Boise workbook about How to make classes interesting

“I want you to be the director of

my college. You make class more interesting.”

A workbook by students at Boise Central High

Fred Banks Josephine Lopez

Commentaries by Students at Boise Central High School 2 tinyURL.com/BoiseWorkbook

ISBN-13: 978-1539097709 ISBN-10: 1539097706 Copyleft © 2016 It’s okay to copy these pages. Please do what we did: show these quotes to students and teachers, build discussions, then ask for changes in the school. Fred Banks Josephine Lopez Workbook committee This book is ready for photocopying. You can also get the free ebook from our OneDrive account. TINYURL.com/BoiseWorkbook Instructions: Print or photocopy pages 9-70 and put these pages on walls in front of students. Collect their comments and send the commentaries to [email protected] We’ll include the commentaries in the next edition of this workbook.

Send your comments to [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


The lecturing by teachers is boring us and leaves emotional scars in the minds of students. The students are handled like sheep. School is a prison for students. We develop a distaste for learning. We long for the time to pass, and we wish for school to simply be over. Josephine Lopez Liberty Academy Boise Central High School (written before the transformation of our school into five academies) Well equipped one-room rural school (with desks, blackboard, books, globe, artwork, stove, piano) in Oklahoma early 20th century From Wikicommons



Letter to teachers, parents and students

This collection of quotes and commentaries is a workbook. Our teachers at Boise Central High asked us to read these quotes. We wrote many comments and those comments went into a report. Then we sent that report to our school district’s superintendent, Dr. Coberly. Dr. Coberly wrote back to us and said that he would take



these suggestions to the school board.

Four months later, our school was broken into five academies. We went from a big school of 600 students to five smaller schools, each with about 120 students each. This followed the Big Picture school model from Rhode Island. You can read about it at BigPicture.org.



We like our small academies. This workbook is a way of saying “thank you” to Dr. Coberly and the Board of Trustees for our schools. We collected quotes and made this workbook for students and parents and teachers to use. Have fun and send us your comments so we can add your commentaries to our next edition. Fred Banks, class of 2017 [email protected]

We have formatted this workbook as 8.5 inches by 11 inches so it can be printed easily by your teachers and parents. The




final copy of the book should be done in a smaller size, we believe, so that students and parents can carry the book with them. Put the quotes in front of students. Invite students to make comments about the quotes. Then type the commentaries into the workbook. Distribute the workbook to the district supervisor and wait for changes in your school. It worked for Boise Central High School. Our five academies are called Liberty, Peace, Unity, Equality, and Justice, named after the academies at Big Picture School in Providence, R.I.



http://www.themethighschool.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=384346&type=d&pREC_ID=885572

Our five academies are called Liberty, Peace, Unity, Equality, and Justice, named after the academies at Big Picture School in Providence, R.I. You can photocopy pages 9 to 52 and put the pages around your classroom. Who knows what students will respond to…?





To the students... What are your comments about these quotes? Quotes from Neil Postman

Now, what is it that students do in the classroom? Well, mostly they sit and listen to the teacher. Mostly, they are required to believe in authorities, or at least pretend to such belief when they take tests. Mostly they are required to remember. They are almost never required to make observations, formulate definitions, or perform any intellectual operations that go beyond repeating what someone else says is true. They are rarely encouraged to ask substantive questions. permalink Neil Postman Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969)

Here is the challenge to the students at Boise Central High School. Can you put this quote into words that my grandmother will understand? COMMENTARIES BY STUDENTS GO HERE Explain your thoughts _______________________________________________________ _________________________________ YOUR NAME (or “anonymous”)


http://www.qotd.org/search/single.html?qid=69114


What is Neil Postman’s solution?

Students should be asked:

1. to make observations, 2. To ___________ definitions, or 3. To perform any intellectual operations

that go beyond repeating what someone else says is true.

FOR EXAMPLE: _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________

4. to ask ___________ questions.

Neil Postman wrote something like this in his book Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969)


What words do you want to put in this quote? COMMENTARIES BY STUDENTS GO HERE _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________





How can we encourage other people to look at these books? At Boise Central High School, we created posters and we used quotes from the books. Maybe you can create posters, too.



The Big Picture By Dennis Littky

“The best way to create a positive school culture, with a supportive, nurturing

atmosphere, is to start by creating a small school. The research has shown over and over again that students in small schools perform better in math and science and have better attitudes towards learning, lower dropout rates, better attendance” (page 66).



