Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol (of The Namesake fame…)

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren

Angels in America by Tony Kushner

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Death of an Expert Witness by P. D. James

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carré

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

What has happened to us? Meritocracy has made parents so competitive that WfS even features someone who would appear to have all kinds of advantages for school–a blonde female athlete–thinking she has to flee her beautiful suburban public high school to get what the charter is offering. And these parents shown in WfS at the charter school lotteries; only one of them had the sense to leave their child at home! For whatever reason several children shown in the movie are now convinced their school is not good enough and the good school didn’t choose them.

I just want to point out that public education started in Massachusetts Bay colony when the Pilgrims decided to tax themselves to hire a teacher. It was a cooperative effort to avoid duplication of the effort each family normally had to make to teach their children to read. Now I have to got to find a screening of Race to Nowhere. Because it’s not a race; it’s supposed to be about giving children the tools they need to live a good life. Note that the grown-up Geoffrey Canada decided to stop waiting for superman and be superman.

I know I am only skimming so many surfaces, but that’s what I do here, because it seems that’s what blog readers read, and hey, maybe it’ll be controversial enough to generate some comments…

I think a real disruptive innovation would look more like the learning community of Udaipur, India, that Shilpa Jain talked about at a conference I attended last June. Links are in my June 16, 2010 post.

UNICEF had two different projects that kept bumping into each other. One was trying to provide schooling for all children in developing nations and one was finding that it was just too expensive. Our current system of public schooling is very expensive; we are quite privileged to support it and yet contrary to the metaphorical meaning of “support” many folks make a hobby (or a career) of criticizing its effectiveness and value. True disruptive innovation would make our education system both cheaper and more effective.

But I do not mistake charter schools for the answer; they are mainly a way for alert groups to siphon public money into private, less accountable hands. Still I think public school districts would do well to deal with them to some extent in a proactive (not defensive) way as if they were.

Here’s some further description written by a parent leader at the Healey School:

INFORMATION ABOUT THE HEALEY
 
Unification: The 2011-2012 year marks an important milestone for the Healey School. This is the year our School officially unifies, with several distinct programs merging into one dynamic school that is multicultural, multilingual, community oriented, and highly collaborative. 
 
Our unification process has included all interested members of the Healey community. In addition to launching our new Mission and our four Core Values, we are implementing a progressive, innovative Unification Plan. The Healey School Unification Plan calls for enhanced teacher collaborations, strong parent/family involvement in the School, new community connections, and exciting teaching and learning initiatives.
 
Among other features, the Healey School Unification Plan calls for increased team teaching, expanded hands-on project-based learning, a phasing in of arts integration curriculum-wide, and experiential and service learning, in addition to Healey’s focus on literacy and math and on education that supports the different needs of all our students to build skills while encouraging high achievement.
 
Other key elements of our plan include common planning time for teachers, enhancements to our positive behavior management framework, and a democratic Community Council offering leadership opportunities to parents and teachers.
 
About the Healey: The Healey School is located in the Winter Hill section of Somerville (a lively and enriching place to live), and serves students from a wide range of ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. 
 
The School seeks candidates for our talented and respected faculty who are motivated to work in a dynamic urban environment and apply best and innovative practices in literacy, math, and our Unification Plan teaching/learning initiatives (among them project-based learning, experiential learning, arts integration). Ideal candidates will find in the Healey a collaborative and progressive teaching and learning environment, and a diverse, welcoming community that values every student’s potential and offers strong parent/family support.
 
To review the Healey School Unification Plan, please visit: [plan URL or plan copy to come: I don't have the current link!]
 
The Healey School Mission Statement
The Healey School is an innovative participatory learning community. Academic competence is highly valued, and we believe that children learn best in a joyful, creative environment, one in which their natural curiosity, imagination and thinking are encouraged. Our curriculum is based on thematic, project based learning, designed to engage children’s interest and best efforts.
 
