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The article, “The School We Need” by Erick Reece is an amazing piece, and very educative which is featured in the Orion Magazine. The article entails some thought-provoking ideas on teaching. The ideas put across in the article come directly from the composition written by his freshmen students as he is a college tutor and writer. He starts by explaining the topic that he asked his students to write about. Mr. Reece stresses that when everyone is reading a piece of writing, there is something of value that they are trying to extract from the reading. For this, he tells his students to take keen note of the fact that writing entails moving forth and back between an insight and an observation. This, therefore, means that before his students can engage in writing, they should first describe a place, person or experience vividly and allow the description to send a particular message to the reader. This is what drives Mr. Reece to ask his students to write about those things as their curriculum, their worst or their best teacher, assignments, class discussions and books that were of so much essence to them while they were still on their high school. Through a number of composition that Mr. Reece read from his students he could judge and conclude that the students loved the teachers who knew their subjects well, students wanted teachers that had passion for the subject that they were teaching, students want teachers that have high demands and expectations for their students, and also students want teachers that are challenging to them and make them work hard (Reece, 2011). Also, the students wanted teachers that made class relevant to life.
Most of the students had a perception that the administrators and the teachers only placed precedence on their test grades and attendance. Students complained about boring lecturers and several worksheets. Mr. Reece’s article encourages lively as well as the relevant class discussion that will be warmly received by students. He further, offers recommendations of how lecturers can teach on relevant material by looking into aspects such as the credibility of the source, the perception from another person’s point of view and how one can search for causes and patterns. The other factor where precedence has been accorded regards the relevance of the discussion to the students. Teachers should always aim at making students better citizens by helping every student determine what he or she truly feels or thinks about regarding an issue or any idea and then converting the idea or perception into citizenship. Thomas Jefferson s reported by Reece believed that both education, as well as politics, thrives best at the local level (Padak et al., 2000). These can be promoted through newspapers, in learning institutions as well as using whatever our local history is and the issues important locally. When this can be effectively be attained it would ensure that our education becomes relevant and builds good thinkers as well as citizens from students. Moreover, he also stipulates that teachers can help by ensuring that the assignments are on local issues, for instance, allowing biology, chemistry, civics or English classes be largely driven by problem-solving (Leithwood, Fullan & Watson, 2003). This will ensure that real learning offers real solutions to the day to day problems. Also, he encourages the use of empathy to foster good citizenship.
Questions
- Do you agree with Reece’s arguments on ‘the schools we need”?
- What do you think are the strengths of the article?
- What are some of the points that should have been added in the article?
- Leithwood, K., Fullan, M., & Watson, N. (2003). The schools we need. Toronto: OISE/UT.
- Padak, N. D., Rasinski, T. V., Peck, J. K., Church, B. W., Fawcett, G., Hendershot, J. M., … & Baumann, J. F. (2000). Distinguished Educators on Reading: Contributions That Have Shaped Effective Literacy Instruction. Order Department, International Reading Association, 800 Barksdale Road, PO Box 8139, Newark, DE 19714-8139.
- Reece, E. (2011). The schools we need. Orion, 34.