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Off With Their Heads!

My sophomore class finally presented their Schools of the Future on Friday. We're reading Fahrenheit 451 and there is a blurb where Clarisse describes her own school. The students are a bit dazed by the idea that no one reads or asks questions, not even in school. Consensus seems to be that everyone should read (just not Lord of the Flies) and be allowed to ask questions. The ground rules for the project were that students had to look at actual tends in education, not dream up their ideal school - no cage-fighting training in PE; it's not going to happen.

There was a lot of technology involvement:
  • desks with computer embedded in them. No writing; everything typed on the computer keyboard. (save me a lot of time monitoring writing/pictures on the desks!)
  • robotic/virtual teachers (feel the love...)
  • attending school via the internet from home
  • much more education in the form of movies and video
  • computer engineering, programming and repair taught to all students, thus eliminating the 'technology department'. All students could repair their own equipment.
  • more maths, more complex maths, more science - although Geometry did not make the cut. I'm not sure how that would work in real life. "Yes, I'm taking Trig and Calculus, along with physics this semester, but I still don't know how to figure out the area of a square."
  • tracking/monitoring system for students, more video surveillance, electronic doors that do not open during class sessions

The most interesting portion was the question of the non-conformists, being identified as those who do not attend school or are only attending to keep out of jail/entertainment/ socializing/increase drug sales. One class, which doesn't really have to deal with this issue, came up with ideas like resurrecting the truant office, residential counseling and special classes. The other class, which until 2 weeks ago had several students in the second category and recently obtained a rather disruptive non-performer came up with much more draconian measures. They included arrest (already in place in WA state), shock collars, brainwashing and cerebral cortex implants to control movement. Do you think there's a message in this? I can tell you that loud laughter was not heard for the rest of the day and certain sections of the classroom were pretty silent after these presentations. Of course, it could just be the Bradbury novel (forgive the pun) fueling these ideas - the author describes a world in which non-conformists are killed or dragged off to the looney-bin.

Question - I've seen several books on teaching and school improvement for urban districts and was wondering if anyone knows of any that look at small rural districts? Although there are many similarities between the two, I think rural districts face some interesting situations that don't present themselves to urban districts.

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