Teaching as a Subversive Activity by Neil Postman

“Try listening to your students for a day or two. We do not mean reacting to what they say. We mean listening. If you are like most teachers, your training has probably not

included learning how to listen. The principal reason for your learning how to listen to students is that you may increase your understanding of what the students perceive as relevant. The only way to know where a kid is 'at' is to listen to what he is saying. You can't do this if you are talking.” (Chapter 12, page 168).



WORKBOOK ACTIVITY

To the students...

What are your comments about these quotes? Quote f#1 from Neil Postman CHAPTER 12

What should a teacher do? Your first act of teaching might be conducted in the

following way: write on a scrap of paper these questions: What am I going to have my students do today? What's it good for? How do I know? Tape the paper to the mirror in your bathroom or some other place where you are likely to see it every morning If nothing else, the questions will begin to make you uneasy about shilling for someone else and might weaken your interest in 'following the syllabus'.

You may even, after a while, become nauseous at the prospect of teaching things which have a specious value or for which there is no evidence that your anticipated outcomes do, in fact, occur. At their best, the questions will drive you to reconsider almost everything you are doing.

In the end, it all may cost you your job or drive you out of teaching altogether. Subversion is a risky business - as risky for its agent as for its target. COMMENTARIES BY STUDENTS GO HERE _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS: (give your name or write “anonymous” or make up a name. Explain why you think this is a good procedure or suggest another idea.



WORKBOOK ACTIVITY To the students...

What are your comments about these quotes? Quote #2 from Neil Postman CHAPTER 12 What should a teacher do?

Try listening to your students for a day or two. We do not mean reacting to what they say. We mean listening. This may require that you do some role-playing. Imagine, for example, that you are not their teacher but a psychiatrist (or some such person) who is not primarily trying to teach but who is trying to understand. Any questions you ask or remarks you make would, therefore, not be designed to instruct or judge. They would be attempts to clarify what someone has said. If you are like most teachers, your training has probably not included learning how to listen. Here is a particularly effective technique for teaching listening: the students engage in a discussion of some issue about which they have strong feelings. But their discussion has an unusual rule applied to it. A student may say anything he wishes but only after he has restated what the previous speaker has said to that speaker's satisfaction. Astounding things happen to students when they go through this experience. They find themselves concentrating on what others are saying to the point, sometimes, of forgetting what they



themselves were going to say. In some cases, students have a unique experience. They find that they have projected themselves into the frame of mind of another person. You might wish to make this special listening game a permanent part of your weekly lessons. The principal reason for your learning how to listen to students is that you may increase your understanding of what the students perceive as relevant. The only way to know where a kid is 'at' is to listen to what he is saying. You can't do this if you are talking. Comments by students (write on the back of this page INSTRUCTIONS (give your name or write “anonymous” or make up a name. Explain why you think this is a good procedure or suggest another idea.

What was your topic for conversation? Did you take time to restate the other person’s view before you said something? Give an example sl that a reader can understand what the exercise did to you. “What I heard you saying is that xxxxx ... Here’s my response…” COMMENTARIES BY STUDENTS GO HERE _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________




What are your comments about these quotes? Quote #3 from Neil Postman CHAPTER 12

“At its best, schooling can be about how to make a life, which is quite different from how to make a living.” Neil Postman

Neil Postman died in 2003. What would you say to him if he were to walk into the room and observe your class? COMMENTARIES BY STUDENTS GO HERE _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________




What are your comments about these quotes? Quote #4 from Neil Postman CHAPTER 3 What should a teacher do? Page 34 The INQUIRY teacher

The teacher rarely tells the student what he thinks they ought to know. He believes that telling, when used as a basic teaching strategy, deprives students of the excitement of doing their own finding and of the opportunity for increasing their power as learners. His basic mode of discourse with students is questioning. While he uses both convergent and divergent questions, he regards the latter as the more important tool. He emphatically does not view questions as a means of seducing students into parroting the text or syllabus; rather, he sees questions as instruments to open engaged minds to unsuspected possibilities.

Generally, he does not accept a single statement as an answer to a question. In fact, he has a persisting aversion a anyone, any syllabus, any text that offers the Right Answers. Not because answers and solutions are unwelcome - indeed, he is trying to help students be more efficient problem solvers - but because he knows how often the Right Answer saves only to terminate further thought. He knows too, power of pluralizing.

