A Tale of Two Schools

 

Yesterday, I visited two classrooms for forty minutes to introduce kindergarteners to a program developed by myself and two teachers, a program that puts cameras in the hands of young children for the purpose of exploring the natural world. Both classrooms were full of neatly dressed children whose excitement about the new project was visible in the eyes and body language of each. The schools were located only a half dozen miles apart -  there the similarities ended.

The population of the urban classroom consisted of many children raised in or threatened by poverty while those of the suburban school were raised by college educated parents with the economic stability. These latter children will not encounter poverty until they learn about it via the media or classes where it can be discussed or debated intellectually.

Poverty environments are stressful environments. The developmental consequences of  children being raised with brains flooded frequently by stress hormones are now well documented. Most notably there is a negative impact on the frontal lob. Frontal lob impediment impairs an individual's ability to judge and decide upon action. It is the seat of self-discipline and attention.

In one classroom, students sat attentively through a six minute self-created video of 'how to use the cameras';  in the other, frequent student interruptions fed by positive excitement and difficulty with self-control limited the chance of information sharing. In both rooms, the video was a backdrop to the hands-on exploration that followed. In both rooms, students had clearly been hooked by the technology as well as the promise to go outside into the sun of the September day. But it was a struggle for some of the urban children to attend well enough to arrange quiet movement through the hallways, and once outside a continued struggle for the same students to share the cameras with respect for one another.

Fortunately, a great deal of material now exists that documents successful ways to help children of poverty succeed. Unfortunately, the system is making it nearly impossible for this information to be implemented in our classroom. Not surprisingly, the teachers in the urban school spent their lunch period time (before the camera event) team planning.  The topic of their discussion: How to ensure that their kindergarten charges will learn how to handle testing materials (how to write on the lines, avoid scribbling, circle only One answer, etc.) !  This was not a teacher choice topic, but a choice mandated by a very broken educational system that has restricted where they can place their attention and time.

Of course, I could also document the differences in the class sizes, the percentage of children who had had pre-schooling experiences, the number of high needs children in each classroom, and so on, but why repeat what is now easily available via a simple google search.

For myself, a volunteer who can easily walk into and out of the classroom, it is hard to maintain the shimmer of optimism. As well, I struggle to find compassion for those of us born on Third Base whose ignorance of their entitlement limits the supports that are available for the successful education of those born often only half-way to First.

Our public school systems through ignorant interpretation of cognitive, emotional and social pedagogical research have produced a plethora of new student-testing (as if children needed more cortisol inducing experiences) and demands that continue to move learners at the most risk step-by-step closer to an adult life of failure. Admittedly what I have written is largely an appeal to heart and mind.  Perhaps an appeal that will carry more impact is:  Invest Now in Education, Save later on Prisons.