Time to Dream: 'Reflections on Paul Diederich and the Progressive American High School'
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| Title: | Time to Dream: 'Reflections on Paul Diederich and the Progressive American High School' |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | O'Connor, John S., Lessing, Avi D. |
| Source: | Schools: Studies in Education. Fall 2015 12(2):214-220. |
| Availability: | University of Chicago Press. Journals Division, P.O. Box 37005, Chicago, IL 60637. Tel: 877-705-1878; Tel: 773-753-3347; Fax: 877-705-1879; Fax: 773-753-0811; e-mail: subscriptions@press.uchicago.edu; Web site: http://www.press.uchicago.edu |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 7 |
| Publication Date: | 2015 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Descriptive |
| Education Level: | High Schools Secondary Education |
| Descriptors: | High Schools, Progressive Education, Educational Methods, Educational Practices, Educational Objectives, Criticism, Educational Attitudes, Relevance (Education) |
| DOI: | 10.1086/683215 |
| ISSN: | 1550-1175 |
| Abstract: | In this essay, John S. O'Connor and Avi D. Lessing discuss the increasingly reductive and routinized nature of contemporary schools and the costs such an approach holds for students and teachers alike. The current approach is especially troublesome in light of the rich history of progressive voices, such as Paul Diederich, who have cautioned against such an approach for the past 75 years. In the current education climate, schools often concern themselves with the most efficient ways of delivering education, cramming the school day with required classes and common assessments. The authors lament the consequences of these practices, which rob teachers and students of time (to reflect, to create, to think) and which ultimately rob them of their individuality. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Number of References: | 5 |
| Entry Date: | 2015 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1079918 |
| Database: | ERIC |
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| FullText | Links: – Type: pdflink Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwF6w1f2IM6a8GV6-ZGaCKD_AAAA4jCB3wYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHRMIHOAgEAMIHIBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDAVM8WUsh2_MJSqt0wIBEICBmn169Ds6XA9l6o4iyQToltFDOXK6dbMzr2X0poo0SnA-QjW8swDVDhwVTRtFek-4TI1KOz9m2HC_X2mN-2KlklQwSSXsnfUK1ZMEVek3KfNfmqDQizj1p0-YueLJ06ijtzHiylJPjxbAok9oPLMoCItUJomLiIF7Rr4Zv1KHTdlvmlW1Dv9OGQCEJcdaBdgOic-PTimny5bNEfk= Text: Availability: 1 Value: <anid>AN0110683482;[64yk]01sep.15;2018Oct10.11:31;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0110683482-1">Time to Dream. </title> <p>In this essay, John S. O'Connor and Avi D. Lessing discuss the increasingly reductive and routinized nature of contemporary schools and the costs such an approach holds for students and teachers alike. The current approach is especially troublesome in light of the rich history of progressive voices, such as Paul Diederich, who have cautioned against such an approach for the past 75 years. In the current education climate, schools often concern themselves with the most efficient ways of delivering education, cramming the school day with required classes and common assessments. The authors lament the consequences of these practices, which rob teachers and students of time (to reflect, to create, to think) and which ultimately rob them of their individuality.</p> <p>Authors' note: The following essay is the product of an extended e-mail conversation between two friends who work at different public high schools. We've always enjoyed the opportunities to talk with each other—especially about school topics—but this has been problematic given the distance between our schools and, as every classroom teacher can attest, due to the demands on our time. Our conversation grew out of our responses to a new book called <emph>Paul Diederich and the Progressive American High School</emph>, edited by Robert L. Hampel (Readings in Educational Thought, vol. 5; Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2014). We wanted to use Diederich's provocative ideas as a context for understanding issues we've noticed in recent education articles, in our classrooms, and in our lives. Specifically, we consider the ludicrously hectic pace of the school day, the stultifying effects of standardization, and the misplaced value of "content" over inquiry and discovery.  Although progressive educators have fought these battles for the past 100 years, the issues persist—perhaps now more than ever—in the contemporary education climate.John S. O'Connor and Avi D. Lessing</p> <p>Time is often the enemy in schools. In the typical high school day, students take eight different courses, rushing from one subject to another in a frenetic and incoherent mad dash. Many reformers have sought to add still more "content" into the curriculum, to cram more information into students' brains with factory precision that treats students and teachers as assembly line parts, bending like Charlie Chaplin through the giant gears of educational bureaucracy until they are stamped with a diploma, ready to be shipped off to the next factory.