He does not ask for the reason, but for the reasons. Not for the cause, but the causes…. never the meaning, the meanings. He knows, too, the power of contingent thinking. He is the most 'It depends' learners in his class.

He encourages student-student interaction as opposed to student-teacher interaction. Generally, each of his lessons poses a problem for students. Almost all of his questions,

proposed activities and assignments are aimed at having his students clarify a problem, make observations relevant to the solution of the problem, and make generalizations based on their observations.



His goal is to engage students in those activities which produce knowledge: defining, questioning, observing, classifying, generalizing, verifying, applying. As we have said, all knowledge is a result of these activities. Whatever we think we 'know' about astronomy, sociology, chemistry, biology,, etc, was discovered or invented by someone who was more or less an expert in using inductive methods of inquiry. Thus, our inquiry, or 'inductive', teacher is largely interested in helping his students to become more proficient as users of these methods. He measures his success in terms of behavioral changes in students: How often do they ask questions; the increase in the relevance of their questions; the frequency and conviction of their challenges to assertions made by other students or teachers or textbooks; the relevance and clarity of the standards on which they base their challenges; their willingness to suspend judgments when they have insufficient data; their willingness to modify or change their position when data warrant such change; the increase in their skill in observing, classifying, generalizing, etc; the increase in their tolerance for diverse answers; their ability to apply generalizations, attitudes and information to novel situations. Comments by students (write on the back of this page) COMMENTARIES BY STUDENTS GO HERE

INSTRUCTIONS (give your name or write “anonymous” or make up a name. Explain why you think this is a good procedure or suggest another idea. COMMENTARY Which of these actions by the “Inquiry teacher” do you like? Why? _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ Why is the teacher called “an inquiry teacher”? _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________




What are your comments about these quotes? Quote #5 from Neil Postman CHAPTER 12

HERE IS A LONG quote. It is worth looking at the dialog below. For example, the following incident - in this case outside of a classroom - is representative of the difference between a stereotypic and a suspended judgment. A man and his seventeen-year-old son on Monday evening had a 'discussion' about the need for the son to defer his social activities on week nights until he has finished doing all of the homework he has for school the next day. It is now Wednesday evening, forty-eight hours later, about 7.30 p.m. Father is watching TV. Son emerges from his room and begins to put on a jacket. FATHER: Where are you going? SON: Out. FATHER: Out where? SON: Just out. FATHER: Have you finished your homework? SON: Not yet. FATHER: I thought we decided (that's the way parents talk) that you wouldn't go out on weeknights until you'd finished your homework. SON: But I have to go out. FATHER: What do you mean you 'have to'? SON: I just do. FATHER: Well, you're not going out. You just have to learn to live up to the terms of the agreements you make. SON: But... FATHER: That's all. I want no back talk. MOTHER: Please. Let him go out. He'll be back soon FATHER: I don't want you butting in. MOTHER (to son): Go ahead. It will be all right. (Son exits.) FATHER (in a rage): What the hell do you mean by encouraging his impertinence. How do you expect him to learn responsibility if you side with him in an argument with me) How... MOTHER (interrupting): Do you know what tomorrow is? FATHER: What the hell has that got to do with it? Tomorrow's Thursday. MOTHER: Yes, and it's your birthday.



FATHER: (Silence.) MOTHER: Your son has been making a birthday gift for you at Jack's house. He wanted it to be a surprise for you tomorrow morning. A nice start for the day. He has just a bit more work to do on it to finish it. He wanted to get it done as early as possible tonight so he could bring it home and wrap it up for tomorrow and then he'd still have time to do his homework.

Well, you see how easy it is to judge someone as something on the basis of x amount of data. Learning to suspend judgment can be most liberating. You might find that it makes you a better learner, too. COMMENTARIES BY STUDENTS GO HERE _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________




What are your comments about these quotes?

Quote #6 from Neil Postman page 22 What should a teacher do? Teacher asks. Student answers. Have you ever heard of a student who replied to a question, 'Does anyone know the answer to that question?' or 'I don't understand what I would have to do in order to find an answer', or 'I have been asked that question before and, frankly, I've never understood what it meant? Such behavior would invariably result in some form of penalty and is avoided, except by 'wise guys'. Thus, students learn not to value it. They get the message. And yet few teachers consciously articulate such a message. It is not part of the 'content' of their instruction. No teacher even said: 'Don't value uncertainty and tentativeness. Don't question questions.

