10 INVITED CHAPTERS
As you can tell, several themes emerge from my” life’s lessons” about education:
learning, multiple intelligence, quality curriculum, common, democratic and quality schools,
positive culture and climate, terrific teachers, well prepared education leadership, and a
diverse and individualized, yet fully accountable assessment or measurement program, from P
through 20. I will share my personal ideas about these themes, and give credit to those
whose writings; speeches or professional behavior influenced me the most. In short, I will be
guilty of dropping a name or two in the process, recognizing that it might bore you, perhaps
insult you a bit; nor can I ever do a “laundry list” that would ever be as good as yours, or even
to my own satisfaction. I will no doubt leave off some of your heroes. But, do think about
who they might be and how they influenced your work.
BACKDROP
If you thought I was going soft on the “basic skills” from my earlier comments, then
review this next statement from the 2006 Conference Board Report:
The most important knowledge and skills our young people can learn for successful
lives and employment are: teamwork, collaboration, self-direction, critical thinking,
problem solving, professionalism, a work ethic, oral, spoken, and written
communications, diversity, leadership, ethics and social responsibility, lifelong
learning, and the ability to apply information technology. (16-24)This is a powerful list yet quite similar to those regularly issued in past years by the U. S.
Department of Labor. Actually no new surprises. All of these attributes apply equally to both
our candidates for administrative leadership preparation, and our children and grandchildren
as they prepare themselves for life during and after schooling. It is easy to see how these
attributes have influenced the themes of this paper
- LEARNING
In the 1980’s Goodlad observed many classrooms in America when preparing his book, A
Place Called School. Ornstein and Levin reviewed it a few years later and issued this
scathing quote based on Goodlad’s observations on classroom learning:
...There is a need to maintain orderly relationships; enthusiasm and joy and anger
are kept under control; the emotional tone is flat or neutral; most students’ work
involves listening to teachers, writing answers to questions and taking tests and
quizzes; students rarely learn from each other; there is little hands-on activity;
textbooks and workbooks generally constitute the media of instruction; instruction
seldom goes beyond the mere possession of information; and, little effort is made to
arouse student curiosity or to emphasize rational thinking.
Ornstein & Levin, 1999.Disappointing isn’t it...my first topic is “Learning” and already things sound dismal...this
quote continues to haunt me, particularly in these days of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) or,
as critics say, “many children being left behind”. The Teachers College Recordl recently
published an article reinforcing these observations in a charter school in California (Durst,
2005). For starters, then, I distinguish learning from teaching. My own teaching did not