What's New

Education
By Bill Richmond

Education has been a consistent cause of discussion for several years now. Questions have been debated regarding how much funding is needed, Special Education, how many pupils per teacher is optimal, whether students should be able to choose their school, whether there are too many alternative courses available, and many other issues. Our country no longer has the best educational system in the world.

I'm an architect and I used to design schools in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. I found that many school boards had a hard time determining what their needs were. I therefore began to work with retired school superintendents and others to provide the pre-design analysis that we had found lacking. We looked at future trends in education, existing curriculum, staffing, law, state requirements, local taxes, budgeting and funding. We used this information to design a project that fit the school's current and future needs. At one point our firm employed four retired superintendents and two retirees from state education departments. We provided these services to more than 60 school districts throughout northern New England.

One night, after having attended an evening school board meeting, I was driving home with one of these gentlemen, a retired superintendent. He told me that our current education system is based on the principles of Horace Mann, one of the founders of public education in our country in the early 1800's. Mann was a great and powerful person, and one of the things he did was to devise and implement a K-12 curriculum based on the country's business needs as he saw them at the time.

Pete was a shrewd gentleman who had been in education as a teacher, principal and superintendent for more than 40 years. He said that our K-12 curriculum was still based on the teachings of Horace Mann. He surmised that it was possible our country's needs may have changed over the past 175 years. We got to discussing what we thought might be an ideal school curriculum for the 21st century. Here it is:

Grades PreK-4: Social and communications skills, including multiple languages, building self esteem, learning how to get along with other people, reading, writing and spelling. Young children learn quickly, particularly through imitation. They are emerging from the protection of their families and are being faced for the first time with having to be a member of a group of their peers. Basic computer use for word processing and related functions would be a part of this curriculum section. The goal would be to have all children leave 4th Grade knowing how to speak, read and write, and how to get along with one another.

Grades 5-8: Problem solving skills, including logic (math, science, law), creative (art, music, handcrafts, writing), and mythical (imagination, ethics). Children in this age group are naturally curious and are beginning to undergo the changes from being children to being young adults. Of course all the previously learned communications skills would be used. Extended computer skills, such as programming, would be included. At the completion of 8th Grade, students would be well prepared to study and analyze problems of any sort, whether they be world peace or writing a song.

Grades 9-11: Application, including history, scientific experimentation, philosophy, psychology, sociology, politics, business, economics and the arts. This is the time when students begin studying themselves and their peers. Their sense of their world expands to consider global issues. Included would be complex constructions of multiple and layered problems. Career applications would be considered. Computer building would be a part of the curriculum. At the completion of 11th Grade, students would be prepared for further education in any chosen field.

Grade 12: Life skills. The entire final year of high school would be dedicated to the study of how to get along in the world, from parenting to politics and voting; from changing light bulbs to getting a job and keeping it; from money management to cooking and cleaning. By the completion of their high school education, students would be ready to enter society or to continue their education.

The trip home took us just over two hours. We enjoyed passing the time considering the learning capabilities of different age groups and how that should relate to the types of skills we thought needed to be taught. We felt that our curriculum fit the age groups well and, being solidly based in communications and social skills, would prepare students for their place in today's fast paced, multi-facetted world.

Bill Richmond is an Architect living in Yarmouth Port, MA. He may be reached at whrichmond@comcast.net.