We are committed to an educational program that recognizes the importance of community in the lives of children. Three aspects of our program are evidence of this commitment:
• Creative Arts: Participating in writing, dance, music, theater, film/video and visual art are vital and integral parts of our curriculum. The arts are essential to learning, a way for children to “re- present” the world around them and celebrate who they are as individuals and as a community.
• Effective Community Service: Inspiring a life-long sense of civic participation, openness, caring and responsibility is an integral part of our school culture. Students apply academic skills and critical thinking as they develop, implement, and evaluate service-learning projects at all grade levels.
• Family Involvement: Families who join our school community become committed partners in their children’s education, both supportive of and supported by our dedicated staff. Parents and students are encouraged to be active participants in the governance of our school
 
The Healey School Core Values (annotated)
These values are the foundation of the life of our school and the basis of our decision making and our relationships with one another. They represent our desire to create a caring and just school community that reflects the broader democratic ideals of our society as well as what is unique and precious about our own neighborhood. All members of our school community (students, teachers, family, administration, staff and community partners) are responsible for caring about and acting on these values in order to keep them alive in our school. As a community we are committed to promoting them in all aspects our school life (in the classroom, the corridors, on the playground, before, during and after school) and celebrating their expression.
• Excellence
“I want to be challenged and helped when I need it, so I can learn and know as much as I can. I want to learn a lot of ways.”
A high quality educational experience is essential for our learners. Through our high academic standards, students will be well prepared to continue their educational pursuits beyond graduation. We understand that our students have individual learning needs, and we provide differentiated learning practices so that all our students have the opportunity to excel. Parents and families at Healey School receive meaningful communication and support from the Healey professional staff and are encouraged to become active partners in their child’s education.
• Joy
“I want to be able to come to school in the morning looking forward to it and feeling happy. I would like to see myself grow by having fun and learn at the same time.”
Healey School is an inspiring and joyful learning environment. As a learning community we challenge each other to grow and learn continuously both academically and personally. We believe that children are born with an intrinsic desire to make sense of the world and it is our responsibility to keep this love of learning alive and to nurture it as a life-long disposition. Students and teachers who love learning are excited about new ideas and embrace opportunities for dialogue and discussion.
• Openness
“I want to be who I am at school and not be laughed at. I want to feel like I count.”
Our school community is built on caring and respectful relationships. We value our diversity and create a school culture where all members of our community feel respected, appreciated, and cared about as individuals. Our staff is dedicated to making each family feel welcome and well served in every aspect of their connections with the school. Through programs like Open-circle, Second step, and peer mediation, our students are constructively taught to resolve problems. Through collaborative learning, our students create deep and intimate relationships with one another. Our commitment to Service Learning strengthens our community and teaches us to be respectful and empathic individuals.
• Creativity
“I want my work to show who I am as a unique individual.”
Creativity is the ability to come up with original ideas that have value. Our project-based interdisciplinary curriculum encourages divergent thinking and nurtures original thought. We believe that the ability to innovate and think “out-of-the-box” are critical skills, which are measured by a student’s ability to look at problems in many different ways and come up with many different solutions. Our integrated arts curriculum puts creative collaborative learning into the every day life of our learners.
 

• The Learning Springs offers a complete learning management system for grades 5-12. Individuals could use it to homeschool their child or for summer classes or for subjects not taught at your local school (there are several languages for instance); districts could make use of courses to supplement their in-person teaching for credit recovery or to offer a wider array of classes. I believe there is also a way for districts to put their own courses up for distance-learning use by others.
• EdVisions Schools, a teacher-owned cooperative consortium using the model of the Coalition of Essential Schools, offers a Project Foundry(TM) for managing project-based learning. This online tool offers students an organized launch pad for working on their projects and a reflective journal to keep a record of their own experience. Mentors and parents can view student progress, participate in the process, comment on work, and assess the end result. Schools can configure the tool to their own needs and demonstrate outcomes. Tracking student work and ongoing assessments allow the tool to generate standards-based transcripts and reports.
• If you are homeschooling, you might be interested in OurLearningFolio.com to help you create your learner’s portfolio and transcript in a form directly suited for presentation to a college or high school. It’s all about documentation and explicitly not designed to give you a curriculum, give grades or grading advice, nor require use of a traditional school method.
• Explorations Academy Online offers a personalized high school program allowing learners to earn a high school diploma that meets the requirements of the state of Washington. Learners can test-drive a semester-length Exploratory Course anytime a Learning Coach is available.

“Valle and Gabel (Chapter Thirteen) describe the impossible expectations placed on mothers compelled to prepare their children for a life at and above the norm. “Even mothers who instinctively recoil from this kind of [competitive] thinking still engage in it because the risks seem simply too high not to do so” (p. 189). The ideology of the normal curve is so instantiated that even those trying to resist its regime get hooked on its barbs.”

*REFERENCE: Teachers College Record, Date Published: February 21, 2011
http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 16346, Date Accessed: 4/12/2011 10:53:01 AM

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
– Albert Einstein