Part 2 of 2
What makes a high school great? That sounds like one of those blitheringly obvious questions. But the more you look into it, the more you realize that the answer depends on what we think high schools are supposed to do. And that is something we seem to have lost sight of.
By many people’s standards, some of the best high schools in the country are located here in metropolitan Grand Rapids. Jenison High School and Forest Hills Northern both regularly score well in tests to identify the nation’s top high schools. I personally think that East Grand Rapids High School and City High ought to be on the list as well, and there are many other fine schools in the area that deserve to be recognized.
The list that really seems to count is based on the Challenge Index invented by Jay Mathews, a Washington Post education reporter. Newsweek used the index to identify over a thousand of the best, most challenging schools in the country.
The only West Michigan high school appearing in Newsweek’s top one hundred list is the Black River Public School in Holland. BRPS is a college preparatory, liberal arts, charter school managed by Grand Valley State University. It placed 55th in the country last school year – a thumping good performance for such a young school.
We talk about “getting our kids into the best schools” as though schooling were something that can’t be erased, something that provides lifelong distinction – like an exceptionally good tattoo. We hope that our chosen schools will provide a good education. But even if they don’t, we want them to provide a good credential. The truth is, if you come from a family that really values education, you can probably do pretty well even in an average or poor school.
Right now, Americans are giving an unprecedented amount of thought to the problem of how our children should be educated. And it all stems from our common concern that we are falling behind. Reversing that trend – real or perceived – and building an enterprising, truly sustainable society ultimately depends on a system of higher learning that empowers and educates people to their peak potential.
Adapting the System
Here are a few of the more interesting ideas and trends designed to achieve that utterly essential goal:
The “small-school movement” calls for high schools with enrollments under 600 pupils. It would break up larger high schools and funnel the students into smaller schools or into segregated tracks within large institutions. Early results have been mixed, but not electrifyingly successful. After much fanfare, the movement has flagged a bit, losing confidence among early proponents like the Gates Foundation.
Separating girls and boys, or gender-separate education, is another philosophy touted to improve learning performance. Parents and school officials in Muskegon, in fact, are currently debating such an approach. Only 149 public schools in America used this strategy in 2004. There must be many more examples to gauge success and, with sympathy growing for this approach, there will be. We at least need to relieve middle-schoolers in particular of the constant interruption of their hormones during school hours.
The tried and true classic liberal arts approach concentrates on the main disciplines and themes of western civilization itself. It includes reading and literature, science and math, language, history, arts and music. The overarching goal is to produce educated, well-rounded individuals.
And why don’t we take citizenship skills more seriously? The civics classes of yesteryear may never have been all that good. But now they barely exist at all. I’m not talking about whitewashing our ancestors, but about instilling a sense of mission and civic responsibility among our young people. Culture may be relative, but having a culture is not.
Early college programs offer university-level classes to high schoolers, so when they enter college for real, they already hold an associate’s degree. Kind of like speeding up the treadmill.z
Boutique schools are popular nowadays. They cater to narrow career paths, turning out specialty graduates – little filmmakers or thespians, golfers or skaters, or perhaps musicians. I suspect these schools are often more about fulfilling the fantasies of parents than they are about what the kids want or need. But sometimes – say, when you have a budding prodigy in the family – there may be no substitute for them.
The common thread in all these approaches seems to be a conscious move toward greater educational rigor. We can hardly do otherwise. In the long run, I suspect that being able to succeed means also being able to fail.
Confucius Says…
I read recently about winners in a national science competition. One of the more striking aspects of science and mathematics competitions is the incredible dominance of winners with Asian names. I don’t want to blunder into a thicket of ethnic or racial stereotyping. But you have to wonder what Asian parents are doing right.
Asian parents consider education to be the supreme gift they can bestow upon their children, even if the family is poor, according to Frederick Uy, an associate professor of mathematics education at California State University,
“Asian parents make a concerted effort to see that their children grow up respectful, humble, patient, conscientious, and obedient," Uy says. "Parental rules must be followed at all times and sometimes at all costs."
“Parents point out early in life that nothing is handed out freely, that everything must be earned, that hard work and effort will pay off in the future, and that children must be patient as their time will come. This approach to life is very Confucian—both hard work and discipline are essential in success.”
By way of disclosure, I come to the education discussion not as an educator, but rather as a former student and parent of students who worries about how well our children are doing academically, and what their success or failure means for the rest of us.
Ideas, not so much natural resources, are the essential raw material in the 21st knowledge economy. And experts agree that developing our human capital with modern schooling and skills is essential to industrial achievement, environmental stewardship, and social progress. In other words, great high schools and superior education – in its many forms – is the basis of a sustainable society.
Click here to read The Aspiration of Education, part one of this two part series.
Tom Leonard, the former executive director of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council, is a writer and independent consultant living in Grand Rapids.
Photos:
Students at Aquinas College
City High and Middle School
East Grand Rapids High School
East Grand Rapids High School
All Photographs © Brian Kelly