Above all, don't think.' The message is communicated quietly, insidiously, relentlessly and effectively through the structure of the classroom: through the role of the teacher, the role of the student, the rules of their verbal game, the rights that are assigned, the arrangements made for communication, the 'doings' that are praised or censured. In other words, the medium is the message. Have you ever heard of a student taking notes on the remarks of another student? Probably not. Because the organization of the classroom makes it clear



that what students say is not the 'content' of instruction. Therefore, it will not be included on tests. Therefore, they can ignore it. Have you ever heard of a student indicating an interest in how a textbook writer arrived at his conclusions? Rarely, we would guess. Most students are unaware that textbooks are written by human beings. Besides, the classroom structure does not suggest that the processes of inquiry are of any importance. Have you ever heard of a student suggesting a more useful definition of something that the teacher has already defined? Or of a student who asked, 'Whose facts are those?' Or of a student who asked, 'What is a fact?' Or of a student who asked, 'Why are we doing this work?' Comments by students (write on the back of this page INSTRUCTIONS (give your name or write “anonymous” or make up a name. Explain why you think this is a good procedure or suggest another idea. COMMENTARIES BY STUDENTS GO HERE _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________




What are your comments about these quotes? Quote f#7 from Neil Postman CHAPTER 12 G. B. Shaw's line that the only time his education was

interrupted was when he was in school captures the sense of this alienation. The learner comes to understand that what he is asked to think about in school has no value for what he needs to learn to think about outside school. PARODY ("Well, children, what shall we study today?' ''Gee, teacher, can't you tell us what we went to study for a change?') a teacher can, without injuring the learning process, suggest all sorts of things for study. No one has ever said that children themselves are the only, or necessarily the best, source for articulating relevant areas of inquiry. unless the learner perceives an inquiry as relevant, no significant learning will take place.



No one will learn anything he doesn't want to know. And if he is made to - that is, forced to act as if he does - he and his teacher will regret it. COMMENTARIES BY STUDENTS GO HERE _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________




What are your comments about these quotes? Quote #8 From a book called “Let’s Lecture Less”

Two teachers shared with me how they work as “guides on the side.” I teach college level students and find peer tutoring to be a good strategy. Being able to show others how to solve problems and discuss different approaches is effective. It builds their confidence in their skills and the small group is less intimidating. As the semester goes on I often find students in our math lab working together on assignments and studying for exams. Eileen Perez

It is important to learn by doing. I teach students ages 5 to 7 and I ask them to teach each other (“peer tutoring”). They learn from each other so well and the teacher can accomplish the same objectives without lecturing. Hands-on-activities also help students retain information. I agree with the quote by Zull (2002), since lecturing does not help me retain very much information. Aparna Bhargava COMMENTARIES BY STUDENTS GO HERE _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



This is a section for young men who think it’s “cool” to pester a young woman until she agrees to go on a date with him. . I’m curious. Do young men have a hard time admitting that women are superior? More women attend college than men.

Butterflies Don't take women for granted, They have a hard time Don't misunderstand them Don’t play with their minds Treat them so gently, it will pay you in time You've got to know They are the sensitive kind Many women can sense a change in temperature sooner than most men. Many women can hear a sound while they are sleeping. Most men will sleep through noises. Eight times the blood flows through the emotional center of the female brain. The same emotional center in men receives only 1/8th of the volume of blood. Women are more sensitive. The physical differences between men and women provide functional advantages and have survival value.



Men usually have greater upper body strength, build muscle easily, have thicker skin, bruise less easily and have a lower threshold of awareness of injuries to their extremities. Men are essentially built for physical confrontation and the use of force. The joints of men are well suited for throwing objects. A man’s skull is almost always thicker and stronger than a women’s. A man’s "thick headedness" help him look for risky behavior that usually involve collisions with other males or automobiles. Men invented the game "chicken", not women. Men, and a number of other male species of animals charge and crash into each other in their spare time. Women on the other hand have four times as many brain cells (neurons) connecting the right and left side of their brain. Men use their left brain to solve one problem one step at a time. Women have more efficient access to both sides of their brain and therefore greater use of their right brain.

