School Bonds & School Binds

The school district I live in will be asking residents to support another bond referendum in November--after one failed last year. Other school districts in the surrounding area are also asking voters to approve millions of dollars to build new schools.  There has been much angst and ink about the ramifications--mainly the financial impact on homeowners and the tremendous growth that many areas are experiencing. This is happening not just in our state but everywhere in America. 

While financial impact is important, a greater question we should be asking is why are we spending billions of dollars constructing schools that are still a holdover from Frederick W. Taylor's and William Wirt's ideas from 1908?  What does this say to kids about their futures? 

Frank Kelly--an architect-- has written an excellent commentary in Education Week that asks some extremely important questions that all of us need to be asking our school boards, our legislatures, and other policy makers--before another dollar is spent on another school building.  Questions such as

“What do our school buildings say about what we think is really important? What do schools that mimic architecture of other centuries say to children within them working on digital devices? Are out school buildings saying what we want to convey to teachers and students? ” 

He posits that "school districts have wasted vast sums on new technology by inserting it into the same classrooms where the same teachers used the same methods on the same fixed schedules."  We have made the technical changes without transitioning to the adaptive changes needed to truly transform education to meet the needs of digital learners.  A huge, scary task but a necessary one if are to prepare students to succeed in their futures.  Old practices should not constrain the creation of schools--the design should be driven by instruction. How do we want to teach? Not "How many classrooms do we need?".

I encourage you to send this article to your school board members--if they are even thinking about building new schools in your area--it is worth the $2.95 cost if you are not a subscriber to Education Week.