In the chapter Richard Louv describes the history of
environment-based education. He goes on the describe systems in place in other
countries, such as Finland, and also programs here in the United States.
Richard argues that our country needs to move to a different model for
educating our children and that experiential learning would be a great way to
go. It offers the youth a chance to learn many of the classroom lessons out in
nature with real world examples. He cites studies that indicate that students
who participate in these types of programs are more likely to succeed in school
and also face fewer disciplinary problems.
While I agree that experiential learning may be a great tool
and a better way for children to learn, I don’t believe that there is currently
a model out there that we could just simply adopt. I’m sure that the model that
Finland uses works really well for them, but as the reading states it is a more
homogenous country and on average more prosperous. One thing that I didn’t like
about the educational system in Finland, is that there are no advanced classes.
If a child excels in one area or with certain subject matter, why not allow
them access to more advanced materials?
The system in Finland works for them because it’s a smaller
country. In America, our system is meant to make sure that all children, from
across the country, should learn the same information. In a country as large as
ours, in terms of population and land mass, I’m not sure it’s possible for all
children to learn the same information through experiential learning. With so
many different regions, climates, and terrain features it would be hard to
teach everyone the same information. While I do think that it would be great
for kids in Florida to learn about swamps and for kids in Alaska to learn about
glaciers, I’m not sure that those different places can teach children the same
lessons.
Also, something the chapter doesn’t cover is the costs
associated with making this kind of drastic change to our educational system.
While I don’t believe that our system is achieving all of the goals that is was
set to accomplish, there is no way to say that a different system would fare
any better. There are some schools that are talked about in the chapter as
success stories, but most of the examples are from affluent towns and cities. I
wish that there were some examples from some more impoverished areas of the
country. This would help us to get a better understanding of whether or not
experiential learning can work across the country or just in these more
well-off places.
I don't mean to post this as a comment... I do not quite understand this website just yet...
ReplyDelete“Natural School Reform”
I started getting fired up in the section of this article titled ‘Real World Learning’ where the author talks about areas in the U.S. that are exercising “environment-based programs” and comparing the outcomes to neighboring schools or related populations. The findings from the research was quoted as being “’extremely significant’”, which is highly difficult to accomplish in regards to statistics:
-96% of students exceeding state standards for math problem solving compared to 65% of 8th graders that are reaching the state standard.
-560 disciplinary referrals one year was down to 50 in a year after the new program was established.
From this, there is a huge decrease in behavioral problems and an increase is student engagement; a student was quoted on saying how he was too committed to a class to skip during skip day.
As a therapist in training, I look for significant deviations from the ‘norm’ and there are many indicators of this different teaching style being one that deviates from the norm with many benefits. Problems are being solved in a way that is beneficial and constructive to student learning and positive development (cognitive, socially, etc.), to even helping maintain environmental health and support the local community interactions. The author asked why this wasn’t being done and I feel as though I have the same question. If it helps the people and the Earth, why is it being ignored?
Money plays a giant role in our society. It is what rules businesses, the government, and its own creators: humans. A lot of money is being pumped into the education system but only so we can learn what they want us to know; try to turn a child into a math and science computer, but don’t exercise proper grammar and appropriate outlets for creativity, you’ll have either a robot, a child who is rebellious, or a child who has mental health or learning issues. We don’t teach our children anymore, just throw them in rooms where they hear the same thing children were hearing 14 years before. Without critical thinking or abstract learning, our children are just regurgitating what we tell them and not being their own free-thinking, creative, problem-solving beings they are free to be.