Women can focus on more than one problem at one time and frequently prefer to solve problems through multiple activities at a time. Young girls find the conversations of young boys "boring".



In a complicated conversation, young boys express confusion and would rather play sports. Young men do not want to be in a conversation between 5 girls who are discussing three subjects at once! COMMENTARIES BY MALE STUDENTS _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ COMMENTARIES BY FEMALE STUDENTS _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



What questions should we ask in class? These are question that Neil Postman suggests. Put the questions on a wall and leave space for students to write their responses. We have framed - as we asked you to do - some questions, which, in our judgment, are responsive to the actual and immediate as against the fancied and future needs of learners in the world as it is (not as it was). In this, we have not surveyed thousands of students, but have consulted with many, mostly in junior and senior high school. We have tried variations of these questions with children in primary grades. By and large, the response was enthusiastic - end serious. There seemed to be

little doubt that, from the point of view of the students, these questions made much more sense than the ones they usually have to memorize the right answers to in school. At this point it might be worth noting that our list of questions is intended to 'educate' students. Contrary to conventional school practice, what that means is that we want to elicit from students the meanings that they have already stored up so that they may subject those meanings to a testing and verifying, reordering and reclassifying, modifying and extending process. In this process, the student is not a passive 'recipient'; he becomes an active producer of knowledge. The word 'educate' is closely related to the word 'educe'. …..this meant drawing out of a person something potential or latent. We can, after all, learn only in relation to what we already know. Again, contrary to common misconceptions, this means that if we don't know very much, our capability for learning is not very great. This idea - virtually by itself - requires a major revision in most of the metaphors that shape school policies and procedures. Reflect on these questions - and others that these can generate. Please do not merely react to them. These questions can be posted on a classroom wall and students can put comments below the questions.



What do you worry about most? What are the causes of your worries? Can any of your worries be eliminated? How? Which of them might you deal with first? How do you decide? Are there other people with the same problems? How do you know? How can you find out? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



If you had an important idea that you wanted to let everyone (in the world) know about, how might you go about letting them know? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



What bothers you most about adults? Why? How do you want to be similar to or different from adults you know when you become an adult? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



What, if anything, seems to you to be worth dying for? How did you come to believe this? What seems worth living for? How did you come to believe this? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



At the present moment, what would you most like to be - or be able to do? Why? What would you have to know in order to be able to do it? What would you have to do in order to get to know it? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



How can you tell 'good guys' from 'bad guys'? How can 'good' be distinguished from 'evil'? What kind of a person would you most like to be? How might you get to be this kind of person? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



At the present moment, what would you most like to be doing? Five years from now? Ten years from now? Why? What might you have to do to realize these hopes? What might you have to give up in order to do some or all of these things? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



When you hear or read or observe something, how do you know what it means? Where does meaning 'come from'? What does 'meaning' mean? How can you tell what something 'is' or whether it is? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



Where do words come from? Where do symbols come from? Why do symbols change? Where does knowledge come from? What do you think are sane of man's most important ideas? Where did they come from? Why? How? Now what? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



What's a 'good idea'? How do you know when a good or live idea becomes a bad or dead idea? Which of man's ideas would we be better off forgetting? How do you decide? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



What is 'progress'? What is 'change'? What are the most obvious causes of change? What are the least apparent? What conditions are necessary in order for change to occur? What kinds of changes are going on right now? Which are important? How are they similar to or different from other changes that have occurred? What are the relationships between new ideas and change? Where do new ideas come from? How come? So what? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



If you wanted to stop one of the changes going on now (pick one), how would you go about it? What consequences would you have to consider? Of the important changes going on in our society, which should be encouraged and which resisted? Why? How? What are the most important changes that have occurred in the past ten years? Twenty years? Fifty years? In the last year? In the last six months? Last month? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



What will be the most important changes next month? Next year? Next decade? How can you tell? So what? What would you change if you could? How might you go about it? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ Of those changes, which are going, to occur, which would you stop if you could? Why? How? So what?



