Reimagining Education--The One World School House

ROCKPORT HISTORY BOOK CLUB

Rockport Public Library

Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014

History of Public Education

Palestinian children in Jenin school

Salman Khan, The One World School House: Education Reimagined, 2012; New York: Hachette Book Group.

            “Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind. Therefore do not use compulsion, but let early education be a sort of amusement; you will then be better able to discover the child's natural bent.” Plato (427-347 B.C.)

            Salman Khan (1976- ), founder of the Khan Academy, wants to revolutionize education, and he shows us how we have become enslaved by a system which has long outlived its effectiveness.

            Today’s basic classroom model was first put in place in 18^th century Prussia. Compulsory, tax-supported public education was seen as a political at least as much as a pedagogical tool, and no apology was made for this, Khan writes. “The idea was not to produce independent thinkers, but to churn out loyal and tractable citizens who would learn the value of submitting to the authority of parents, teachers, church, and ultimately, king.”

            Horace Mann (1796-1859), then the Secretary of Education for the State of Massachusetts, put the Prussian model, with modifications, to practice in the United States starting about 1837. 

            By 1870, all 37 states in the Union had public schools, and the United States had become one of the most literate countries in the world.

            Khan shows, piece by piece, how schools today chop learning into unconnected parts, yet it all needs to become connected in the mind of the student.  Without solid grounding in arithmetic, you will have trouble with algebra. Trigonometry flows from geometry. Calculus and physics both depend upon all the rest. Testing gives passing grades to students who have not mastered concepts, and will have trouble proceeding to higher learning.

            He shows an orderly school setting of perhaps 30 students, all listening to the teacher, all regulated by periods, bells to mark each period.  Much waste, no innovation, hard for kids to get into their learning.  Then he compares it to a room which looks like chaos.  Maybe 100 kids of various ages, with mentors. Perhaps 20 are on computers, learning deep and durable core concepts, 20 working on an economics problem using board games, 20 building robots or designing mobile apps.  Another 20 might be in a quiet corner, working on art or creative writing projects, and the final 20 working in another corner developing original music. This would recognize that children learn at different rates, and their learning may proceed in different directions. Older students may help younger.  Teachers in various areas of expertise may be all over the room, helping where it is needed. This model helps “average” students, and it also scoops up the “different thinking” students who might be lost in the standard setting.

            Next, Khan shows how the summer vacation is an anachronism, required when both boys and girls were needed to work in the fields.  Now, however, time away from school causes students to “un-learn” as neural pathways atrophy over the summer. Only a fortunate few kids actually enjoy character-building and learning experiences over the summer.  It’s a waste of children’s time, as well as a waste of schools and the whole education establishment. Why not arrange vacations that correspond to those of the parents, at any time of the year?

            Khan tells about developing a new computer-based learning process, and struggling to get a few thousand dollars of funding, money trickling in via PayPal.  Then, one day things started opening up for him. Ann Doerr, wife of a venture capitalist, learned about him and donated $10,000.  Khan met her and talked. A few months later she texted him that Bill Gates mentioned at a meeting that he and his kids had become fascinated with Khan’s You-tube lessons. She was sending him $100,000 right then.  Soon Gates flew Khan out to talk, and gave him $1.5 million to get started. 

            This funding freed Khan to get back to education, and he met a Silicon Valley investor and was soon developing a system to teach fifth and seventh grade mathematics for the Los Altos School District. Now, Salman, or Sal, as he calls himself, from Metairie, Louisiana, son of parents from India and Bangla Desh, is not just teaching above-average kids from wealthy families, who have an above-average appetite for learning.  Now, in classes where 95 percent of the students are African-American or Latino, who in previous years had “failed to engage with coursework and had spent little to no time studying” kids were catching fire with learning.

            In “The Spirit of the One World Schoolhouse” Khan spills out his ideas for a truly effective learning environment. 

            Get rid of age stratification, another vestige of the Prussian model. Kids can reproduce at 12, so they are probably wired to teach at that age.  We fail to entrust adolescents with real responsibility. We deny them the chance to mentor or to help others, and we conspire in their isolation and self-involvement. With self-paced learning, older kids become allies of the teacher, mentoring and tutoring younger kids who are behind. 

