Restructuring and re-engineering the schools

B. THE NEW ROLE OF THE TEXTBOOK:

The second revolutionary step to re-engineering the schools is to place less emphasis on the textbook. Instead of making the textbook the bible for a particular subject, use it as a guide along with the many other textbooks and other writings on that subject.

Every teacher feels that unless he has selected the textbook it is a useless one because he doesn’t like its format or its author. Whenever a succeeding teacher enters the same classroom, the grumbling begins all over again. This shortsightedness arises because teachers view their subject matter through tunnel vision.

Subjects should be taught from any sources including textbooks written by authors with differing viewpoints. All subjects taught should be related to other subjects. Currently we teach every subject as though it has a wall surrounding it. Math is math, science is science, history is history, and so forth, with little cross correlation. Little wonder that many students dislike many subjects and enjoy only a few. They should be taught that knowledge is interrelated and interdependent on all other knowledge. No subject should be studied in isolation of any other. Teachers must teach students that all knowledge flows like a stream or river.

At the beginning of the school year each teacher should write a syllabus explaining in detail what is to be taught, how it will be taught and what the student is expected to learn. In this method, textbooks become one of many sources in achieving those ends. But teachers have become locked into thinking that a textbook is the all and end of a subject. Teachers and students must look beyond the confines of a single textbook.

C. TEAM TEACHING:

Current practice is to have students move from grade level to a higher grade level and then be taught by a slew of new teachers, all with different personalities, interests and attitudes. Just as the child is getting to know his teacher or teachers, he is forced to reevaluate new ones. Little wonder he becomes confused and even recalcitrant at this point,

What if instead in the elementary schools, a student’s first grade teacher and he were to stay together up to the third grade. What a comfort and secure feeling. The child will be able to bond with her. At this early stage, the child needs security. The teacher also comes to know and understand the child. So for the next three years they bond and relate while studying together. What harmony and greater interest in learning !

When the child enters the fourth grade, instead of making him walk around to various teachers to study different subjects, a team of teachers await him. Perhaps a team of six or seven teachers form a group and will remain with the same students through the next three years which are fourth, fifth and sixth grade. The teachers come to know and understand each student because they will be working with the same students for the next three years.

The students will rely on the teaching team for moral and academic knowledge. Students will also develop a camaraderie with each other as well as with the teachers. The teachers in the team will come to know and respect each other’s interests and abilities and will support each other in teaching their students. Everyone knows that they will studying and working together for the next several years.

I warrant that when team teaching and staying with the same students for several years is implemented, we will see the end of social promotions. Students will have to learn or the entire team is shamed. (continued)