Visiting the 'Model' High School

Last week, as part of our 'professional development', a group of teachers were given a tour of the new Model High School in our district. Model High Schools are a new movement, and are based on the philosophy that each child as a unique learner and thus should create their own educational experiences. These schools develop personalized education programs that focus on being fun and creative. They also try to surround students with nurturing adults who support and enable students in their learning. Students do not focus on learning abstract concepts or knowledge, and instead build a curriculum around whatever they are interested in. And they are assessed on standards they themselves set. Subjects that students focus on are 'Urban Culture,' 'Contemporary Art,' and 'Multicultural Literature.' These schools are supposed to be an alternative school for students who do not do well in traditional schools. Oh yes, Model High School is the vision of liberal education.

So we get to the Model High School, and are walking around the building listening to this new sounding language given by three African-American women who run the school. We were told to ask any questions if we had any, so I raised my hand.

"Why do you teach students those subjects- rather than learning about how to sell drugs, reading rap, and admiring a bunch of trash turned into 'art', wouldn't students benefit more by a deeper student of reading, math, and science?" While I was led to believe that no question was stupid (in fact, that was said with breathy belief at the beginning of the question and answer period, as if every question really is equal), you should have seen the glares that were leveled on me after asking that question. It was almost as if I had said that the emperor was wearing no clothes!

They answered with some sort of mumbo-jumbo about how all knowledge is equal and that there are no real truths in the world, instead students focus on the process of learning and discovery.

Oh yeah, my eyes rolled at this one, and even though the tour continued and we started to look at wonderful 'interpretive' art projects (random colors thrown at the paper) that students spent weeks on (rather than learning geometry or US history), I couldn't let that last answer go. So at the next pause in the tour, I asked "What do you mean when you say that students are assessed by standards that they themselves set? Do you really teach them that wrong answers are right?"

The group I was with went dead still with shock. I guess in schools that teach diversity and equality, there is only one view that is better than others, and you are not to question it. I did, and oh man, was the answer I got frosty indeed- "Good grades should come from good ideas," one of the directors told me.

I replied "even if the ideas lack any basis in science or rationality?"

Another director replied- "It is not really about science or rationality- it is about effort- the only thing that really matters in this world is effort anyways."

"Whoa," I said, "Do you mean to suggest that your school rewards effort more so than actual achievement? Do you really believe that if someone works really hard doing something that has little use, or works really hard doing something that could easily be done another way, or works really hard doing something that does not work, or works really hard doing the wrong thing, we should reward that person with a good grade just because of the effort? What about productivity? Efficiency? Correctness? Rightness? Do those things not matter" Apparently, in the liberal world of the Model High School, they don't.

The tour continued on, now with a certain edge in it, as the believes now sensed they had an unbeliever in their midst. I looked around the school with renewed interest, and was surprised by some of the work that was on the walls of the school. Whereas in my classroom, the walls are functionally decorated and convey a business-like approach to learning, the walls of this school were filled with meaningless and empty slogans. "Change," "Hope," "Togetherness," "Effort," "Equality," "Diversity," and "Save the Environment" the walls shouted to students. This Model High School looked less like a place of 'learning' and more like a 're-education camp.'

Once more, I tried to question the directors. At this point, I should have realized that I was now being watched more so than listened to- but I demonstrated the same stupidity here that I did when I questioned Earth Day last month (Earth Day: A Communist Plot?). Since I was no longer being recognized to speak, I simply voiced my question. "The students in this school are here because they were not disciplined- they failed their classes by not handing in work, they didn't study, they didn't try to understand the concepts, and many were insubordinate and disrespectful for teachers. And now your plan to help these students is to enable them, to give in to their demands, to surround them with 'nurturing' adults who put no discipline on them, and who appease them at every turn?"

"Yes, exactly," the directors replied, happy now that I understood their philosophy, that I finally got what they were doing in this school. Oh, and I did- now I understood that this school was meant to create a permanent underclass of slaves to serve the tyrants who ran it. The Model High School really was a vision of liberal education.