</p> <p>Maybe that's why bells don't seem so out of place. Like factory whistles, school bells sound as reminders of the larger production schedule. At Avi's school there are bells to signify the beginning and end of class but also one-minute bells and omnipresent clocks that let students know how fast they should be moving. Students who do not beat the clock are locked out and sent to receive a late pass from a machine called Plasco that a security guard waves to grant their entry to the next class.</p> <p>Think this characterization of schools goes too far? A [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref1">3</reflink>]<emph>Harper's</emph> article by Garrett Keizer called "Getting Schooled" goes even further, noting that "there is nothing like a school to make one aware of mortality." Every 45 minutes the school bell "remorselessly drives home one's limited time on earth, of diminishing chances to do the work and get it right" (<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref2">38</reflink>). And as we write this, we are in yet another season of <emph>finals</emph>. With an end goal of rigor in the form of quantifiable accountability, ours has become an age of top-down directives and an ever-increasing list of standards and "areas of coverage." But, as education philosopher Bill Schubert reminds us, rigor is also the root word of the phrase <emph>rigor mortis</emph>. No wonder there are so many bleary-eyed teachers and drone-like students. We are the walking dead.</p> <p>John once had a German exchange student in class—we will call her Julie—who marveled at the everyday frenzy of "the American system" and wondered how anyone could stand it. Another student asked her what she meant: "Wasn't school always like this?" "In Germany," Julie explained, school went from 8–1. "What do you do with the rest of the day?" the other student wondered. Julie replied "There must be time to dream, no?" The class just about melted.</p> <p>***</p> <p>Paul Diederich might be called an education dreamer. A one-time education efficiency expert himself, he studied schools for close to 40 years, from 1936 to 1970. His reflections are collected in a new anthology edited by Robert Hampel called <emph>Paul Diederich and the Progressive American High School</emph>. There are 14 essays in all, eight of which are drawn from unpublished reports or reflections Diederich wrote while while working at the University of Chicago and later at the Educational Testing Service. Some of the essays catalog recommendations of practices that high schools should incorporate or should do away with. Many of the pieces offer mini–history lessons on how and why things have developed the way they have in education. One, called the "Virtues Schools Should Cultivate," reads like an unlikely collaboration between Benjamin Franklin and Ralph Tyler. A list of virtues and attitudes we should aspire to is formatted here like a list of learning objectives—an odd choice really, considering that Diederich came to abhor objectives.</p> <p>Hampel helpfully introduces each essay with biographical and historical context, often pointing out the lack of innovation and progressiveness in schools. He notes in his brief introduction to the volume that "in a field afflicted with amnesia, educators too often forget the enduring insights of previous generations" (xii). Even within the span of our careers, we've witnessed such amnesia firsthand. Perhaps that was why Hampel collected the essays to begin with, so we don't forget that the problems that we are dealing with today—the marketization of school, the overemphasis on grades, and the frenetic pace of school—are essentially unchanged from almost 100 years ago.</p> <p>Two quick examples may suffice. Diederich traces the origin of the segmentation of academic subjects and the system of academic credit to the Carnegie Commission of 1905. Ironically, it was the Carnegie Foundation, which was established by an act of the US Congress the following year, that developed the Educational Testing Service, Diederich's employer for more than 20 years. The second example is from the bombastically titled essay, "A Monstrous Schedule of Cramped Inactivity," in which Diederich (after visiting 55 high schools in 18 states) attacks James Conant's report about the state of education. Speaking of rigor and the glut of "content," Diederich reminds us that, "As we advocate a 'get tough' policy with these superior students we should realize that we are advocating a daily schedule for growing boys and girls, at the most social and fun loving period of their lives, that is a lot tougher than any adult puts in, except for a few harassed executives with ulcers" (<reflink idref="bib103" id="ref3">103</reflink>). Diederich has a way of cutting through the nuance, noting, for instance, that if such policies "were instituted at Harvard, there would a mass revolt." Even in 1959, Diederich was capturing something that's still in the winds today—the way in which the public seems to imagine that the more rigorousness, the more accountability, the more <emph>stuff</emph>, the better. Even if that doesn't square true with our own remembrance of how we learned or acquired valuable experiences, those seem to be jettisoned in the name of preparation. In a [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref4">2</reflink>]<emph>New Republic</emph> essay entitled "Don't Send Your Kid to the Ivy League," William Deresiewicz, who attended and taught at Ivy League schools, says, "Our system of elite education manufactures young people who are smart and talented and driven, yes, but also anxious, timid, and lost, with little intellectual curiosity and a stunted sense of purpose: trapped in a bubble of privilege, heading meekly in the same direction, great at what they're doing but with no idea why they're doing it." Cue the gravel-voiced crooning of Leonard Cohen singing "First We Take Manhattan" (Cohen [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref5">1</reflink>]): "They sentenced me to 20 years of boredom ... ," because the stultifying state of schools that Diederich battled against for most of his career seems to have taken root in our current system.