Classroom Dreaming Again

If you’re a homeschooler or some other such weirdo living on the edges of traditional education in America, you may have heard of John Taylor Gatto. He was named New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991 and immediately joined the speaker circuit to lambaste the American educational system. It makes our young people emotionally and intellectually dependent, he claims. It establishes in them fixed habits of response to authority – it trains them to accept a menial role in society and never question things.

Right now, I’m reading a book of his that I found on my shelf last week, and I’m finding it frustrating. Partly because he seems to keep saying the same things over and over. Partly because I suspect a lot of what he is saying over and over is true. And mostly because I feel kind of helpless to do anything about it.

Back when I was fresh-faced, newly certified, and confident I could change the world from my little classroom, I taught English for a few years at Hutchinson High School. Formative years for me. And a major force in that formation was my principal, Mike Wortman.

The state of Kansas, in its infinite wisdom, decreed in those days that all public schools needed to establish a School Improvement Team (SIT) – a handful of teachers who would come up with ideas for improving the school. Simple enough, I suppose.

But Mike did this right. I had the honor and privilege of being asked to participate in this group, and we on the SIT read and researched and toured and talked and were given the freedom to dream big audacious dreams. Mike told us to throw out everything we knew about how School is done – the way we divide up subjects, the way we schedule the day, the materials we use, the objectives we have – throw it ALL out. Let’s start from scratch: what is the goal of a high school, and what’s the best way to meet that goal?

Y’all. This is my wheelhouse. And I didn’t even know it until Mike pitched the ball right there for me to swing at.

But again, the frustration set in because these dreams couldn’t be anything more than that. No matter how convinced we were of a better way to educate, there was really no way we could act on what we were convinced of. We were hired by a Board who served at the pleasure of the community, and the community would have a conniption if we turned their kids’ school upside down like that.

It shouldn’t be any surprise that I ended up homeschooling my daughters several years later. The perfect lab environment to act on those deferred dreams.

Anyway, my girls are in college now (and succeeding there, thank you very much), and I’m back teaching in a school again – a small University-Model school that is rather innovative in itself, which is what attracted me to it in the first place. However, reading Mr. Gatto is making me restless. Education can be done so much better. I can do so much better. Why do I keep doing things the same way when I can do it so much better??

Summer is about to start. I’ve been wondering what I would do with my time this summer. Now I think I may scrap my middle school English plans and start from scratch again . . . what’s the goal, what will get them there, what materials, what methods . . .

My wheelhouse, people. I love this stuff. Lord, gimme strength to follow through this time -- the bleachers are calling my name.