Guest post by Michael Zwaagstra
A Canadian elementary school has taken the concept of specialization to a completely new level. At R. J. Hawkey Elementary School in Alberta, students heading into grade 2 are expected to select a “major” that defines the focus of their education for the next three years.
These majors include: visual and performing arts, sports and athletics, scientific inquiry, and humanitarian/environment. Teachers are required to tailor the curriculum to match these specialty areas. Thus, students in the humanitarian/environment “stream” can expect to spend a lot of time in math calculating average recycling rates while sports stream students pore over team statistics.
The problem with this approach is it narrows rather than broadens the academic horizon of elementary students. While it may sound exciting at first for students to have their personal interests reflected in every school subject throughout the day, it is difficult to see how this can be done without watering down academic content.
Allowing grade 2 students some flexibility in the books they read in class is one thing. Gearing their entire learning experience around a single theme is another. There is no way that students are going to acquire the background knowledge they need to function effectively in society or become fully literate if classroom teachers limit their teaching solely to areas already of personal interest to their students.
The school claims to be largely inspired by Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Outliers, which points out that 10,000 hours of practice in a particular skill is needed in order to achieve full mastery of that skill. However, the type of practice described by Gladwell is completely different from what this school is doing. Gladwell noted that practice is concentrated in a focused area—a sport like hockey, or a musical instrument such as the violin.
Calculating the velocity of a hockey puck in math class won’t count towards the 10,000 hours of practice that a prospective NHL player needs. Nor does reading yet another short story about the Amazon rainforest move students any closer to reaching some special proficiency level in ecology. Frankly, this school’s new approach appears to be more about testing out a new theory of learning than promoting academic excellence.
The reality is that students learn best in a school environment where they receive focused instruction in the core academic subjects that cover many different topics. In other words, let science be science and math be math. Students can learn these subjects without being catered to by a school system more focused on novelty than academic excellence.
One of the most important purposes of school is to make sure all students receive a well-rounded education that is grounded in a solid content base. Students have plenty of time outside of school hours to explore hobbies and other areas of personal interest. In addition, there are many ways in which teachers can, and do, help students pursue their interests that don’t involve completely restructuring the elementary curriculum.
Schools should spend less time using students as guinea pigs for the latest unproven theory and more time looking at ways to raise academic standards.
Michael Zwaagstra, M.Ed., is co-author of the newly released book, What’s Wrong With Our Schools: and How We Can Fix Them, and a high school social studies teacher. Learn more about his book by visiting his website at www.fixingourschools.com.
The allmighty New York Times, in the ‘Mind’ section, is weighing against learning style theories and other educational fads
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/views/07mind.html?_r=3&ref=homepage&src=me&pagewanted=all
only to drop itself in the same pop psychology trap a few paragraphs further down:
“In an experiment published last month in the journal Psychology and Aging, researchers found that college students and adults of retirement age were better able to distinguish the painting styles of 12 unfamiliar artists after viewing mixed collections (assortments, including works from all 12) than after viewing a dozen works from one artist, all together, then moving on to the next painter.
“The finding undermines the common assumption that intensive immersion is the best way to really master a particular genre, or type of creative work, said Nate Kornell, a psychologist at Williams College and the lead author of the study. “What seems to be happening in this case is that the brain is picking up deeper patterns when seeing assortments of paintings; it’s picking up what’s similar and what’s different about them,” often subconsciously. “
Comment by andrei radulescu-banu — September 8, 2010 @ 10:55 am
[...] Specializing in Educational Fads « The Core Knowledge Blog Filed under: education — coopmike48 @ 9:08 am Specializing in Educational Fads « The Core Knowledge Blog. [...]
Pingback by Specializing in Educational Fads « The Core Knowledge Blog « Parents 4 democratic Schools — September 8, 2010 @ 12:09 pm
I can sort of see allowing families to choose a program with an emphasis on the arts, STEM, or the humanities. I’m doing this somewhat in our family’s homeschool. My DS who loves math & science spends relatively more time on those subjects, while my bookworm DD has relatively more time spent on language arts and history. It’s playing to their strengths.
However, athletics is not an academic discipline and neither is “humanitarian/environment”.
Comment by Crimson Wife — September 8, 2010 @ 1:46 pm
Michael,
This sounds like an interesting approach, somewhat akin to the child-centered philosophy many progressives of the past century espoused.
As a teacher I always thought it was important that adults make these kinds of important decisions for children; what to study, when, for how long, in what order, etc. Eight and nine year old kids are completely out of their league if they are permitted to make such critical decisions regarding their academic development. Heck, even many teenagers are incapable of determining what’s best for their development. After all, isn’t that why high schools have guidance counselors?
Comment by Paul Hoss — September 8, 2010 @ 5:29 pm
Sounds like this is similar to a ‘unit study’ approach. I’ve had success in using this method while homeschooling. Rather than watering down academic content, connecting the academics to real life applications has the potential to make them more complex. Done right, it can actually advance the students past ‘grade level’ work.
However, I think implimenting this in a classroom setting will be much harder to do than it is with only a few students. These teachers are going to have to really be on board with the idea to be successful.
Comment by Carol B — September 8, 2010 @ 8:07 pm
I believe the only proper response to this school is as follows:
Are you on crack?
Do you subsist on a diet of lead paint chips and turpentine?
Were you expelled from idiot school for wrecking the curve?
How does someone of your level of intellect manage to remember to open doors before attempting to pass through them?
Telling a second grader to choose the next three years of school is the educational equivalent of “Hold my beer and watch this!” As with any educational fad, it sounds very nice until you take a step back and behold the sheer enormity of the stupid.
A focused unit? Sure. A quarter? Maybe, if done right. 3 years? At 2nd grade? This is “Combination gas cap and ashtray” level of stupid.
Comment by Obi-Wandreas — September 8, 2010 @ 11:32 pm
Well said, Obi. And I agree, Paul.
Comment by Brian Rude — September 9, 2010 @ 11:26 am
It is interesting to see an elementary school requiring a major. However, if it is proving to motivating students, then good for that Candadian School…someone needs to be the first. If we want to be a safe school, we can take the wait and see approach, letting them succeed or fail. Or we can learn from them now, find an approach that pulls students into learning, and take our chances there. Also, if the same core academic requirements are being met, does it really matter what it has been related to?
Comment by Cassie Hosler — October 11, 2010 @ 7:07 pm