</p> <p>In the first essay in this collection, and perhaps the best, "Eighteen Shortcomings of American Schools," shortcomings 8–11 deal with how high schools manage or mismanage time. Diederich laments that students in high school race from one period to the next and that classroom time "consists largely of sitting on hard chairs five or six hours a day listening to other people talk" (<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref6">11</reflink>). What young people most yearn for is the ability to talk with one another, to have a teacher by his or her side, not at the front of the room.</p> <p>It's heartening, and a little depressing, to know that when we consider the science of social and emotional intelligence and whole child education as new research, there was a scholar working at a testing agency who was saying that that "the ability to amuse and entertain friends" is one of the most valuable assets a person can have: "Yet this is one activity which is forbidden during 98% of the school day." Shortcoming 11 operates in a similar way. Rather than social humiliation, or punishment, Diederich calls for a room where young people can go "to rest" and "lie down and think for a few minutes." Here Diederich seems to plead for time: time to rest, time to think, time to dream.</p> <p>So why aren't the ideas of educational dreamers like Diederich ever implemented in schools? Or if implemented, only as after-school programs? Or only at private schools with progressive missions? David Labaree's essay in <emph>The New Republic</emph> ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref7">4</reflink>]), "How Dewey Lost," delineates the ways in which progressive education continually loses out to the social efficiency model. To teachers and students, time to rest and talk with friends may be the basis of driving the individual human spirit, but utilitarian education promises to fix society's ills—all while arming students with all the skills needed to compete with China!</p> <p>There is also precious little time for students and teachers to reflect on their school lives. It is worth noting that Diederich only began writing about schools after he left his school teaching job. Only then did he have the time to write! At the end of his essay "Getting Schooled" ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref8">3</reflink>]), Keizer announces that he is leaving teaching for good, that the days of the teacher-artist are dead. He may be right: in an age of teacher scripts, standardized practices, and common assessment, it has become increasingly difficult for teachers to create. That's why we keep attempting to carve out some space—some time—in conversations such as this one. Part of what might help teachers remain creative is the opportunity to reflect on best practices, to share ideas with one another, time to think.</p> <p>School practices are increasingly written by political bureaucrats. Public policy experts rarely solicit student and teacher voices. In light of this, Diederich's observations are perhaps more timely than ever.</p> <p>Also, while progressives like Diederich shot from the hip their common sense recommendations from working with teachers and spending time in high school, the social efficiency model couched their findings in the apparent certainty of scientific data. In this way, perhaps, progressivism lost the battle of the message. Whereas the progressives promised a healthy child in a just world, the utilitarians promised to fix society's problems and to prepare the young for the job market.</p> <p>To that point, it must be said that some of Diederich's off-hand remarks are shockingly anachronistic, reminders of a time long before any contemporary notions of political correctness or even just fairness. Writing about graduation requirements, for example, Diederich says that "for Quakers and other sects with a prejudice against blood-letting, we might substitute rape (preferably of a teacher)" (<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref9">19</reflink>) as a graduation requirement. This line shocks in ways most readers would find irresponsible. Could such a line ever even come out of the mouth of Louis CK on an HBO special these days? Or his contention that "for every girl that 'goes wrong' there are twenty who are too scared or frigid to sustain affection" (<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref10">36</reflink>). Poor Mrs. Diederich!</p> <p>While not every progressive voice has gone unheard by going "off-message," one thing is clear: from Diederich's time to ours, there has been a disheartening continuation of the status quo; more focus on results, grades, and tests; a deeper marginalization of the arts, and of anything that can't be put in a box. The proliferation of standardized testing is perhaps the most disturbing facet of modern education since it treats every child—and every teacher—as a mere set of interchangeable parts. Schools routinely reduce complex human relationships and the limitless possibilities of true intellectual curiosity with the language of factory warehouses: inventories, efficiency, quality control. Such reductiveness is not just an affront to progressive thinkers such as Diederich; it's an affront to all common sense.