Here are 22 radical ideas for our schools. They're intended to be scary, but they're not intended as "interesting discussion points:" I'm serious about each one. These are in no particular order - my favorites are scattered throughout.

Make high schools more like college, with less classtime, more independent work: Schools pretend to be preparing students for adult life, while preventing them from learning time-management by experience. Also, teachers don't have time for the behind-the-scenes work of education. Everyone is stretched too thin.

Eliminate homework. Going to school is a full-time job, yet we expect kids to take work home. While homework is correlated with academic achievement, it is a blunt instrument to force higher test scores. Reducing class time would let kids finish their 'homework' during the day and enjoy their lives more at night.

Open lunch and relaxed rules: Schools demand respect from students, while forcing them to live with rules that show no respect for them. Again, students will not learn how to live in society when even trivial actions are externally controlled. Let them manage their own lunchtimes. If they misbehave, their punishment should be part of the learning process.

Enhanced access to natural light and fresh air: Many studies have shown that natural light and windows that open (obviously a favorite of this website) improve learning and performance. Windows should open, and no more schools with tiny windows or no windows! What is the carbon-dioxide content of the air in your classrooms? The average lumens? Has it ever been checked?

End standardized testing! The educational process is corrupted by this simplistic trivia-based approach to measurement. The cost in lost learning far exceeds any supposed benefit in "accountability."

End "Phys Ed" and institute a health-club model combined with education in sustainable health. The Army- and sports- based model that has been used since the 1960's has failed to deliver healthier citizens. While this failure has been ongoing, our free-enterprise system has delivered a revolution in health by health-clubs with an inviting atmosphere, individualized training, and nutrition counselling.

Dump bad textbooks! The California-school-system-dominated textbook industry has delivered heavy, glossy, error-filled and DUMB textbooks. In any bookstore, better books on almost any subject can be found. If no good textbook can be found, then let there be no textbook - teachers will find a way. Reward students who find errors in textbooks: and have the class write the correct answers in the book. This will teach valuable skepticism and the willingness to find the right answer, not just the "right answer."

Return controversy to schools! The tight lid that is kept on diversity of opinion in schools ill-prepares students to live in a complex world. By the time students graduate from high school, they should have had a great deal of experience with controversy, and been trained to deal with it logically. High schools, in particular, should prepare students to function in a marketplace of ideas. People differ in how they think - learn to deal with it!

Religious freedom for teachers and students: No good purpose is served by muzzling school teachers and administrators from expressing their religious convictions. An education in handling controversy will prepare students to identify the religious message with the teacher instead of the school. (I know this raises hot constitutional issues, and I plan to write a page addressing them. So please write in what you think; you'll either help me clarify and reinforce my position or possibly change my mind so be as persuasive as you can.)

High quality school lunches: following the example of Chef BoBo at the Calhoun school in Manhattan. Proper diet can make a huge difference, not just in the classroom experience, but in a student's entire life.

Conflict-resolution classes: This should be part of the return to controversy. Few things make a person more employable than the ability to handle conflict constructively.

End DARE: it doesn't work. Be honest about drugs, stop exaggerating the dangers. The payoff will be more credibility (as it always is with honesty!)

News-based geography, math, and science curriculum. Have a track where lessons derive exclusively from the real world.

Music, art, and writing are more important than sports, or maybe even more important than calculus! Make no mistake - these are communication skills in a world where information is cheap but clarity is priceless.

Return to industrial arts classes: I have heard district administrators deride "shop" classes as "hobby" classes. Exactly who do they think builds the cities we all live in, the roads we all drive on, and the cars we all drive in? Besides, many a deep thinker can be found in the so-called "manual arts."

Provide tables and chairs for students to use! Self-contained desks are severely uncomfortable for at least half of all students. They are a painful insult to students whose bodies differ from those of mannequins. Well-designed movable chairs and decent cantilever tables are much better.

Unconventional buildings: Does your community have a failed shopping mall? It could be an education superstore with subject boutiques and a pleasant, open atmosphere.

