Churchland High School - Trucker Yearbook (Portsmouth, VA)

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Obsolete? Written by Alvin Toffler Reprinted from September 1972 SEVENTEEN. Copyright 1972 by Triangle Communication Inc. All Rights Reserved. Obsolete schools give only one kind of organizational experience — the standard lecture type in which one person dominates the group. Innovative schools are trying to give students experience with a variety of forms: student-led seminars; faculty-student interdisciplinary problem-solving teams; “open,”’ seemingly unstructured classes or projects; all in addition to the lecture system. This not only makes learning more interesting, it provides a taste of the organizational diversity we'll face in the future. 7. s it still age-segregated? Most high schools segregate one age group from another, creating a kind of age-based apartheid. Fifteen-year-olds. . . have little opportunity to learn from older students or help younger ones. . . . Schools should invite adults of all ages — including retired people from the nearby community — into the classrooms and the work teams, so that the generation gap is bridged. People from the community have a lot to teach. . . Similarly, older folks have a lot to learn from young people and can benefit from contact with the freshness of youth. One idea: Finding a ‘’community mentor’ for each student. . . so that the student has a chance to see that knowledge being put to practical use and has a chance to talk about it with someone rather than his teacher. 8. To what extent is racism (conscious or unconscious) part of the school atmosphere? We are moving into a world in which peoples of diverse backgrounds — racial, religious, national, as well as economic and educational — will be brought into first-hand contact with one another. The student who grows up dealing with only his or her “own kind” is ill- prepared for the new realities. Racismis. ..a question of psychological attitudes and hidden stereotypes. For a long time many blacks (not to mention Jews, Italians, Ukrainians, Catholics and others) were secretly ashamed of not looking like Doris Day or not being white Anglo-Saxon and Protestant. Survival in the decades ahead will be based on a recognition of the need for social diversity rather than uniformity,. . . 9. Is the school itself an ecological menace? Each school is part of the ecological network of the society. The school that pollutes or contributes to environmental breakdown is, by its very existence, teaching a lesson that damages the students’ chances for survival. In short, schools teach both through the formal program in the classroom and by the way they are conducted in relation to the community. A school that is ecologically irresponsible is not only a menace, it is a bad teacher, since its purpose presumably is to help students live better in the future — or even just live. 10. Do values get short shrift? The faster the world changes and the more complicated it grows, the harder it becomes for all of us as individuals, and as groups, to make sensible decisions. Anyone who thinks seriously about it for amoment will recognize that it is impossible for schools to avoid dealing with values. Schools that avoid discussion of the hard questions (such as ‘‘What an | living for?” “What would | be willing to die for — it anything?” ‘‘What are my responsibilities to society and the people close to me?” ‘‘What things are more important than others?”’) fail to develop the student’s ability to cope with rapid change and complex choice. This, then, is my test for academic obsolescence. It’s up to students, along with change-oriented educators and community people, to help bring the schools into the present so that they can help prepare all of us — young and old alike — for the future. Student Lite 15

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ml (Giab st@]akKOXONL Is Your High School No one has to tell you that something is wrong with America’s high schools. And most thinking people of all ages are ready to agree that those institutions are suffering from some gut-deep disease. But there’s little agreement about what is wrong. I'd like to suggest that the disease is obsolescence: most of our high schools are as Outdated as the stone ax. Routinely you are told that you must finish high school because it will help equip you to lead a better life “in the future.” Most adults view the future as a straightline continuation of the present. Yet we are living through a period of the most rapid change in history. Everything changes. Not all these changes are necessarily good. But good or bad, they are creating a future drastically different from the present. When we apply the idea of obsolescence to high schools. . . these are some of the questions | would ask: 1. Is its curriculum oriented toward the future? Hundreds of schools are now introducing fascinating courses. . . in which future life styles, Careers, crises, and opportunities are discussed. Courses in which students have a chance to prove their own values with respect to change. . . Students have a right to ask any teacher: ‘‘What does this have to do with my tomorrow?” 2. Does it offer action — learning opportunities? Not all learning takes place in the classroom. In recognition of that fact, some schools now make it possible for students to work at jobs, or to perform volunteer service in the community, and to get educational credit for it. Programs for care of the aged, for pollution control, traffic controls or noise control, full or part-time jobs in fields like photography, journalism, . . . if the school cooperates, can be turned into extremely valuable learning. 3. How diverse are the courses it offers? Are students saddled with too many requirements? Or are they able to choose from many alternatives? Most of us do recognize a need for certain basic requirements. We need the ability to read, write, and converse with others. We need certain shared knowledge. But. . . does the school allow a student to work out an independent study program? Can he or she take a Course at a nearby school or college, for credit? If not, why not? 4. Is the school run from the top down? Today most businesses and government organizations are set up as rigid hierarchies, with orders coming down a chain of command, very much like the army. Can students at the school really influence schedules, dress codes, curriculum? Or is the school still autocratic? Certainly, students should not have full control of curriculum or administrative matters. They may be permitted to decide how many dances to hold ina semester, but they are not allowed to deal with significant educational issues. Is the student government free to be critical of school policies? What about the school newspaper? Or are they simply a puppet government and a public relations mouthpiece? 5. Is the work largely routine? Some routines are necessary in life. Eating and sleeping are biologically required routines. But obsolete schools are so busy training us to use routines that they often drill the adaptability out of us. In the past, schools emphasized repetitive work because adult life was routine and repetitive. At the same time, as change in all fields makes us confront new problems and first- time situations in our personal lives, old habits, programmed behavior and routine responses become less and less helpful. 6. Does it offer alternatives to the lecture? Since time immemorial, school has meant a classroom in which an older person pumped knowledge into the heads of a large number of younger people.

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