            Teach as a Team Sport. Merge classrooms, and let students learn at their own pace. Teachers, and older students, are free to float, to help with projects, or to mentor kids who need it.

            Ordered Chaos is a Good Thing. Remember the 100-student classroom mentioned above.

            Redefine Summer. Re-think summer vacation. Schools left empty for several months a year is a waste of resources. In a self-paced learning environment, kids take vacation when it is needed, at various times in the year.

 

            In his Conclusion, Khan writes: “As I hope is clear by now, I’m a big believer that almost anyone can obtain an intuitive understanding of almost any concept if he or she approaches it with a deep understanding of the fundamentals.”

            Can creativity be taught?  Maybe yes, maybe no, but it can certainly be squelched.

            Rigid, lockstep education—the Austrian model, brought to America by Horace Mann, is still very much in practice in our schools today.  Rewarding passivity and conformity, minimizing risk, balkanized curricula aimed at fulfilling government mandates.

            One World School House is a revolutionary book about the creation of a revolutionary man. I hope that it is time to put it to the test. 

Postscript:

            We have just seen a drama played out in Ferguson, Missouri.  Whatever you think about white vs. black, or the judicial system, or the police, one thing is clear:  Far too many young people are growing up like Michael Brown, and all too likely to get into trouble, and too many will lose their lives.

             What if we had an educational system that gathered up young people, especially those left adrift by the present system, and gave them all the tools to become energetic, enthusiastic and productive members of society? 

            What if some of those young people became part of the system of law enforcement, and leadership in the community? 

-end-

HISTORY BOOK CLUB TOPICS

Wed. Dec. 3:  History of public education

How crucial is it for a country to have an educated public? How did the concept of providing schooling for all develop?

Wed. Jan. 28, 2015:  History of the Future; how the future was imagined in the past. The Guggenheim's "Italian Futurism 1909-1941" paintings exhibit gives the idea.

Not many history books may exist, I can only think of Morus' Utopia, but perhaps

some fiction will qualify.  

Wed. Feb. 25, 2015:    - Spies and spy agencies

Intriguing topic, plenty of connections to recent developments (Putin's rise,

WikiLeaks, Snowden).  Read a book and tell us about any part of the intriguing world of spies, spy agencies or espionage.  Think MI-5, KGB, Stasi, Mossad, Mata Hari, Kim Philby, National Security Agency, CIA….

About the first Armistice Day, 1918

PRIVATE DIXON LONG COULBOURN, Army of the United States

  

Young Private Coulbourn on bivouac with Co. E, 124^th Infantry Rgt., 1917

(In third tent on right.)

           On Veterans' Day, 2014, my thoughts go back to my Dad's account of that day in 1918, when he was a young soldier, fighting in France....

 My Dad, Dixon Long Coulbourn, was busy all his life, always in a hurry, and yet he lived to be 98 years old.

            He was born in a little Virginia town on Chesapeake Bay on January 27, 1899.  His dad ran an oyster business.  The employees were all African-Americans, and I am sure some of the older ones had been slaves at one time. 

            Watermen raked up tons of oysters and brought them back to Morattico to be processed.  Black oyster shuckers worked all day, filling barrels with fresh shucked oysters, which were iced down and rushed to customers all over the eastern United States.

It was hard work, and a typical shucker made $6 a week.  They piled up mountains of oyster shells. 

            America was going to war in France to fight the Germans in 1917, and young Dixon was in a hurry to join.  He enlisted in the 124^th Infantry Regiment (First Florida), and was shipped up to Camp Devens in Massachusetts, to join the Yankee Division.

            1,500,000 young men boarded troop transports and were soon fighting in France. Dixon was among them. The shells exploding near him permanently damaged his hearing, so he spent the rest of his life with very poor hearing.

            On November 11, 1918, Armistice was declared. People went from unit to unit, announcing the news.  Dixon remembered that vividly, especially because a cook wagon came to the front lines and started cooking pancakes for the soldiers.  “Man, that was the most wonderful thing!” Dixon used to say. 

