Voice and Choice Observation

Comments sent to Preservice Secondary Science Teachers
By Ron Bonnstetter, (April, 2005)

I have something on my mind that needs to be shared. Some of you have figured out that I have intentionally NOT played the typical teacher role this semester. I have not told you when you are wrong, or praised comments I liked. I HAVE attempted to have each of you feel what it might be like to take responsibility for your own learning. Just as project based learning in a full blown act may not fit every student, I have seen where my approach has not worked with everyone in this class. That fact saddens me.

One issue that came up last week on our visit to the New Country School that has not been mentioned much, is the comment about where their teachers come from. It was pointed out that teachers who come from "real schools" rarely fit into "project based learning settings. It seems that they are unable to give up control to students. They can not buy into the concept of “voice and choice”. So who or what are the biggest blockers to educational reform; administrators, parents, community, students, or teachers?

I remember meeting with William Glasser several years ago. Maybe I caught him on a bad day, but he was angry! He told me how he and many others have known and seen how education SHOULD function for years, and yet he sees so little change. At the time I was still idealistic enough to feel sorry for him and to believe I, and my generation, would be successful where others had failed. I now understand his feelings.

I now believe that public education is the main problem. Just as in biology, competition leads to survival of the strongest, education needs variety to push reform. Charter schools or some other form of option are long over due. The world is changing, and public education is not keeping pace. Oh we can all give a multitude of reasons for why we are not able to meet the challenge, but do we have the ability to change it??

Business knows that change rarely comes from within, but from the fringe. Maybe some of us are just too close to the problem to see the solution. Maybe we should let the fringe in and listen. And maybe some of us should get out of the way so others can DO what some among us feel can not be done.

I will give you an example. I have worked for years to help TEACHERS to be better questioners. But today I read an email stressing the need to help STUDENTS be better questioners. In a flash I realized that my time might have been better spent teaching students and not wasting my time on teachers. Now you might say, “you teach the teachers and THEY will teach their students”. But sadly most teachers are so tied to control that having students question scares them.

So when graduate students question the material from this semester, I should be elated! Yes, if I believed that the questions were an effort to better understand how to move toward better education, but I believe far too often the questions raised are an effort to defend the status quo. “If it aint broke, don’t break it”. But it IS broken and no one seems to notice. The Emperor has no clothes on, but we see only what we want to see. Our education filters block our ability to see teaching and learning any other way, than what we have experienced for a life time. WE ARE THE PROBLEM. Each of us.