Remember the one-room schoolhouse? People I know who do remember them tell me that older kids help younger kids, faster-learning kids progress faster in the company of the older kids, and slower-moving kids get a running review from the younger kids. It's worth thinking about and studying as an alternative for grades K-6.

Stop trying to create "well-rounded individuals!" This is a recipie for mediocrity. Let students find their passions and build on them. Accept the fact that they may get a "c" in topics they're not interested in.

End football, basketball, and baseball. These are expensive fantasy-programs that do more for adult egos than kids' futures. Note: for every kid who doesn't get to the pros in basketball because the program was cut, ten kids will pursue white-collar careers because the funding went to the English department. Let kids shoot hoops at the school health club for exercise.

End cursive handwriting in grade school: It isn't required in high school, and it isn't allowed in the business world. (We live in the age of "Please print or type." It's a huge waste of young children's effort and cooperation! The only standard kids should have to meet in their handwriting should be readability. Hint: how many adults do you know whose handwriting suffered at an early age, and never recovered?

Self-Education curriculum - have a track in both high school and college for kids who specialize in educating themselves, guided by mentors. A Bachelor of Arts in Self-Education would denote an individual specially trained in acquiring new information and synthesizing it into a whole.

Drama classes for teaching students in college - all prospective teachers should be required to take voice lessons, acting lessons, and participate in plays in college. A teacher is a professional speaker and should have a professional speakers' training.

Crazy? Impractical? Impossible to fund? Maybe not - maybe our problem is status-quo thinking. If we want to do it badly enough, we can do it. Want to give me suggestions, or just tell me I'm nuts? Write to george@wiman.us

Update, 20 April 2006: I received an email from Wendy F., a 2nd year teacher who offers these suggestions:

I'm a 2nd year teacher in Virginia who is currently completing my education classes for certification. I'd like to add some more radical ideas to your site... (or at least put them up for discussion...) I could add more to the list about teacher education and training (which is WOEFULLY inadequate, in my experience) but right now I'm writing a paper for my class on "my personal approach to teaching" and this is part of what I am going to submit:

"Radical Ideas about Education"

1. Corporately funded schools: Sony High School of Alexandria, etc. It worked for sports, why not education? Lower taxes, higher salaries. Imagine what a high school sponsored by Sony or Microsoft would look like. Even a school sponsored by McDonald's would have access to immense resources and opportunities. And, I think CEOs know just as much about education as legislators, and are less concerned with keeping their jobs. (being re-elected) So the policies could be democratically in the hand of the teachers themselves. (see 3 below)
2. Multilingual schools: Classes are taught by at least 3 teachers who are native speakers of languages. For example, English (literature) taught by native speakers of English, of Spanish, and of Korean, perhaps. The teaching of the information becomes the primary focus, and language acquisition second. This is also beneficial for the teaching of foreign language (not needed as a separate class) since studies have proven that immersion is the best way to learn another language.
3. Administrators are democratically elected on a 2-3 year cycle by the teaching staff of each school. These administrators continue to teach at least one class so that they keep in touch with a teacher's reality. Terms can be consecutive and without limit (unless set by the teachers by vote) and administrators elect higher administrators from amongst themselves.
4. Integrated subjects. Teachers move, not the students. For example, 9th grade world history begins with Ancient Mesopotamia and Greece. English studies the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Iliad/Odyssey, Math introduces Greek formulas, Drama performs Oedipus or Antigone or Medea, Art studies 2 dimensional forms and figures... and they all progress through the year together. One class stays together all the 4 years, keeping some teachers (English, Math) throughout their high school career.
5. Character education (civic values) is a required core class for all grades. Projects include Community Involvement: AIDS walks, church youth groups, little league teams, nursing home visits, school grounds upkeep, etc.
6. No grades. Teachers assess work collectively and determine a "monetary" value for the work (based on real world application where applicable) that is given as "payment" for the work. Students then "purchase" grades at the end of the quarter based on the "money in the bank" they have earned from their projects. "Money" could also be used to purchase privileges: study ("free") time, extra minutes at lunch, leaving early at the end of the day, etc.

- Wendy F.

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