Saturday, June 26, 2010

What is a Kid-Friendly School?

A kid-friendly school is a school that puts the kids first. A kid-friendly school is one where kids are happy, healthy and learning.

I've had more experience with kid-unfriendly schools, so I can describe them in detail. I live in a well-regarded, very wealthy, suburban school district, which I now know enough to call "nominally high-performing." In our district, you will meet some kids who are depressed, anxious, stressed-out drudges, and others who are brittle, show-offy game-players. These are the good students, of course.

In our district, achievement trumps learning, and reputation trumps reality. If many of these kids get accepted to high-status colleges, this is considered proof that the school system did a good job. But I ask, how does it profit a child, to gain Harvard and lose her mind? I never again want to hear a parent brag about getting her child in to some competitive college, only to have the child suffer a nervous breakdown the first semester and come back home.

If the "great" public schools are really terrible, how terrible are the "bad" public schools?

3 comments:

  1. Love the title and your advocating FOR THE CHILD. Which some called "the product". It comes at a vital time. School budgets will be slashed and calls for privatization will be raised...( though how one finds profit in already financially strapped schools is a mystery never revealed. ) The effect of all this will be to turn up the heat on an already bubbling mess. The children need someone in their corner. Congratulations on your blog!

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  2. Congratulations on your blog. I, too, love the emphasis on the child and, of course, I love your ideas and your writing.

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  3. Thanks so much for starting this crucial discussion. I will visit often.

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