Who do you think has the most important things to say today? To whom? How? Why? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



What are the dumbest and more dangerous ideas that are 'popular' today? Why do you think so? Where did these ideas come from? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



What are the conditions necessary for life to survive? Plants? Animals? Humans? Which of these conditions are necessary for all life Which ones for plants? Which ones for animals? Which ones for humans? What are the greatest threats to all forms of life? To plants? To animals? To humans? What are some of the 'strategies' living things use to survive'? Which unique to plants? Which unique to animals? Which unique to humans? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



What kinds of human survival strategies are (1) similar to those of animals and plants; (2) different from animals and plants? What does man's language permit him to develop as survival strategies that animals cannot develop? How might man's survival activities be different from what they are if he did not have language? What other 'languages' does man have besides those consisting of words? What functions do these 'languages' serve? Why and how do they originate? Can you invent a new one? How might you start? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



What would happen, what difference would it make, what would man not be able to do if he had no number (mathematical) languages? How many symbol systems does man have? How come? So what? What are some good symbols? Some bad? What good symbols could we use that we do not have? What bad symbols do we have that we'd be better off without? Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



What's worth knowing? How do you decide? What are some ways to go about getting to know what's worth knowing?

Commentaries by students You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



Neil Postman gives these instructions to teachers... It is necessary for us to say at once that these questions are not intended to present a catechism for the new education. These are samples and illustrations of the kinds of questions we think worth answering. Our set of questions is best regarded as a metaphor of our sense of relevance.

The new education is a process and will not suffer from the applied imaginations of all who wish to be a part of it. But in evaluating your own questions, as well as ours, bear in mind that there are certain standards that must be used. These standards may also be stated in the form of questions: Will your questions increase the learner's will as well as his capacity to learn? Will they help to give him a sense of joy in learning? Will they help to provide the learners with confidence in his ability to learn? In order to get answers, will the learner be required to make inquiries? (Ask further questions, clarify terms, make observations, classify data, etc.?) Does each question allow for alternative answers (which implies alternative modes of inquiry) Will



the process of answering the questions tend to stress the uniqueness of the learner? Would the questions produce different answers if asked at different stages of the learner's development? Will the answers help the learner to sense and understand the universals in the human condition and so enhance his ability to draw closer to other people? Commentaries by students (after reading the questions on this page) You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



Commentaries by Students about Boise Central High We are happy that the superintendent Dr. Coberly decided in 2010 to split up the school into five academies. Each academy has 120 students (approximately). The principal took a risk because he had to cut his salary to help pay for the changes. Instead of having over 600 students in one school, with a bigger budget, he is one of five principals of the little academies. He got this idea from Big Picture Schools in Providence, R.I. You can read more about “the size of schools” by reading pages 66 to 70 in Littky’s book, The Big Picture: education is Everyone’s Business. Here’s what Littky writes: Small Schools

I want to go to The Met because I feel I could do better in a smaller school. Without being nervous. When I get nervous, I can’t think right and stay focused. Sometimes I’m afraid to speak in class because I think people might not understand how I see things in a different way. So it’s hard to explain myself in classroom discussions. When things like that occur, I don’t feel like going to school. I start to lose interest in school. I feel like if I lose interest, I fail. But I wanna do good in school. So I think if I go to this school, I would do much better ’cause it’s a small school. ~ From an 8th grader’s Met application essay ------------------------------------------------------------------------------



The best way to create a positive school culture, with a supportive, nurturing atmosphere, is to start by creating a small school . The research has shown over and over again that students in small schools perform better in math and science and have better attitudes towards learning, lower dropout rates, better attendance—the list goes on and on.

Self-concept, sense of belonging, and interpersonal skills are much higher in students who go to small schools than in those who attend larger schools. Small schools also have a much higher rate of parent involvement, which we know contributes to higher academic performance. Finally, the research shows that small schools are safer and easier to secure. Think about this: A large public school system may spend more than 50 million dollars per year on school security! Instead of spending all that money to make their huge schools safer, why don’t they just use the money to make smaller schools?

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[In small schools,] the learning needs of students, not the organizational needs of the school, drive school operations.

~ Kathleen Cotton ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to Education Week, 60 percent of today’s high school students attend schools with at least 1,000 students (and, the article notes, many big schools are much, much bigger than that). Some small-school advocates blame one-time Harvard president James Conant as the instigator of today’s giant, impersonal high schools. In his 1959 book, The American High School Today, Conant argued that high schools could get academically stronger if they got bigger. He did, in fact, say this. But by “bigger,” Conant meant schools of 400 students, not thousands. It is sad that a simple misinterpretation of Conant’s words has led us to the warehouses we now call schools.

