jackiedoherty.org

News, schools, and views from a uniquely Lowell perspective
15th February 2009

Take yesterday’s “Chat” with a grain of salt

posted in Education, In the News, Local Politics, school committee |

Self-described as an upbeat column, yesterday’s “Chat” took a side trip from its usual tone to swipe at the Lowell School Committee: “The best idea I have been given over the years calls for an abolishment of the school board and the addition of three to five members to the Lowell City Council — five of whom would sit as a subcommittee on education…” notes Kendall Wallace, chair of the newspaper and longtime critic of the school board. As a five-year board member who has worked for more than a decade to improve our public schools, my initial response was: How does eliminating the school board and making it a subset of the Council improve its focus or efficacy? Secondly, if there were some justification for that and it happened, count on me to run for Lowell City Council. (I don’t imagine I would be alone in that pursuit.)

The problem with this column is its attempt to paint the entire board with one brush regarding recent student vacation trips on school time. All votes permitting such trips, specifically to Quebec and Spain/Portugal, have been approved by the vast majority of the board, and one member’s comments against them clearly does not represent the entire committee. Student attendance matters, yet my primary concern has always been improving the quality of the school day. We only have our students for 180 days, making it imperative that they attend school, yes, but also that each moment in school offers students engaged, meaningful learning experiences. That means our focus, from the board to the classroom teacher, must be on high-quality instruction and effective curriculum that challenges our students to their potential. I recognize that learning happens outside the classroom, which is why the board unanimously supported the policy update regarding student travel. (More on the district’s travel policy in a separate post.) In the meantime, read the “Chat” with a hefty grain of salt, as with most education editorials in this paper—there’s more to the issue than printed here.

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  1. 1 On February 16th, 2009, paul said:

    I recall many trips when I was in school. Some were day trips to places like the Museum of Science and the Children’s Museum, some were longer such as my senior class trip to Washington, D.C. The one thing I always remember is that each of these trips was primarily FUN! But now that I am older I also recall that we LEARNED on these trips. My trip to D.C. was fantastic. We saw all the tourist sites — Washington Monument, the White House, Mt. Vernon, Arlington Cemetery (where the JFK Eternal Flame Pavilion had just been completed) and the Capitol.

    We watched a marked sheet of currency paper become a sheet of dollar bills, one of which was then given to each of us. We learned of the special paper and the intricate engraving used to prevent counterfeiting.

    At the Capitol we watched a session of Congress in action. Afterward we met our local congressman, Torby MacDonald (who was JFK’s roommate at Harvard) for lunch in the Senate cafeteria and had our picture taken with him on the Capitol steps. We learned how the legislative process worked while we had FUN.

    At Mt Vernon we saw first-hand the history of George Washington who we had been studying since Kindergarten. We had FUN handling the implements of 18th C daily life but we also LEARNED how difficult that life was without our modern conveniences.

    And most of all from this trip I LEARNED of a city that is still one of the most FUN cities in the world to visit.

    At the Museum of Science we saw the Van de Graaf generators make someone’s hair stand on end making them look FUNny but we also LEARNED how these generators were instrumental in the unlocking of the secrets of the atom making atomic power a reality. We saw a series of models illustrating the procedure a surgeon follows to perform an appendectomy and the Invisible Woman illustrating human anatomy. It was FUN watching some of my fellow students turn a bit green at the gills but I also LEARNED that the medical career path I had already chosen was even more exciting than I had thus far imagined.

    We even went to sleepover camp when I was in 6th grade. We left on Monday morning with our winter coats gloves and boots (this took place during February vacation) and went to Boston University’s Camp Sargeant in NH. It was a FUN week of snowshoeing, hiking, ice skating, and cooking marshmallows over an open fire. But we also had the adventure of LEARNING the winter habits of native plants and wildlife. It bred a love of the outdoors that eventually led me to become a Boy Scout leader imparting some of that knowledge to a new generation.

    Bottom line every one of these trips was FUN first!! Only second was it education. But guess what I remember most today? Not how much FUN it was because fun is a fleeting thing. But what I LEARNED on each trip.

    The trips that seem to have stimulated the latest controversy, French Canada and Spain/Portugal will primarily be FUN for those who have the opportunity to go. But they also will learn — learn the culture of the countries, the language skills necessary to make a purchase or ask a question at a museum and the differences between ethnic restaurants here in Lowell and real native foods. Maybe a visit to a high school classroom during the trip will give them the opportunity to do some teaching of their own as they share classroom activities with their peers, again using those language skills; they say teaching is the best way to learn. They may come to the conclusion as I did that the cities they visit will become one of their favorite cites in the world.

    Bottom line I often feel that education today is relying on the wrong philosophy. I understand the need for high-quality instruction but I also regret the lack of “having fun” in school especially since mandatory MCAS testing was begun. Teachers now are so afraid of their students missing a single question on these tests that they over-focus on curriculum rather than making learning fun. My feeling is if teachers make learning really FUN the kids will *want* to learn and we won’t have to force them to memorize a bunch of facts needed to pass the MCAS. They will have absorbed those facts and probably many more as well and our MCAS scores will be even higher than they already are. As you can see I had *FUN* learning, so much fun that I *still* enjoy LEARNING. If we take away the field trips, even those which seem like more fun than learning, we will be doing a lifelong disservice to our students because we will be sending the message that learning is boring, that you aren’t supposed to have fun when you learn, that reading is something to be done only when it’s assigned as homework, that language and culture is just another subject to pass on the MCAS next Spring, and that museums and historical restorations are only for tourists. I’d much rather spend my education dollars molding a child into someone who will continue to enjoy learning until the day they die rather than making sure they successfully answer a few more questions on the MCAS.

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