workshops, stations, Daily 5 for Reading, lots of hands on work for Math, Science, & Social Studies.  We had a lot of choice in how we presented everything – -which was wonderful if not somewhat daunting.  I was fortunate as a “first-year” elementary teacher to have taught college and high school courses in Mexico that had no curriculum or materials.  I had experience writing course curriculum and I LOVED it!

What Do you Do Without Technology?

I moved to an inner city district that had a set curriculum we were to follow and virtually no technology.  I kind of followed it but still used what I knew to work, but with no resources.  I frequented Half Price Books on Saturdays and the library’s $6 box Saturdays and built up a massive classroom library, so we’d have books from which to choose.  I used Donors Choose to get more books and a projector and document camera so we could start Google hour.  (Google hour was a student led search that we did together every Friday.  It inevitably took more than an hour and like a good conversation ended far from the topic with which we had started.)

I took advantage of the fact that hardly anyone else used the computer lab and signed up for as much time as possible.  When our computer lab got updated, I asked if I could have some of the still working computers for my classroom.  So then for those students who finished early, they could start their own projects.  They had only to meet with me to verify the topic and progress.  Or for those students who needed extra assistance, they could use programs like Starfall, Brainpop, and IStation.  When we got a laptop cart, it sat in my room much of the time.  When we won a grant for 100 Kindle Touches, I piloted their use in my classroom by checking out one for each student (sadly, the other 75 sat in the office mostly untouched).

After our state tests, I went completely off book and during our Language Arts/Social Studies time, I gave students the freedom to research. We collaborated on questions to ask and topic choices.  The topics chosen had to fall within our Science or Social Studies curriculum – so for third grade it was a famous Scientist or Inventor, for fourth grade it was a famous Texan – which yes included Beyonce and Bonnie & Clyde.

Changing the Conversation

My brother who never quite figured out how to play the game of grades and school, but was an educator at a Youth Ranch for Troubled Teens (think one step before Juvenile Detention) started reading and sharing with me about Sugata Mitra and the open school concept – – no grades, all ages in a classroom, inquiry driven.  Wow, I thought.  So I started mentioning these things to other educators. . . . Somewhere along the way, I started reading about flipped classrooms and Khan Academy in its infancy and actually reading on my own about Sugata Mitra’s hole-in-the-wall and Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone. And I kept mentioning these things to other educators.  What if we allowed students more choice?

I wasn’t pushy or demanding.  I just started asking and trying to open the conversation and possibilities.

I know that some of you reading can imagine exactly the responses I received even when they knew I was attempting this kind of classroom and had the best track record.  “It won’t work for my students.”  “We don’t have enough technology.”  “Our students aren’t motivated enough.”  “It might work for those above level, gifted students, but not for lower level students.”  But what I really heard behind all of these objections (which to me are exactly the opposite of what would happen and has happened) was “but then my job will be obsolete.  Who wants to pay a glorified babysitter?”  But that sentiment is the opposite of what is necessary and I’ll get back to that in a minute.

The UnSchool

Recently, I sat down with homeschool/unschool advocate, Alexander Baaack who is opening a free, open, democratic school or what is sometimes known as a Sudbury school.  I had read about them in A.J. Juliani’s Inquiry and Innovation in the Classroom and was curious.  Knowing we’d be in LA for a week with little to no plans, I searched for Sudbury Schools and came across The Altadena Free School so I made contact.

We sat on the patio/common room enjoying the beautiful Altadena weather and talked for two hours.  I found out that the school is actually in its infancy and is opening for the first time in September.  It only recently found residency in a somewhat run down home that houses a pre-school on the bottom floor.

I wanted to know his vision and reasoning behind the school.  Part of it was his own experience.  At age 8, he started hating school, but it wasn’t until age 17, when he started reading John Holt and John Taylor Gatto that he was able to finally voice what so displeased him. (More books for me to read! to the chagrin of Mr. V  – which I could hear as I eagerly wrote down every name and book Mr. Baack mentioned).

Alex is not an educator by trade.  He is a film maker and a dad, but he knew more about the history of education and the natural curiosity of students than any educator I’ve met so far.  He told me a familiar story of his son learning to read.  He couldn’t retain even the simplest sounds and three letter words.  Alex worried his son was dyslexic or ADD or just dumb, but with a kind of mournful shrug and that’s okay if he is. Advice from reading and experts, he decided not to have his son tested and not force him.  It wasn’t long before his son discovered a book that interested him and was reading the entire thing with little help.