We need to look at the most current research and update our understanding of what schools should be. Thankfully, more people seem to be doing this, and there is at least lots of talk these days about how to



break up big schools and turn them into smaller ones. Bill and Melinda Gates have actually taken on the call for smaller schools as their own personal mission:

In less than four years of grantmaking, the Gates Foundation has transformed the notion of replacing large, “comprehensive” high schools with smaller, more personal models into a national movement. The world’s wealthiest philanthropy has earmarked nearly $700 million to states, school systems, and a range of nonprofit organizations to create 1,400 mostly urban high schools of 400 or fewer students each—some of them in new locations, some of them in large, existing high school buildings that have been subdivided.

But even in light of this, progress is slow and difficult. Debbie Meier told me about a town (one, I’m sure, that is not unique in its thinking) that wanted smaller schools, but was afraid that too much competition would arise in the community if there were more than one school serving the same grade levels. The town “compromised” by decreasing the number of grade levels per building. The thing is, it now has a school with 800 7th and 8th graders, and a K–2 school with nearly 1,000 kids. To avoid competition, the town set up “smaller” schools that are nowhere near small. Of course, inside these schools, teachers are still giving grades and tests and handing out honors that are mired in competition. Rather than thinking of small schools as creating unnecessary competition, why not think of them as creating very necessary choice for parents and kids about where they go to learn?

When we started Shoreham-Wading River, we had 300 kids, and we added more every year. When enrollment reached 600, I broke the school up into three small “schools”: one for 6th grade, one for 7th, and one for 8th. It seemed like a natural division; plus, we had approximately 200 students in each of these grade levels. After a while, though, we realized that separating the grade levels in this way meant that every year, teachers were getting kids they’d never met before. So we changed things up, putting 6th, 7th, and 8th graders together in three small, 200-student “schools,” which would allow teachers who worked together to share the same small group of kids over time. That was in 1972. I didn’t do it because “schools-within-schools” was a cool idea at the time. I did it because I wanted my teachers to know their kids as well as possible, and I knew that size mattered.



From an educator’s point of view, nearly everything is easier in a small school. It’s easier to lead a small staff, easier to coordinate activities, and, most importantly, easier to know the students personally. The downside, to some people, is that small schools don’t always have all the specialists (like art or music teachers) or the powerhouse sports programs. But the upside is you have a community that can include everyone. As Debbie Meier has pointed out so perceptively, kids will find “small schools” within big schools anyway. That’s what cliques and teams and gangs and clubs are all about!

In 2001, public school construction was the largest category of public construction spending in the United States, according to the Commerce Department. Great. But the problem is they keep building big schools! In addition, the U.S. Department of Education is still giving out the usual money to build and support big schools. Recently, the Feds have started to give out more money to break down big schools into small schools. But the question is so obvious. Why don’t they just build small schools in the first place?

Commentaries by students (after reading the questions on this page) You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



From a speech by Bill Gates

These are schools built on principles that can be applied anywhere – the new three R’s, the basic building blocks of better high schools:

● The first R is Rigor – making sure all students are given a challenging curriculum that prepares them for college or work;

● The second R is Relevance – making sure kids have courses and projects that clearly relate to their lives and their goals;

● The third R is Relationships – making sure kids have a number of adults who know them, look out for them, and push them to achieve.

The three R’s are almost always easier to promote in smaller high schools. The smaller size gives teachers and staff the chance to create an environment where students achieve at a higher level and rarely fall through the cracks. Students in smaller schools are more motivated, have higher attendance rates, feel safer, and graduate and attend college in higher numbers.

