Thoughts On Alt Ed

I’ve been working with a very cool on-line publicist named
Claudia Brown and we recorded a series of phone conversations
about my thoughts and feelings on alternative education that
we’re translating in to short articles to be published
on the web at various sites.

Here is the first one in the series:

“Should Kids Have The Power To Hire and Fire Their Teachers?”

I think kids should have the power to hire and fire their teachers. Students are the ultimate customers. That being said, I don’t think a student should be able to get pissed off at a teacher and say, “You’re fired!” There has to be a trustworthy process like the election system used by the Sudbury Valley School of Framingham, Massachusetts. Each year, students vote on how well a staff member serves the community. They cast their vote about wanting that staff member return, or not. The majority rules.

These elections are real! There are times when staff members who have children attending the school are still voted out. It’s rare, but it happens. Having THIS much power makes a huge impact. Even considering their wide range of personalities, these kids generally tend to be a little more sensitive and compassionate than most because they’ve experienced the good and bad consequences of having meaningful community power. They live the impact of their votes, the emotional aftermath, and it shapes them.

Another way to look at this is: why should a teacher be in a classroom if the kids don’t want that person there? How much learning will take place when teachers don’t have the respect of their students? Voting a teacher in gives them confidence to lead, and voting them out gives the kids another chance with an adult who might inspire them.

There’s a stagnant quality to traditional education, and a “voting for staff” policy like they have at Sudbury Valley would loosen things up. It also fulfills President Bush’s stated goals about greater accountability in schools. Instead of his plan, though, which basically says, “Make tests all-important so that the budget is funded relative to test scores,” Sudbury’s sort of accountability comes from a person’s attempts to positively influence kids and asking them, ”Do you want this person in your community? Vote yes or no.” To me, THAT’S accountability. You have the teachers grading the kids; why not have the kids grading the teachers?

Let’s look further at the flip side. Why would you not have kids involved in the process of who’s teaching them? I think the main theory is adults know better because they have more experience. However, children know if they’re getting value out of somebody. They feel happy, sad, scared, or angry during interactions with adults, and they let those feelings guide them. Again, I’m not talking about giving all the power to one particular kid. This isn’t the tyranny of youth; it’s majority rule, and I have high regard for groups of people at any age. The majority gets things right the majority of the time.

A community where teachers and students are equals empowers everybody. Learning goes on between student and teacher that’s very different from traditional education. At Sudbury Valley, they learn as much about life from the adults eating next to them at lunch as they do during more formal lessons. Ultimately, this empowerment goes back to what schools are about: making children great citizens by simply giving them experiences of getting along together and solving conflicts inclusively.

I think becoming a great citizen happens far better in communities where adults are not saying, “We’re bigger and smarter, so we’re going to make the rules. We don’t trust you to contribute on issues that matter.” Adults who genuinely welcome the ideas and values of children are powerful role models. It’s extremely valuable for kids to be around people with that level of self-confidence, especially in an informal setting where they’re really, in a sense, just hanging out, and learning by osmosis. Because at the base of it is this: we are all equal, with our own gifts of experience or age or talent. The better a community can tap into the resources of its individuals, the stronger the community and its members will be. If we can offer kids the chance to be fully involved in their school communities, the future of our society will be in the hands of people with much more experience and compassion than in any generation that has come before.