            As it has done for most men, and now women as well, combat made a lasting impression on Dixon.  He was proud of his service.

            When the war was over, all the soldiers returned to America, and suddenly all those young men were looking for jobs at the same time.  Dixon and his brothers went to work in central Florida, packing strawberries and trying all kinds of schemes to make a living.   Texas was gaining notice all over the country because oil wells were popping up, new refineries were being built, and workers were needed. In 1927, Dixon got himself on a freight train headed for Texas.  He made his way to Port Arthur, in the southeastern corner of Texas.  Real estate developers financed with money from the Netherlands had begun building a town here to handle shipments of locally grown rice. They located the Kansas City Southern Railways terminus here, and Dutch settlers came to live, followed by Americans. Then a huge oil discovery at Spindletop, right where all the Dutchmen were living, led to creation of several refineries here. Texaco and Gulf Oil companies were created. Families began streaming here to make their fortune in this oil boom town. 

Gusher at Spindletop, Jan. 10, 1901

Courtesy of American Petroleum Institute

            For a young man, veteran of The Great War, looking for work, this looked to be the place, and Dixon landed here.  Dixon found a job as a bookkeeper at a local grocery store. Dixon, who enlisted in the Army before he had graduated from high school, now enrolled in correspondence courses to learn to be an accountant.  He earned his certificate.

He met a young woman at a Methodist Church social event. Katherine was the daughter of a doctor and a strong supporter of the local Methodist Church and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.  Dixon and Katherine were soon married. 

            I was born a couple of years later, in 1934, and my brother Dixon Wall Coulbourn was born two years later, in 1936.

            Dixon then began taking the test to become a Certified Public Accountant, but didn’t make it.  He took it again.  All through World War II, every year he took the test, and finally, in about 1945, he earned the “CPA” designation. We were all so proud of him!

            In 1944 my sister, Martha Louise, was born, and our parents looked at the neighborhood where we lived, just over a mile from downtown, and decided that now, with a little girl, it was time to move to more idyllic surroundings. So, in 1945 we moved to Griffing Park.  Here we had a cow pasture beyond our back door. Dixon ordered a flock of Plymouth Rock chickens from a supplier in Massachusetts, and soon we were in the chicken business. 

Dixon’s family, 1946

L to R: Dixon, young Dixon, Martha, Sam, Katherine.

            We collected the eggs each morning, and cleaned all the chicken mess up, and fed the chickens.  Dixon started his own accounting firm, leaving for work after he had made sure that we were doing our chicken chores.

            Dixon was always in a hurry.  He hurried to work, and he hurried home.  He ate each meal like there’d not be another.  The only thing he slowed down for was church. We all went to the Methodist Temple downtown every Sunday, but as soon as the sermon started, Dad would turn off his hearing aid and drift off to sleep. 

            Dixon loved gadgets.  All during World War II, Army surplus items were finding their way to market, and when war ended, there was a flood of interesting gadgets, and Dad wanted to buy as many as he could find. 

            He had a friend who owned a store that sold outboard motors for boats and all kinds of appliances, from washing machines to record players. 

            Dixon bought an electric deep freezer, and then one of the new Bendix washing machines, with the window, so you could see the clothes swirling around inside.  He bought my mother an electric ironing machine (mangle), which turned out to be a total waste of money.

            When a new voice recorder came out, that you could record on a paper disk, he brought one home to try out, and took it back.  Then a wire recorder came out that made a recording on a slim silver wire on a spool.  He brought that home, and then took it back. 

            However, we were one of the last families in the neighborhood to buy a television. 

            Even though he loved gadgets, Dad was no spendthrift!

            Dad kept his accounting business until he was 73 years old, then with all of us kids with families of our own, he and mother moved to Georgetown, Texas, where he opened up another accounting business, and wrote a book, “Control Your Finances”.

            All his adult life, Dad was a loyal member of the Kiwanis Club and the American Legion.  On his 90^th birthday the local newspaper ran a front-page story of this crusty old World War I veteran.  Dad wasn’t pleased about the publicity, because he thought the fact that he was 90 years old might turn away some of his accounting business.

            Thank you for your service to our Country, Dad!