Up the..?

Education is a process, not a product. The word "educate" is a verb, an action word, not a state of being, not a noun. I hate to tell people that I am an educator. Why? Because of all the poor choices and squabbling that goes on over our heads, as though we are the youngest child of a poor marriage. Instead of honoring the time I have spent with young people, the wisdom I have to share, and the important information that would help drive the success of the school's goals, no one has asked me lately (and I have lots of insights!) about what is best for kids. I have taught in alternative and regular education, and have been in the classroom as well as the library. There is a lot I could contribute, but my insights are not valued.

I have been disenchanted with k-12 education for a while now. I keep thinking that I will find a "better way" somewhere, and so far, in every place I have worked, the school has been a cult of personality. It seems to me, however, that the focus on "what the principal wants" is outdated. These thoughts were prompted by Eisner's essay, "What does it mean to say a school is doing well." There are ideas here that I am total agreement with. Eisner has said that there are essentially two curricula in schools. The first is the explicit curriculum, those "state-mandated" standards of which we hear so much. Eisner is also aware of a second, less structured curriculum that he calls the "implicit curriculum." It's easy to call this the school climate, but it is more than that. It's what gets taught in spite of the standards and tests. It's the way the school is kept,whether there are enough seats on the bus, and even whether there are enough buses! It's deciding to run those buses on gasoline, rather than diesel, because it's healthier for more of the population. It's the ability of teachers to communicate with students outside of class (whether on Twitter or Facebook, or at the local coffeeshop or skatepark, or some other social network) to discuss with them ideas that interest them and current events about which they have questions. It's the fact that the place gets cleaned on a regular basis. It's the support that teachers get when they need it. These form the implicit curriculum. This is the area in which most schools fail. Why? They forget that everything we do in schools matters. Students are constantly taking their cues from their surroundings. In cognitive load theory, in which all the inputs of learning are taken into account, there's even a name for it: extrinsic load. This is the part of the teaching and learning system where students' attention is blocked by something other than instruction and learning. It's the stinky smell in the hallway. It's the menacing presence of an administrator. It takes away from the task of learning and teaching, and it happens way too much in k12 education.