Commentaries by students (after reading the questions on this page) You can put your comments on other pages _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



The teacher of the future is a GUIDE on the SIDE, not a sage on the stage. Aphorism* Commentaries by students _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



Education is NOT the filling of a pail, but rather the LIGHTING of a FIRE. W. Yeats Commentaries by students _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



Most students might forget what you taught them, but they will always remember how you treated them. Aphorism* Commentaries by students _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



I never let school get in the way of my education. Mark Twain Commentaries by students _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



Drive out fear. W. Edwards Deming Commentaries by students _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



Keep "Talking Time" to a minimum. Aphorism* Commentaries by students _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist.” Maria Montessori Commentaries by students _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



Let’s create people who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done. Jean Piaget Commentaries by students _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



Many teachers believe that they need to control how they teach and how they test. Other teachers negotiate with their students what they will learn, when they will learn it and how we will check that they have learned it. Dennis Yuzenas, WhatDoYaKnow.com Commentaries by students _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



Until we find the child’s passion, it’s just school. When the child finds his passion, we teach to that passion. We can find internships for high school students: Kids say, “I love this internship!” Dennis Littky, www.MetCenter.org Commentaries by students _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



Unfortunately, to most people, teaching is the giving of knowledge. What are you going to tell the students? What is your expertise? But teaching is really about bringing out what's already inside people. Dennis Littky, www.MetCenter.org Commentaries by students _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



If individuals have different kinds of minds, with varied strengths, interests and strategies, then could biology, math and history be taught AND ASSESSED in a variety of ways? Howard Gardner, Intelligence Reframed, p. 167. Commentaries by students _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



Trust. Truth. No Put-downs. Active Listening. Personal Best. Seen on a banner at www.NewCitySchool.org, St. Commentaries by students _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________



We hope you enjoy this workbook. Send your comments to Boise Central High School Attention: Workbook Project Email [email protected] THANK YOU Fred Banks Josephine Lopez Workbook committee




DESCRIPTION for the ebook This book is ready for photocopying. You can also get the free ebook from our OneDrive account. TINYURL.com/BoiseWorkbook Instructions: Print or photocopy pages 9-70 and put these pages on walls in front of students. Collect their comments and send the commentaries to TrintaAnos AT live.com We’ll include the commentaries in the next edition of this workbook. The lecturing by teachers is boring us and leaves emotional scars in the minds of students. The students are handled like sheep. School is a prison for students. We develop a distaste for learning. We long for the time to pass, and we wish for school to simply be over. Josephine Lopez Liberty Academy Boise Central High School (written before the transformation of our school into five academies)



Well equipped one-room rural school (with desks, blackboard, books, globe, artwork, stove, piano) in Oklahoma early 20th century From Wikicommons Letter to teachers, parents and students This collection of quotes and commentaries is a workbook. Our teachers at Boise Central High asked us to read these quotes. We wrote many comments and those comments went into a report. Then we sent that report to our school district’s superintendent, Dr. Coberly. Dr. Coberly wrote back to us and said that he would take these suggestions to the school board. Four months later, our school was broken into five academies. We went from a big school of 600 students to five smaller schools, each with about 120 students each. This followed the Big Picture school model from Rhode Island. You can read about it at BigPicture.org. We like our small academies. This workbook is a way of saying “thank you” to Dr. Coberly and the Board of Trustees for our schools. We collected quotes and made this workbook for students and parents and teachers to use. Have fun and send us your comments so we can add your commentaries to our next edition. Fred Banks, class of 2017 trintaanos AT live.com



We have formatted this workbook as 8.5 inches by 11 inches so it can be printed easily by your teachers and parents. The final copy of the book should be done in a smaller size, we believe, so that students and parents can carry the book with them. Put the quotes in front of students. Invite students to make comments about the quotes. Then type the commentaries into the workbook. Distribute the workbook to the district supervisor and wait for changes in your school. It worked for Boise Central High School. Our five academies are called Liberty, Peace, Unity, Equality, and Justice, named after the academies at Big Picture School in Providence, R.I. Our five academies are called Liberty, Peace, Unity, Equality, and Justice, named after the academies at Big Picture School in Providence, R.I. You can photocopy pages 9 to 69 and put the pages around your classroom. Who knows what students will respond to…? To the students... What are your comments about these quotes? Quotes from Neil Postman



Now, what is it that students do in the classroom? Well, mostly they sit and listen to the teacher. Mostly, they are required to believe in authorities, or at least pretend to such belief when they take tests. Mostly they are required to remember. They are almost never required to make observations, formulate definitions, or perform any intellectual operations that go beyond repeating what someone else says is true. They are rarely encouraged to ask substantive questions. permalink Neil Postman Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969) Here is the challenge to the students at Boise Central High School. Can you put this quote into words that my grandmother will understand? COMMENTARIES BY STUDENTS GO HERE Explain your thoughts (This shows you how the book is laid out) Send your comments to TrintaAnos AT live.com
