Reprint from the 'Linda Christas Faculty Comments' area, hosted by
Blogger.com: http://lindachristascf.blogspot.com/
To: LaTracy
From: Melvut Bjorn, Teacher, Linda Christas
LaTracy, Thank you for inviting me to participate in this collection of
Linda Christas faculty ideas.
For my contribution, I would like to discuss ‘subject matter’ as it is
presented in traditional schools in the United States and contrast that
with what we do at Linda Christas.
As you know, when a student goes to an average high school in the United
States, he/she usually moves from one teacher and classroom to another
every hour or so. In some cases, teachers move from class to class instead
of the students, but that is rare.
So, during the first period, the student may study history; the second may
bring him/her to algebra; the third to chemistry, and so on. The problem
with this kind of approach is that what we are doing is treating education
as if the things we learn in school are unrelated. This is not the way
life presents us with experience. Said differently, we learn facts in our
schools, facts that, because they aren't apparently connected, appear to
be irrelevant to students. Facts presented this way also tend never to be
fully integrated into the student's store of wisdom and are, therefore,
quickly forgotten.
For example, it is fairly easy for the student to find Madame Currie's
birth and death dates. It is im****tant to know the dangers of
radioactivity. And, it is interesting to discover the half-life of radium.
But real education is the process of integrating information into
experiences that then become part of a person's being -- that is,
permanent learning is necessary to navigate a more effective and
interesting life.
This lack of connectedness in average school experiences is the principal
reason (I believe) that so many students in traditional educational
settings think of their subjects as irrelevant. This is so because the
subjects do not appear to have anything to do with who they are as people
or what their world is all about.
Not only did I find during my tenure in the at large establishment that my
students didn't understand much in terms of how the things they were being
exposed to were connected to real life, I also found that there was a
general impression that the person who could remember the most facts was
the smartest, the most educated. (The concept of integration is hardly
ever addressed in traditional schools, even though individual department
chairpersons in my experience made an effort. Once the individual
classroom door closed, however, integration with other disciplines was
usually ignored.)
At Linda Christas, once we discover the unique qualities of a student by
*****sing the learning styles, skill levels and interests of that
individual, we (student and teacher working in harmony) can then design
real world projects of interest to him or her. These projects are meant to
provide a source of integration in order to make the subject matter come
alive. In this format, it is not the teacher who accomplishes the
integration, but rather the student.
For example, a student can study the history of Italy in a traditional
setting. The student can study Italian designs in clothing, can even study
the Italian language separately in one hour segments, and never really
penetrate the soul of the Italian experience; never really understand.
On the other hand, if the student has a project which involves, say, the
current influences that the Italian culture has had in the town or city in
which she lives, now we have a project that will begin to bring all of the
‘facts’ together in a focus that can begin to be called education.
For instance, depending upon the direction such a project is taking, the
student may need to interview the owner of a fa****onable clothing outlet.
She may need to venture into an Italian community to chat with people from
the ‘Old Country’ about what they remember. He may need to ask a Ferrari
dealer to put him in touch with someone who might be able to discuss
Italian design and why it is so distinctive. The student may apply for a
traveler’s scholar****p to visit Italy for a month. The possibilities, as
with real life, are endless.
However the project develops - and no two projects are ever the same - at
its conclusion, the student has had to begin learning the Italian
language, knows a lot more about clothing and machines from both a
technical and cultural standpoint, and has begun to understand how
tradition and history impact our perception of the world. This is the kind
of experience that rewards a student (and a teacher as well) with a
measure of perspective and power.
The foregoing is but one example. There are hundreds of thousands of
projects like this that will bring the process of becoming educated,
becoming wise, to the fore. There are as many projects as there are
students to do them. And, in the center of things, the teacher becomes a
resource to assist in guiding the project when necessary. The teacher
becomes a coordinator and advisor for the experience.
Once the information gathering process has been completed, the student
then needs to be able to organize the material, describe it, draw
conclusions, and even perhaps make some predictions for the future. All of
this is done both orally and in written form. What a wonderful exercise!
In this way, the student's education becomes relevant to society and to
her personhood. The student's eyes are opened to the process of problem
solving, and, therefore, the student rarely feels helpless and passive in
the face of a real-life situation. The student can apply these same
project techniques in order to advantage himself, his family, his
business, and his world.
This method of education demonstrates to the student that no matter what
obstacles or difficulties life may present, she knows how (in young speak)
"to deal."
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