What you are telling us!

About a year ago, People for Education launched a series of conversations about a new vision for public education in Ontario, Canada. The initiative, Schools at the Centre, brings together citizens to imagine and discuss possibilities for schools and their communities in the twenty-first century. Schools at the Centre dialogues have been held in partnership with various groups including parents, principals, student trustees, and community members part of the Social Planning Councils’ networks in Kingston, Toronto, and Sudbury. In my role as a researcher of the initiative, I analyzed the dialogue facilitators’ notes, and I am pleased to provide a summary of reoccurring themes.

Participants want greater variety in future schools’ curriculum, co-curricular activities, goals, and teachers. Participants also want greater flexibility for teaching and learning. For example, they want students to have more time to explore options and to have more flexible groupings of students. Teachers in the schools of the future would come from the community and have a range of backgrounds. Teaching would not be restricted to only university-educated individuals, and teachers could teach single credits thereby allowing more individuals with broader expertise to work with students.

Participants also want students’ educational programs to be highly individualized reflecting the interests, weaknesses, and strengths of each student. Students would learn at their own pace and discover their values and learning styles. Student assessment would be for and of learning with reduced emphases on marks and competition. Teachers and schools would also be assessed. Participants envision schools of the future that are centred on caring and relationships. Relationships between teachers and students; students and students; families and teachers; and teachers, students, and community members are explicitly nurtured. Connections between the school and its local community; businesses; other local schools; and the world are also consciously developed. Schools would integrate services for the entire community including public libraries, seniors’ activities; health services, early learning centres; daycare, fitness facilities, and an auditorium. These buildings would be open and accessible to everyone in the local community, seven days a week, and would be environmentally friendly and self-sustaining.

An important goal of the SATC initiative is to strengthen Ontario’s democracy through greater citizen engagement in public policy. Most participants report that participating in the dialogues sparked new ideas about how a school can be related to its community. The dialogues also gave most participants new ideas about things they can do, alone or with others, to affect education today. We hope to host more dialogues across the province.

If you would like to participate in on-line dialogues about education, you can join People for Education’s 21st Century Schools group at http://schools-at-the-centre.ning.com/group/schoolscentre.

Here's what peple are saying about schools for the 21st century:

ELN (Emerging Leaders Network) on Nov. 18/08:
"Mentoring - mix it up elementary and secondary. Provide opportunities for secondary students to mentor elementary students."

"Many highly skilled individuals would like to teach one course in high school, although they are not accredited teachers. Have a process that permits people to be engaged by the school and to come in and be a 'guest' teacher for one subject."

"Success doesn't need to be defined only by what happens in school. If students have communication skills and are able to work with others, and are comfortable taking some risks. These are successes."

"You don't often see principals sitting as volunteer board members for other organizations in the community where the school is located. It would be wonderful to involve people in the education system with other parts of the community."

"Locate a members of the business community in the school, perhaps an employment office. Find ways to have the school flow into the business community. Make the connections."

"Schools should be open and used 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!"

"Extra-curricular activities are hugely important to students - they have to be well-resourced. Everyone has to have a role to play at school. So it's also important to have lots of co-op placements available for students to try various work placements."

Student Trustees on Oct. 3/08:
"My school would make a lot of room for the performing arts. This is where kids really get to discover who they are. At my school right now all the money being fundraised goes to sports or other priorities."

"I would have fewer teachers who have a university degree. That may be part of why trades are not favored. Agree that teaching needs to be more about mentoring than teaching."

"There needs to be better orientation to trades. By the time we get to high school, it’s too late to make that choice. When I was younger, parents did not encourage their kids to go in trades but now it’s changing because there is a shortage and a recognition that there is money to be made. Except now (in high school) it’s to late to do something about it. That’s why we need to bring back mandatory OAC, to create more time to try things like trades."

"It is a place where teachers really care for the students, where there is a lot of one on one attention. Where we are not just fed the curriculum. I had a piano teacher who was really the kind of teacher I wish all teachers could be. More of a mentor than a teacher."

"In our school we had an essentials math class where students were disengaged. We changed the environment in the class; we brought in some free food, and brought things in to personalize the classroom, changed the set-up. It really had an impact on the atmosphere of the class."

What do you think? Post your ideas on the comment wall below!