PLJ10.

After watching these videos, I felt so provoked to take a different approach to learning and education. I think that Dave Eggers is a creative genius and has really created something that is going to make a huge impact on many childrens lives. You can so easily see how enthusiastic the children are about writing and going to 826 Valencia (not to be confused with after school tutoring.) The children who attend the school that has a democratic approach to education seem have a firm grasp on their own abilities and goals. As fascinating as all of this is to see, it also brings a feeling of frustration. Why? Because despite what most educators might think, it's not that hard to create an environment that reaches to every kid! Something as simple as creating a lesson plan where students have different options to complete the assignment is enabling an outlet for students to work with their strengths and incorporate them into their school work.
826 Valencia was such a moving story for me and makes me question why schools are forced into this structure that requires standardized testing and only caters to certain intelligences. Besides the obvious government legalities, I think that all schools should take on an approach similar to theirs.
In my mind, the perfect school is not exactly that of the second video but have certain ideas utilized. In middle school and high school I really began to resent everything about sitting in a classroom. To be honest, all my friends and I compared school to a jail. We had no freedom and were treated like we were not capable of any responsibilities. Some students need that structure, but as far as I was concerned, I HATED the fact that I was being treated like some immature child. I think some sort of structure is needed, but one that isn't so focused on mainstream subjects. A school should be somewhere that encourages free thinking and the ability to choose your own educational path. A facility that doesn't resemble a jail cell. With public schools being the size that they are, it would be hard to have this kind of environment. So a smaller school setting would be ideal. Similar to the kids that were interviewed from the second video, students would be able to focus on subjects that they were personally interested in and would focus that semester on those subjects. This would allow for smaller classrooms to ensure the most one on one teacher student contact.
As far as grading goes... out with the GPA. Being a junior in college I can personally rant about my grudges toward the GPA. I am so tired of having some stupid number be a measure of my personal worth! Whose to say that because my GPA is high that I am more intelligent or if my GPA is low that I am not capable of an honors class. I focus more on keeping up that number than I do on the actual material and I don't think that it should be an indication of your overall ability! I think that students with low GPA's are already predisposed to failure because they don't measure up with other students. Let's find another way to measure quality of work. EME for example was a huge relief for me because it wasn't limited to grading scales and points earned. It's focused on the quality and that what school grades should really be about.
An ideal school would also have access to large amounts of technology and be able to provide laptops to each student. As long as it was able to be monitored in some way, I think that now more than ever Internet access is most valuable in education. The Internet has so much knowledge at your finger tips and I think its very useful in everyday life. One disadvantage I thought of for the school from the second video is how I thought that these kids would not be prepared for real life. There are certain aspects of school that just need to be experienced and I think that much freedom could be hindering.
Having a teacher for a mom has always helped me see the other side of school... one of them being the fact that parent and teacher involvement is key. If parents aren't involved in their child's education then why should the child care about his education? Having a good relationship within the school allows the student to be held accountable for his actions and promotes progress.
Essentially, the ideal school would be catered toward the student, instead of test scores and GPA's. Let the students mold their own interests and abilities to help them understand themselves better and have an idea of what path they want to go down in the future.