Twitter Book Club: Theodore R. Sizer (1984) Horace's Compromise - Part I: The Students

Part I: The Students

1. Five Adolescents

"We adults too easily talk of these adolescents as an undifferentiated blob of people, as a Client Group or an Age ... http://tl.gd/blks9bless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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"We should expect them to learn more while being taught less. Their personal engagement with their own learning is ... http://tl.gd/blku4iless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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Lets repeat that shall we:

"We should expect them to learn more while being taught less. Their personal engagement with their own learning is crucial: adults cannot 'give' them an education. Too much giving breeds docility, and the docility of students' minds is a widespread reality in American high schools." Sizer

This pretty much sums up the problem with our traditional banking method of education. The teacher's job is not so much to cover content but to create the environment for students to explore and discover content, and environment where they can learn. Sizer acutely points to the counter-intuitive impact too much "teaching" does. This also lies at the heart of the high-stakes testing dilemma. The greater the pressure to teach to the test the greater likelihood content will be covered through telling rather than authentic learning. Telling takes the work away from the student who needs the work in order to learn, a truth easier to see when the high-stakes testing foot is not grinding down on your neck.

2. Diversity

"Listen to how staff responds to parents on the school's telephones: those of wealthier children are likely to be p... http://tl.gd/bll2culess than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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"Children who grow up believing from their experience that their families—their worlds—will protect them have an ea... http://tl.gd/bll3meless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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"The hard fact is that if you are the child of low-income parents, the chances are good that you will receive limit... http://tl.gd/bll6ttless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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"One leaves visits to dozens of American high schools with the clear feeling, however, that race is a fixation of a... http://tl.gd/bll9usless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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3. Commonality

"To the larger world, one is what one appears, whether six, sixteen, or sixty. When teachers say, 'Act your age,' t... http://tl.gd/bm8fhsless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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"Can an ungenerous and irresponsible adult culture long get away with preaching virtue to its young?" Sizerless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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Nope. But, it seems in the current climate many adults don't even wish virtue to be preached to their young. The impression I get sends the opposite message:



Sorry about that. Couldn't help myself. Do you think these children made these signs? I see this sort of thing everywhere.

"The attitudes of parents and their expectations for their children are very powerful influences indeed, far more p... http://tl.gd/bm8pqsless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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"We should show them respect by expecting much of them and by being straight—and part of being straight is telling ... http://tl.gd/bm8rroless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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"One cannot shield an adolescent from all risk and hurt; to do so would be to deny that young person the essential ... http://tl.gd/bm8stfless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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"There is no more difficult teaching job than that of helping an adolescent into adulthood. Few jobs are more thank... http://tl.gd/bm8tmjless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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5. Incentives

"If a school awarded the diploma whenever a student reached the agreed-on level of mastery at the completion of a s... http://tl.gd/bmrsksless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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It seem like more schools are going this route now with standards-based assessments.

"Credit-counting may be financially cheap; educationally, it is very costly." Sizerless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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"Get a person to believe in himself and give him a powerful incentive to learn, and the results can be striking." Sizerless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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"A school which assumes that students will respond to challenge, rather than shrink from it, will be effective." Sizerless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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I couldn't agree more with these last two quotes. I hate when I am working with a group of teachers and hear things like, "My kids could never do that," or "You should see the kids I work with, they could never..." Always a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"None of us learns what we think we can't learn." Sizerless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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And, if teachers believe their students can't, then they will send that message to the kids. Chances are most of them will believe it.

"Almost no school that I've seen gives mastery more prominence than it gives its routines." Sizerless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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"Very few high schools ever give their students a clear long-term academic goal and an equally clear signal that it... http://tl.gd/bms585less than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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"We teachers are too nice: we test the kids, and take the blame if they fail." Sizerless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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