Drive by Daniel Pink

After reading this chapter, I found myself pondering the following two thoughts....

1) I love the ideas in here, especially about homework and model-schools that do creative, innovative things.

2) None of this would fly in a public school.

Sometimes I feel like teaching at a private school or a semi-private/semi-public charter school is the way to go! Can a lowly English teacher make so much change in the public school atmosphere that we can implement Do It Yourself Report Cards? I am betting that current public school teachers would read this and think, "Wow, that's pie in the sky kinda stuff." Do I see the value in them? Yes. Do I see how they mean SO much more than regular report cards? Yes. Do I see myself using it? No. Because I will never be allowed to in a public school.

I find myself struggling with the same idea all of the time: I am going to be equipped with all of these great ideas and tools, only to enter a teaching world that won't allow me to implement any of them. It's a constant uphill battle. Nobody said it would be easy, and I like a good challenge, but could I make a bigger difference in a private school where I can start implementing fresh, new, innovative ideas from the start? I am trying to teach to make a difference in people's lives more than anything English-content related. As progressive teachers, I feel like we have so much working against us.

My next frustrating thought was WHERE in the world are all of these amazing schools that provide students with such creative and engaging outlets? With that in mind, I went to all of the websites for the example schools in the article.

1) Big Picture schools look great. There are 60+ around the country. Awesome! There's one in Kensington in Philly which is the closest to us. A Washington DC school is second closest. The article says the flagship school in Rhode Island is public; however, I noticed that the Big Picture affiliation accepts donations from major sponsors like the Bill Gates Foundation, for example. It appears there is a hybrid setup with both public and private funding. I did some research on the Met in Rhode Island because it was mentioned in the article...

"As a public, state-funded school, The Met accepts all students through a random lottery system, which occurs in March. We are mandated to accept 75% of our student body from the city of Providence and the remaining 25% from the rest of Rhode Island."

2) Sudbury Valley School is an independent school in Massachusetts. It is actually within an umbrella association of schools in the Sudbury system (or schools that operate very similar to them). There's one that is local! The Circle School in Harrisburg. Anyone know more about it? Tuition at the school in Massachusetts is $7,400 per year.

3) The Tinkering Schools are my favorite so far (and I'm working through these in order). The school that recently opened up in San Francisco called Brightworks is ridiculously amazing. PLEASE research this one. http://sfbrightworks.org/ Maybe I am really excited about this because I see myself living in San Francisco one day, but if nothing else, it looks like a really interesting place. Tuition at Brightworks for the 2011-2012 school year is $19,800.

4) The Puget Sound Community School places a huge emphasis on teachers as mentors/coaches rather than lecturers/dictators. Self-direction seems key. It looks great! Tuition for the 2011-2012 school year is $15, 500.

5) The Montessori Schools have been around for a really long time. It looks like the New School here in Lancaster is one. http://www.newschool.net/ I am glad to see one that is really close to here! Tuition for a middle school student is just under $9,000 per year.

I pointed out tuition rates for these schools. They are all private schools except for Big Picture. The author, Daniel Pink, made a connection between...

-All of these great things teachers/parents can do

with

-A bunch of schools we will probably never teach at unless we go the private route.

Sigh.

-Taz