We're not required to completely clean out our classrooms for the summer, but I'm going to because I want to try something new with my setup for next year.
In fact, I can't wait to do lots of things differently next year.
Some suggestions from a book I just read about how to "change radically the nature of the existing school environment":
1. Declare a five-year moratorium on the use of all textbooks.The Subversive in the book title mostly refers to thinking about education as a way to work towards more just social systems of power rather than reproducing the current systems of power. That said, I rather like thinking subversively about some of the walking-power-trip, I'm-a-teacher-because-of-the-summers-off type dirty rats at work.
2. Have "English" teachers "teach" Math, Math teachers English, Social Studies teachers Science, Science teachers Art, and so on.
3. Transfer all the elementary-school teachers to high school and vice versa.
4. Require every teacher who thinks he knows his "subject" to write a book on it.
5. Dissolve all "subjects," "courses," "and especially "course requirements."
6. Limit each teacher to three declarative sentences per class, and 15 interrogatives.
7. Prohibit teachers from asking any questions they already know the answers to.
8. Declare a moratorium on all tests and grades.
9. Require all teachers to undergo some form of psychotherapy as part of their in-service training.
10. Classify teachers according to their ability and make the lists public.
11. Require all teachers to take a test prepared by students on what students know.
12. Make every class elective and withhold a teacher's monthly check if his students do now show any interest in going to next month's classes.
13. Require every teacher to take a one-year leave of absence every fourth year to work in some "field" other than education.
14. Require each teacher to provide some sort of evidence that he or she has had a loving relationship with at least one other human being.
15. Require that all graffiti accumulated in the school toilets be reproduced on large paper and be hung in the school halls.
Hey, by the way, did you know that teaching is a low-stress occupation? What kind of sick joke is that.
5 comments:
6. Limit each teacher to three declarative sentences per class, and 15 interrogatives.
7. Prohibit teachers from asking any questions they already know the answers to.
Those were my favorite of the list.
i like the graffiti one. (obviously.)
I like the ones that require teachers to work in other fields every 4 years and that require them to have a loving relationship with at least one other being.
I wish more administrators and policy-makers thought subversively about education and about teaching.
Also, I am curious to know why they posted the median salary for college professors a) like it would apply to public school teachers and b) like it was a good thing. And anyone who knows a teacher or a professor knows that they are working during all those "times off", especially professors. Perhaps not as intensely as during the school year, but still.
Low-stress life on campus? LOL!
yes. i like them, too. in the interest of time, i omitted from my excerpt the paragraph(s) of explanation that follow each contention in the book. they're really good though. especially for those two.
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