For class, I was asked to read this article. It discusses an alternative teaching style where students stay after school to continue learning skill sets they'll need for life (like language skills), but also to experience the "real world". Citizen Schools gives students in the middle school a chance to intern at local businesses, potentially seeing what it's like to be a doctor, lawyer, an engineer, etc.
The program gives pre-teens the self confidence they need to do well in school and fosters an academic mindset, reducing a student's risk for dropping out. Last year in a communications class, I learned that recent studies have given teachers a better chance of predicting which students will drop out by the age of 9. This means that we can target students at risk of not completing their education and help them however possible to stay in school. The Citizen Schools program is helping to do just that.
It's clearly a valuable way to to be spending our schools' resources. So why aren't more schools doing it? Or, more radically, where are the schools that teach only in this style of learning? If we make learning more hands on and a more welcoming environment, maybe we can eliminate students dropping out all together.
I know there are those who need the structure of traditional schooling, but what's wrong with mixing and matching? Why can't during three days of the week, our students be taught as per usual, and then during the remaining two, make room for internships and hands on learning? There's got to be a compromise somewhere. We don't need to cater to one learning style or the other.
The Hardest Time of the School Year
7 years ago
I like the idea of "regular stuff" for several days and more project-based learning the other days. A number of schools do something like that, but generally not too many public schools.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it about project-based and hands-on learning that makes them work with kids?
And why don't we do more of it in schools or even individual classrooms?