This is a story I’ve heard before.  Think about how we learn language and babies learn – everything.  When I pressed to know what a typical day might look like at first, the well-planned educator who likes freshly sharpened pencils and lesson plan books could not fathom potentially letting a kid do nothing.  I was thinking glorified babysitter, but then one kid gets an idea of something or they invite a professional to come talk about his job – -and then it’s off to the races with Alex never suggesting let’s look it up, but just asking the right questions to get students moving in the right direction.

Unschooling or Inquiry in the Public Schools

This leads me back to Miller’s quote.  I think it’s more than just comfort and status quo that leads us to hold tightly to our pre-conceived notions of how school is to be done.  I think it can also stem from fear and arrogance.  Fear that we will be redundant and arrogance that we have all the answers.  The unschool means potential failure.  Giving students choices and freedom might mean failing test scores (though in my experiences, it leads to the opposite).  Failure is seen as the antithesis to progress even though the history of the greatest thinkers demonstrates the exact opposite.

As my conversation with Baaack came to an end, I was in a completely different place.  Memories from my own childhood experiences and my own long held mantra that parents not schools or teachers have the largest impact on students academics were brought to the forefront of my mind.  Mr. Baaack eagerly said to keep in touch and to check with him in the future if I was interested in a job.

I wanted to eagerly accept or even go home and start my own Free School, but I felt like Martin Luther (think 1522 Reformation & The 95 Theses, not King) who wanted to reform the Catholic church, not leave it to start his own.  I remember my inner city school (I’ve since moved to a Suburban district for a time).  Those inner city students and parents stuck in poverty don’t have the luxury of an unschool or even an innovative private school.  Teachers in the inner city are told to be data driven and get kids passing at all costs.  (What can happen in that kind of environment  http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/04/when-teachers-cheat/389384/ )

I desperately don’t want to leave the public school;  I want to reform it.  I want to be a part of the change.  I want to help bring the ideas of A.J. Juliani, Don Wettrick, Matt Miller, Alex Baaack, Dave Burgess, Sugata Mitra, John Taylor Gatto and a thousand others into the classroom and take it all the way to the top.

What’s Next?

For the longest time, I have felt alone asking why can’t school be done differently.  Is what we’re doing really what’s best?  We seem to be creating wards of the state rather than creating independent thinkers.  I am ever so grateful to Clara Alaniz who came to our school to talk Twitter with us.  I realized that it was not just about annoying celebrities.  It could be a useful tool.  I no longer feel alone.  I see that all around the country, teachers have been innovating and like me attempting to change the conversation.

Maybe a completely free and democratic school won’t work everywhere.  But in our rapidly advancing technological world, all the more, we need a future generation who can adapt and change and innovate.  Yes, it would be easy to just move into the private sector and create a bubble of like-minded thinkers but this won’t reach the students who need the right kind of education.  It won’t close the achievement gap.

Closing the achievement gap also won’t occur by expecting students who come to school essentially handicapped in some regards and demanding that they be equal by third grade to their non-handicapped peers.  If parents have the greatest impact on students then what about those students whose parents have all but abdicated their rights and responsibilities to the public school system?  Can we reteach these students how to be curious?  Can we help these parents regain their position?

This is where I return to my statement above regarding the glorified babysitter.  All the more, we need educators who are more than just glorified babysitters or lesson planners or curriculum/standards/status-quo followers.  We need educators who are thinkers and learners – empathetic, highly-motivated, and deeply concerned for the greater good.  We need to be willing to give up control so that students can take control.  We need to change what failure means and individualized instruction means.  We need classrooms that are a 10 to 1 ratio not a 30+ to 1 and all the more in the inner city, low income areas where the latter is too often the case.

There is so much more to say.  For now all I have are words on a screen.  In person, I still just have quiet questions for my fellow educators gently pushing against the norm.  I have the benefits of demonstrating high test scores with my methodical madness.  I also have a principal and district who are behind the idea of project based learning so I am more able to continue pursuing a better future.  I am thankful as well for my growing PLN that motivates and encourages me like never before.

Thank you!