</p> <p>If not acting as a quality control specialist, what is the best metaphor for teaching? When John once asked this question to a class of teacher candidates in a graduate class, one student suggested "tour guide." Many students seemed to like this idea: a teacher introducing students to, say, the riches of a great city like Paris. We might all agree that such a trip might be worthwhile, but isn't it true that there might be millions of ways of exploring the city, people to see, places to visit? Is there no room for the <emph>flaneur</emph> (a word that interestingly once meant an urban explorer, a noticer of detail, and that now frequently means merely a layabout)?</p> <p>Ideally wouldn't we want students—and their teachers!—to have the chance to wander a little, to choose some of their own adventures, their own food, off their own menus? In the current education climate, we are more interested in what we cover than what we discover. We race from one "highlight" to another, telling kids to stand in the same Mona Lisa line, to strap on the same audio sets and "learn" the same material. Then, it's "Grab your royale with cheese, and get back on the bus, kids; we still have to drive past Notre Dame before nightfall."</p> <p>So, the mad dash continues—with ever more cramped schedules, and still more tests to prepare for, and with more "content" to cover, perhaps less time than ever to question the underlying effects of this race or the reason we began running in the first place.</p> <p>***</p> <p>So where does that leave us? Perhaps this book is best suited for educators seeking intellectual independence from a system predicated on conformity. While Diederich's larger mission of changing the system from one of marks to something more comprehensive fails on a systemic level, there are still opportunities to try out his ideas in the individual laboratory of one's classroom. In fact, both of us have tried systems like these to greater success or failure. We have each tried to resist the push to quantify our students' reading and writing skills through standardized tests and report card marks (a word Diederich favors over "grades" since "marks" suggests scarring, war wounds from classroom battles). In our separate schools, we have avoided grades altogether and have tried, instead, to enter into a deeper dialogue with our students, one that fosters intrinsic learning, one that positions us as fellow explorers in the learning community of our classrooms.</p> <p>So while many of Diederich's suggestions cannot or do not or have not been tried at the school level, the classroom perhaps still is a place where students can dream. What would it look like, as Diederich recommends, to abandon mandatory class texts and to let students choose? In a recent article in <emph>The Atlantic</emph> called "The Most Important Lesson Schools Can Teach Kids about Reading: It's Fun" ([<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref11">5</reflink>]), authors Jeffrey Wilhelm and Michael Smith argue for student choice and agency in the classroom to make reading enjoyable. What if students occasionally had the chance to simply rest and reflect instead of marching like Myrmidons toward the next learning objective? What if enjoyment <emph>was</emph> the objective? What if we prioritized student discovery over mere coverage of material? These have been questions progressive educators like Paul Diederich have been asking for well over 100 years. If only we had time to hear them!</p> <ref id="AN0110683482-2"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref5" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Cohen, Leonard. 1988. "First We Take Manhattan," on the album I'm Your Man. Compact disc. Columbia label.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref4" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Deresiewicz, William. 2014. "Don't Send Your Kids to the Ivy League." New Republic, July 21.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" idref="ref1" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> Keizer, Garrett. 2011. "Getting Schooled: The Re-education of an American Teacher." Harper's, September 26.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" idref="ref7" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> Labaree, David F. 2010. "How Dewey Lost: The Victory of David Snedden and Social Efficiency in the Reform of American Education. In Pragmatism and Modernities, ed. Daniel Tröhler, Thomas Schlag, and Fritz Osterwalder. Rotterdam: Sense.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" idref="ref11" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> Wilhelm, Jeffrey, and Michael Smith. 2013. "The Most Important Lesson Schools Can Teach Kids about Reading: It's Fun." The Atlantic, November 11.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By John S. O'Connor and Avi D. Lessing</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib38" firstref="ref2"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib103" firstref="ref3"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref6"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref9"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib36" firstref="ref10"></nolink> |
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