I have recently returned from a Fulbright Scholarship for International Teacher Exchange. I have seen where our educational system is heading with standardized testing of children linked directly to funding. I would like the chance to stand up in front of all administrators and school boards and say stop. Let me tell you what I have seen. I feel like a sentinel scout who was sent out to see what we are headed into. The information gathered on this mission is invaluable. Then I feel as though I have returned from this mission and everyone is caught up in the details of how to stay afloat and there is not time to listen to the guy on the hill screaming "stop" I have seen the future and it ain’t pretty.
I have an idea.... Out of this frustration I sat down at my trusty lap top and wrote this theory for my own school. Now, I will be the first to say it is filled with flaws, but most are flaws directly linked to funding and accountability. But, the way I see it, that mirrors that we have now, and if nothing else, maybe, just maybe, it will get someone out there thinking about how we could change. I must say, I have the ear of my Superintendent. She is a visionary, but we are all in the stronghold of the larger community under the guides of bureaucracy and accountability not only to the governmental ideas of education, but to those of our physical community. I don't believe in being one of those people who throws stones and runs off. I would like to be one of those people who uses the stones to build a bigger idea.
So, If I owned my own School it would be called: The Interdisciplinary Renaissance School The students in this school are learners; they are not simply science, math, art, music, and language students. They are thinkers able to use all disciplines to develop informed ideas, questions, theories, and compositions. These students can communicate on applicable, human, verbal, visual, and intellectual levels. They are able to take risks because they are informed and intuitive. These are students who understand differences and use them to focus learning. They don¹t tolerate other ideas, they embrace them. They see the larger community beyond geographical boundaries. Travel is essential to understanding and applicable understanding is essential to learning as learning is essential to growth. You know these people, they understand the big picture and maintain a grasp on the details. They are leaders. They lead through knowledge, compassion, understanding, and humanism. These students gain a global understanding of other perspectives and how they can be part of the global community. Through essential exploration of how other cultures, live, learn, and understand these students then apply that knowledge to solving problems. The disciplines in this school are not confined to their own specialization. They are opened receptors to what other disciplines have to offer. Much like a child who has no bias, no preconceived notion. They learn by doing, applying and exploring knowledge in a serendipitous manner. Intellectual inquisitiveness is a major component of the student. How does art affect math, how does the finding drive a language, which can move a culture to develop scientific ideas? This is the essential idea of interdisciplinary learning. What informs what you do and how you do it? What cultural constraints are holding us back from our own growth? Why can¹t we cure cancer? Why can¹t we share ideas openly? Why do test scores, economics, and social constraints drive the educational process? Why must we standardize education when students are not standardized at birth? Why have we forgotten how to ask why and channel that curiosity into learning between all disciplines to see how it can answer the big and small questions of life and learning? The very definition of student is in question:
Dictionary stu·dent n
1. somebody who is studying at a school, college, or university
2. somebody who has studied or takes a great interest in a particular subject
adj
studying as part of the training for a job or profession (Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.) Why must that student take a great interest in a particular subject? Why not allow students to take a great interest in learning? Learning in its very core is not subject to one single idea. We learn while we walk, while we look at things, while we eat, drink, converse, write, read, explore, and live life. Students in an interdisciplinary Renaissance School are students who look at the whole picture. They then dissect that information for learning purposes. When we journey through life on a particular path, we need to remember to take diversions. The knowledge gained on those diversions will be brought back to your life journey and allow you to move further forward. Without diversions global learning is not existent, without global learning, global understanding is negated, without global understanding a humanistic approach towards each other and other cultures is dead. We will not advance beyond our own boundaries.