American school: "We do not give so much knowledge, how much we teach to think"

29 May 2017, 01:15 | Peace
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Observations of the father.

Yesterday my daughter graduated from an ordinary American private (oxymoron course, but nonetheless) school in Massachusetts. The ceremony took place in a tent on a football field on the school grounds (all together a hectare territory, probably 10, including fields, study buildings and barracks of hostels, all surrounded by forests), in torrential rain, against a background of 12 degrees Celsius. The guests, the signors and the other students were naturally dressed in noblesse oblige, and in Russia there would certainly not be an end to a flood of climate malice, idiots from the administration who could not transfer the ceremony inside, and the rest "I can no longer live in This country ". But America is America and while the parents of foreign students were pounding their teeth and were amazed at the fortresses of the spirit of children and teachers (who shared their fun without a shadow of discomfort), the local parents chilled comfortably: "It's lucky - usually on graduation such heat that it is impossible to stay in the tent - In a faint you fall ".

The clatter of teeth lasted two hours and included the speeches of the head of the school and the local mayor, the awarding of the best students, the performance of the school choir and the musical ensemble, and finally the painfully long issuance of diplomas - by name, with the obligatory announcement of which college a graduate is going, with a half-dozen important Hands and photos for memory.

As the father of a Moscow third-grade student, pondering tomorrow, I knocked my teeth and squished light shoes on the swamped football field, not just so, but trying to notice and draw conclusions. And I'm ready to share what I noticed.

First, the whole process of learning in private (I do not know how in a public) American school is built on two ideas: teaching thinking and differentiating.

About the teaching of thinking they say all the time (the director of the school from the rostrum: "We do not give so much knowledge as we teach to think"), as far as I could observe the learning process, he was imprisoned not to "learn" or "learn", but to "comprehend, Compare, understand, manage to independently formulate, deduce, think out ".

Differentiation in everything: for three or four levels of training the same subject for different children, admission to a higher level must be earned, but the passage of higher levels gives a plus on admission, so that all (or almost all) are striving for this - On the subjects they need; The schoolboy collects the "basket" of items himself, the only condition is to type the "credit" of the required level. Someone takes more natural science disciplines, someone - art, some humanitarian. Who wants to specialize in chemistry - takes the highest levels of chemistry; Who in physics - physics. At the ceremony on graduate caps, yellow stripes are attached - according to the number of items delivered at the highest level (my daughter had four, which was cool, but there were children with 6 and even 8 stripes).

Very much attention is paid to art in all its manifestations. In the field of art, too, you need to type in the necessary "credit", in the options - fine art, music (different instruments, chorus), clothing design, architectural design, theater - take at least two subjects (one is not enough for "credit"). Fika took iso, piano and theater - it was great to draw, seriously playing the piano (well, in the theater she played in Moscow). I have to say, it was taught very widely - different drawing techniques, different styles, besides that they constantly made scenery for the theater (and it was not a color paper painted with watercolor, but full-scale scenery - at the level of a professional musical (who was in London on "King" Leo "represents how decorations are made).

The technologies are seriously represented. Computers, robots, 3-D printers, drones. It is difficult for me to assess the level of training because my child is not in this part, but at least the equipment is serious and it is clearly visible that they are taught both applied things like image processing, and theory.

Impressive general attitude and focus on success. The selection of successful students is conducted in a variety of ways, manifested verbally, through awards, through clothing details, through memorialization (there are memorial tablets with the names of all the students who, at the time of graduation, received a distinction - this is one student in each discipline every year) and so on. But it's not important - it's important how they understand success. A quote from a speech at the ceremony: "It is - is the best version of yourself". Competition is generally not encouraged, there are no mechanisms for direct competition (in particular, the difference in programs and levels of objects contributes to the removal of the potential heat of competition). From the indirect observation (and the stories of the daughter): Russian-speaking students (Russians and Ukrainians in general) all the time measured everything - scores, scores, the rating of the future college, etc.. The rest - no.

The approach of teachers is interesting. Several times I heard: "we actually sat next to the students while they were studying". Teachers and pupils communicate, play, fool around, everything is completely equal, as everywhere in America everything is mentally "on you". None of the teachers did not tell me who came to the ceremony to tell "important things about my child" -all joked and laughed, while very accurately (I know her 18 years) characterizing my daughter. The structure of the child's communication at school is more complicated than in Russia. Each student has his own tutor - a teacher whose task is to be in constant contact with the child on all occasions, monitor his state, successes, communicate with parents. Tutor defends the interests of the child in the event of a conflict - something that is a rare success in a Russian school (a teacher liked your child and established a special contact with him) in the American school turned into a part of the process.

Another quote: "Our task is to teach you to ask the right questions". Questions are an obsession of American learning. They seem to think that questions are more important than answers; The best pupil is the one who questions everything (questions everything). In the program, constant debates, not only on general political topics, but also on scientific. Everything is discussed, including "basic values," opponents are called for discussion, so children are provoked to occupy the most marginal positions and defending them, but most importantly learn to hear each other and argue, not suppress, learn to seek compromises and common points.

It is clearly noticeable that the basis for learning is a pragmatic approach, on the verge of cynicism. The ideology is not visible; "Good" and "bad" do not arise from "because", but on the basis of practical conclusions. "Violation of anyone's rights is a threat to anyone's rights" - this is how (and not by considerations of ethics or empathy) explains why one should not violate anybody's rights. Perhaps this is very correct - how else to reach out to a modern man, who is generally not too inclined to empathy and is far from ethical reasoning?.

The school is absolutely international - students not only (and even not so much) from America as from other countries - China, Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America, India, Europe, the Middle East (including even countries such as Saudi Arabia), of course the CIS. Children come to high school after completely different programs, for visitors English - not their native language. It seems that this does not cause any difficulties for teachers and does not interfere with the students. Great greetings to the Moscow teachers complaining of the "dominance of migrants who speak poor Russian, who can not be taught and who interfere with local learning". And of course for children this is a fantastically important experience of colliding with many different cultures and establishing contacts. I think that to drive such a child into the stuffy world of national or state isolationism and chauvinism will be an order of magnitude more difficult than the pupil of the school, in which the teachers do not hide their disgust for the "foreigners".

And, last, this is the environment. Around the sea greenery and the private suburbs of the suburbs of Boston. Nobody locks houses or cars. In fact - we wander around the guests (we have a lot of acquaintances here), and they just say to us - "come, if suddenly we are not yet, sit ...". We come, we go. Nobody needs keys. This should also affect students.

Yes, I know, America is different, and the schools in it are different, and the problems with education in America are big. It's not about America at all. This is about what the school should be to be "the best version of itself". And what will it not be in Russia even in certain places, until we stop copiously copying the formats of the Soviet school (and it is, in fact, copied from the Tsar's gymnasium), decorate with cargo copies of Western practices, such as the Unified State Examination, And vyholostiv sense, and even put on it ideological fetters.

PS: And we got warm soon enough - there was a wonderful catering in the gym after the ceremony.

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